Encounters with James Baldwin

Stella Dadzie was born in 1952 in London, United Kingdom, to a white English mother and a Ghanaian father, who was Ghana's first trained pilot and served as a navigator in the RAF during the Second World War. Her early childhood was marked with challenges such as poverty, racism, and family separation, experiencing foster care in Wales, and facing constant upheavals due to racist landlords.Stella co-founded the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent (OWAAD), which worked relentlessly between 1978 and 1982 to challenge the predominantly white domination of the feminist and women's liberation movements of that era. Stella, along with her colleagues, aimed to address the distinct and often overlooked struggles faced by Black women within these movements. Stella's co-authored book "The Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain," published in 1985, shed light on the multifaceted experiences and struggles of Black women in Britain. It went on to win the Martin Luther King Award for Literature in 1985, exemplifying the importance and impact of her work. The book was reissued in 2018, preserving its profound insights for new generations of activists and feminists.