Kathleen Wrasama (her name sometimes given as Kathleen Warsama) was an

Ethiopian Ethiopians are the native inhabitants of Ethiopia, as well as the global diaspora of Ethiopia. Ethiopians constitute several component ethnic groups, many of which are closely related to ethnic groups in neighboring Eritrea and other parts of ...

-born British community organiser. As a child she moved to England and became a founding member of the

Stepney Stepney is an area in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London. Stepney is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name was applied to ...

Coloured Peoples Association, an organisation working to improve community relations, education and housing for black people.Leah Sinclair
"Suffrage 100: The Black Women Who Changed British History"
''The Voice'', 6 February 2018. In 2018 she was cited by '' The Voice'' newspaper as one of eight black women – alongside Olive Morris, Connie Mark,

Fanny Eaton Fanny Eaton (23 June 1835 – 4 March 1924) was a Jamaican-born artist's model and domestic worker. She is best known as a model for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and their circle in England between 1859 and 1867. Her public debut was in Simeo ...

Diane Abbott Diane Julie Abbott (born 27 September 1953) is a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who has been serving as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987 Unit ...

, Lilian Bader,

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's then youngest publisher as well as the first black female book p ...

and

Mary Seacole Mary Jane Seacole (;Anionwu, E. N. (2012), "Mary Seacole: nursing care in many lands". ''British Journal of Healthcare Assistants'' 6(5), pp. 244–248. 23 November 1805 – 14 May 1881) was a British Nursing, nurse and Women in business ...

– who have contributed to changing British history, although there has been little documentation of her life.

Biography

Wrasama was brought to England as a child in 1917 by church missionaries. The experiences she suffered living in a children's home in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

caused her to run away, and she subsequently found work as a farm labourer."Kathleen Wrasama"

Black Cultural Archives Black Cultural Archives (BCA) is an archive and heritage centre in Brixton, London, devoted to the histories of people of African and Caribbean descent in Britain. Also known as BCA, it was founded in 1981, by educationalist and historian Len G ...

, 1980. Moving to London in the 1930s, she worked as an extra in

Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for h ...

films. She and her husband later established a Somali seaman's mission in Stepney, and in the 1950s she was a founding member of the Stepney Coloured People's Association, which was committed to improving community relations, as well as education and housing for black people. She told of her life in London's East End in an interview for the 1982 BBC documentary ''Surviving: Experience of Migration and Exile'', and was later invited to visit a school, where she spoke about her early years and her experiences of racism.Celia Burgess-Macey
"Tackling racism and sexism in the primary classroom"
in Dawn Gill, Barbara Mayor, Maud Blair (eds), ''Racism and Education: Structures and Strategies'', Sage, 1992, pp. 279–80.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrasama, Kathleen Year of birth missing Year of death missing Date of birth missing Date of death missing British community activists British people of Ethiopian descent Black British activists