Dorothy Kuya was born in Liverpool 8 in April 1932 to a white English mother and a Sierra Leone father, but when he disappeared off the scene her mother married a Nigerian, and young Dorothy, regarding him as her father, took her step-father's name. She trained as a nurse and as a teacher, both callings drawing on her compassionate nature and her quest to acquire knowledge and passing it on. Blessed with excellent communication skills allied to a keen mind and a direct approach, she became a formidable campaigner. As a nurse and then a teacher, she excelled in showing her talents as a gifted communicator with the sharpest of minds.
It was as an anti-racist campaigner that Dorothy first came to national prominence when she was employed as the first Community Relations Officer on Merseyside. Prior to her appointment, in the mid to late 1960s, she had campaigned with others against the Government's criteria for funding projects under their Urban Programme to those areas where the 'immigration population' forms more than 20% of the local population. The campaign was successful in convincing government that the problem was not one of language or custom assimilation but of discrimination and racism based largely on skin colour. She was always a political person and as a teenager addressed street corner meetings from a soapbox on
behalf of the Communist Party and would often recall how she presented a
bouquet of flowers to civil rights hero Paul Robeson when he visited
Liverpool during his England tour in 1949. Prior to joining the Communist Party she was already influenced by Pan-Africanism, and was a major influence on the politicisation of many young Liverpool-born black people who later went on to take leading roles in the black communities' development.
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| Dorothy aged 17 next to Paul Robeson during his visit to Liverpool in 1949 |
In 1980, Dorothy moved to London to take up the post of Head
Race Equality Adviser for Haringey Council. She left Haringey
Council to set up a consultancy called Affirmata, through which she
delivered race equality training nationwide, and continued to campaign
against racism and sexism in a children's book that she had begun some
years earlier in Liverpool, contributing to Roy Preiswerk's book 'Sowing
the Dragon’s Teeth' published in 1980.
Dorothy returned to
Liverpool in 1994 to a house she had bought some years before in the
area she was born and bred. Retirement for Dorothy meant increased
voluntary work, particularly related to the African heritage. Part of
Granby Residents Association, she campaigned against the demolition of
homes in the area, which included her own and was also involved in the
Martin Luther King Foundation during this period, which resulted in the
successful development of South Liverpool Personnel, a community-based
employment and training agency. With Eric Lynch, she instituted and
conducted the Liverpool Slavery History Trail tours around the city
helping reveal Liverpool's hidden history. Also a key figure in trying
to establish an international library of African and Diaspora
literature, it was not as successful as her campaign for the
establishment of the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool which she
saw as part of the reparation to African slaves. The International
Slavery Museum opened on the 23rd of August 2007 and Slavery Remembrance
Day was first marked in the city in 1999. Many other projects were
developed in Liverpool with Dorothy's input during her time as CRO.
These included the Black Social Workers Project (with Bill Davies, the
only black Social Services Area Manager in the region) which led to the
first black social workers being employed in Liverpool; Ujaama House,
for homeless young people plus the Merseyside Caribbean Centre, a social
hub for generations of Liverpool 8 locals.
Dorothy Kuya passed away aged 82 just before Christmas on the 23rd of December 2013 following a brief illness. Her whole life had been devoted to people's struggles in the fight against racism and discrimination. She was always a leader and had an impact far beyond Merseyside becoming one of the country's leading figures in combating inequality.
National Museums Liverpool named the annual high profile Slavery Remembrance Day Memorial Lecture in her honour, now known as the Dorothy Kuya Slavery Remembrance Memorial Lecture. Paul Ogolo, Dorothy's nephew, said: "We are truly honoured that the lecture will be named in Aunty Dot's memory. She was instrumental in shaping the International Slavery Museum and was a tireless anti-racism campaigner. She fought all her life against racial intolerance, and fought for the truth and justice. Her name should live on to educate and inspire future generations." The Director of National Museums Liverpool, David Fleming paid tribute to her saying, "Dorothy Kuya was a very great daughter of Liverpool. She was brave and outspoken, and fought for what she believed in. She was an example to all of us, and her passing is a sad day for the city."
In April 2021 The Liverpool Guild of Students confirmed that Gladstone Halls of Residence will be renamed Dorothy Kuya Halls of Residence and a plaque will be installed before the new academic year begins, detailing Dorothy Kuya's achievements and the history of the hall naming process.
see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/07/a-liverpool-exemplar-ronald-ross.html
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