Previous Guests

Esther Austin

Eric and Jessica Huntley

Nola Ishmael

Toyin Agbetu

Judith Lockhart

Foluke Akinlose

Davon E. Johnson

Paulette Lewis

Norman Mitchell

Barbara Campbell

Mia Morris

Dr Rosie Milligan

Eddie Noble

I would like to stress that although I am the Founder of Ligali, far from the unfortunate misconception, Ligali is a not a one-man organisation. The Ligali ‘family’ consists of several core members who head up our main sectors and liase with the community we work for. We are a community for the community.
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Ligali was initially founded in 2001 to challenge media misrepresentation of African people. Two years later I find that describing the work and ethos of Ligali in a few words is a difficult task as our remit is so wide and all encompassing.

1. Identify, challenge and eradicate all racist, and sexist representations of African people in the media.
2. Identify, establish and implement workable solutions to increase academic achievement.
3. Identify, establish and implement solutions which reduce the root causes of crime.
   
4. Work in partnership with, support and encourage unity between other like minded individuals and organisations within our community.
   
5. Create and provide our own diverse mono cultural media network and resources
   
6. Speak up uncompromisingly giving a legitimate political voice reflecting the true concerns of the African British community.

As founder of Ligali it is my responsibility to ensure Ligali never loses focus or integrity. Our broad remit often means that we are often doing 'firsts' practically, morally, and sometimes legally. This often means that in making great strides in the right direction, we will occasionally make mistakes. We are readily prepared to accept this and always strive to learn and grow from our experiences.

We are not a 'talking shop' and have a firm anti apathy policy to stop us getting involved with individuals or organisations engaged in circular rhetoric. I wanted to set up an organisation that would have realistic, attainable, although admittedly challenging, goals. The right for African British equality is that goal. The right to focus uncompromisingly and unapologetically, on the reclaiming of our status as African people and connection with other Africans in the diasporia and in Africa is also integral to what we do.

One of the ways we have started to do this is by reclaiming ‘African’ as our name and abolishing the western concept of ‘black’. It is one of our more controversial moves that has led to some heated debate! Essentially, the label 'black' is not the correct name for peoples of African ancestry and British nationality. ‘African British’, our replacement name for ‘black’, acts as a bridge that unites British born Diasporic Africans with our cultural and historical home. Ironically, the people that oppose this change also oppose the term ‘negro’ which is just another word for 'black'!

‘Black’ as a label disassociates African people with their homeland just as 'n*gger' did when used and promoted by Western slave traders. Some people feel that it doesn’t matter but as our rich history shows, language plays a very important part in our identity. If it doesn’t matter what we call ourselves, then we might as well still allow ourselves to be defined as ‘coloureds’ or even ‘negros’, all of which were created with the same meaning as the label ‘black’. Not only that, but the label ‘black’ traditionally encompasses all groups that are not of a European background. Ligali exists to tackle the distinct problems related to the African British community. We do not believe in the monolithic one-solution fits all approach.

During a high profile public event, a well-known community figure called out to me and declared to all passer-by's that I was ‘the angry black man’. Initially, it bothered me that a fellow African Briton male would throw that tired old stereotype in my direction. However, it reminded me of one of the many reasons why Ligali was created; apathy, ignorance and passivity are killing our community. As a father, brother, partner and friend I feel a real and personal sense of responsibility to actively fight for equal rights and the mental and spiritual recovery of our community. If my passion is indeed mistaken for 'anger' in our tireless struggle to address the issues of our children facing academic failure and fellow Brothas and Sistas are dying in and out of police custody then I embrace that anger as a positive force accompanied by integrity, passion and a sense of justice to be converted into action and… No More Talk.

Peace

Toyin Agbetu
Ligali Founder

www.ligali.org

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