Black British Women To Look Out For In 2023
We have always believed that in telling our own stories, we can finally see Black women in all of their fullness. We have to take it upon ourselves to document our own lives in order for our stories to stay alive and live on. This means we have to share and advocate our stories from our diverse communities into the mainstream more.
Historian Jade Bentil shared with Refinery29 that “Black women’s historical narratives are either rendered completely visible under the gaze of whiteness, or an extremely sanitised version that flattens the complexities of our lives is authored by non-black gatekeepers, both within and outside the academy,"
Black women have been successful visionaries and pioneers in many white and male-dominated industries, and as the world evolves, Black women continue to create and contribute to sectors such as tech, finance, education, entrepreneurship, wellness, and many others. This article serves to recognise and celebrate Black British women who are presently building legacies and changing the narrative of what it means to be a Black woman. Please note, this order is in no way or form of any importance.
Mariam Jimoh
Mariam (Biomedical Sciences 2015) is the founder and CEO of Oja, a one-stop shop for ethnic groceries and cultural foods. Oja’s mission is to radically reshape groceries and make foods from all cultures accessible from anywhere in the world. Recently recognised in the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 Technology list, we caught up with Mariam to hear about her career story and memories from UCL.
Oja now has 5,000 daily users, of whom the majority are from London’s African and Caribbean communities, though Jimoh is keen to expand into Indian, Arabic, and Greek products as well. It’s catching the eye of industry veterans too. In November, Oja’s first seed funding round bagged $3.4m from a stellar lineup of angel investors, including Darren Shapland, ex-CFO of Sainsbury’s; Anton Soulier, CEO of Taster and one of Deliveroo’s earliest employees; and Ricardo Weder, CEO of Justo, Mexico’s online grocery giant.
Reno Eddo-Lodge
Reni is an award-winning journalist, author, and podcaster. Born and raised in London, she has always been a writer & reader; with her writing primarily focusing on feminism and exposing structural racism. In June 2020, Reni’s book Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race topped the British Book Charts – becoming the first Black woman to do so. Along with Malorie Blackman and Bernardine Evaristo, Reni has formed The Black Writers Guild to try and change the racial inequalities in the publishing industry.
Michaela Coel
Izzy Obeng
Izzy Obeng is an entrepreneur and business coach. She is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Foundervine and sits as a Non-Executive Director for Traverse (Office for Public Management) and as a Non-Executive Director for Capital Enterprise.
Yvonne Bajela
Yvonne Bajela is an experienced venture capital investment professional and board member with over 10 years of experience in strategy consulting, deal origination, portfolio management, and board management across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She set up her company in 2019 and in 2020 was named by Forbes as one of 30 entrepreneurs under 30 in finance after investing more than $200m in various startups across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Lashana Lynch
Lashana Lynch is a British actress best known for playing the role of Rosaline Capulet in the ABC period drama series Still Star-Crossed, Maria Rambeau in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Captain Marvel and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and MI6 agent Nomi in the James Bond film No Time to Die and as of this year Izogie in The Woman King. In 2021, Lashana Lynch was named the first Black, first Female 007. Many James Bond fans were not happy with the change in race and gender, but her performance won everyone over. As well as being a well-established actor, Lashana also works with the NGO Action Aid UK, which helps women in precarious situations.