Liz Obi

Elizabeth Obi is a British activist who was involved in the feminist, black nationalist, and squatters' rights campaigns of the 1970s. A close friend of Olive Morris, in 2009 she founded the Remembering Olive Collective, which researches and documents Morris's life.

Life

Obi was close friends with fellow activist Olive Morris and, in 1972, they attempted to visit Eldridge Cleaver in Algeria, but only made it as far as Morocco.[1] They joined the British Black Panthers together and met other young black feminists and black nationalists such as Jackie Blake, Geneva DaCosta and Stella Dadzie.[1][2] Also in 1972, the two women squatted a privately-owned property above a laundrette at 121 Railton Road in Brixton.[3] Morris and Obi then moved on to another squat at 65 Railton Road.[1][4]: 101  The 121 squat became the 121 Centre and continued to be occupied until 1999.[3] Together with Beverley Bryan, Obi and Morris established the Brixton Black Women's Group (BBWG) in 1973.[5]

In 2008, Obi set up the Remembering Olive Collective (ROC) in tandem with Ana Laura Lopez de la Torre, intending to commemorate the life of Olive Morris.[6]

In 2015, Obi took part in the conference "Black British Feminism: Past, Present and Futures" at the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton organised by a new generation of Black British feminists such as Chardine Taylor-Stone and others.[7][8]

References
  1. Allotey, Emma (24 May 2012). "Morris, Olive Elaine (1952–1979)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/100963. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. Ford, Tanisha C. (22 February 2016). "Violence at Desmond's Hip City: Gender and Soul Power in London". In Kelley, R.; Stephen Tuck (eds.). The Other Special Relationship: Race, Rights, and Riots in Britain and the United States. Springer. p. 212. ISBN 978-1-137-39270-1.
  3. Queen of the Neighbourhood Collective. (2010). Revolutionary women: A book of stencils. Oakland, CA: PM Press. ISBN 9781604864649. OCLC 700457644.
  4. Bettocchi, Milo (2021). Fairies, Feminists & Queer Anarchists: Geographies of Squatting in Brixton (Thesis). University of Nottingham.
  5. Akpan, Paula (1 September 2020). "Why the teaching of Black British history must be transformed in our schools". Good Housekeeping. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
  6. Longley, Oumou (November 2021). "Olive and me in the archive: a Black British woman in an archival space". Feminist Review. 129 (1): 123–137. doi:10.1177/01417789211041898. ISSN 0141-7789. S2CID 244348631.
  7. "14 March 2015 12:00 ~ Black British Feminism: Past, Present and Futures – Black Cultural Archives – London | womensgrid – women's news". www.womensgrid.org.uk. 19 February 2015. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  8. Bangura, Siana (13 March 2015). "I too am Black and a Feminist: On the importance of Black British Feminism". Media Diversified. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
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