Liz Obi

'''Elizabeth Obi''' is a British activist who was involved in the feminist, black nationalist, and squatters' rights campaigns of the 1970s. A close friend of Olive Morris, in 2009 she founded the Remembering Olive Collective, which researches and documents Morris's life.

==Life==

Obi was close friends with fellow activist Olive Morris and, in 1972, they attempted to visit Eldridge Cleaver in Algeria, but only made it as far as Morocco.<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite ODNB|last=Allotey|first=Emma|title=Morris, Olive Elaine (1952–1979) |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-100963|date=24 May 2012|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/100963|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8|language=en}}</ref> They joined the British Black Panthers together and met other young black feminists and black nationalists such as Jackie Blake, Geneva DaCosta and Stella Dadzie.<ref name="ODNB" /><ref name="TF">{{cite book |last1=Ford |first1=Tanisha C. |author-link=Tanisha C. Ford|editor1-last=Kelley |editor1-first=R. |editor1-link=Robin D. G. Kelley|editor2=Stephen Tuck |title=The Other Special Relationship: Race, Rights, and Riots in Britain and the United States |date=22 February 2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-137-39270-1 |page=212 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XV6hCwAAQBAJ |language=en |chapter=Violence at Desmond's Hip City: Gender and Soul Power in London}}</ref> Also in 1972, the two women squatted a privately owned property above a laundrette at 121 Railton Road in Brixton.<ref name="RW" /> Morris and Obi then moved on to another squat at 65 Railton Road.<ref name="ODNB" /><ref name="Bettocchi-phd">{{cite thesis |last= Bettocchi |first= Milo |date= 2021 |title= Fairies, Feminists & Queer Anarchists: Geographies of Squatting in Brixton |publisher= University of Nottingham |url= http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/64265/ }}</ref>{{rp|101}} The 121 squat became the 121 Centre and continued to be occupied until 1999.<ref name="RW">{{Cite book|title=Revolutionary women: A book of stencils|date=2010|publisher=PM Press|author=Queen of the Neighbourhood Collective.|isbn=9781604864649|location=Oakland, CA|oclc=700457644}}</ref> Together with Beverley Bryan, Obi and Morris established the Brixton Black Women's Group (BBWG) in 1973.<ref name="Akpan">{{cite web |last1=Akpan |first1=Paula |title=Why the teaching of Black British history must be transformed in our schools |url=https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/news/a33533272/black-british-history-school-curriculum-change/ |website=Good Housekeeping |access-date=23 November 2022 |date=1 September 2020}}</ref>

In 2008, Obi set up the Remembering Olive Collective (ROC) in tandem with Ana Laura Lopez de la Torre, intending to commemorate the life of Olive Morris.<ref name="Longley">{{cite journal |last1=Longley |first1=Oumou |title=Olive and me in the archive: a Black British woman in an archival space |journal=Feminist Review |date=November 2021 |volume=129 |issue=1 |pages=123–137 |doi=10.1177/01417789211041898 |s2cid=244348631 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01417789211041898 |language=en |issn=0141-7789|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In 2015, Obi took part in the conference "Black British Feminism: Past, Present and Futures" at the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton organised by a new generation of Black British feminists such as Chardine Taylor-Stone and others.<ref>{{Cite web |title=14 March 2015 12:00 ~ Black British Feminism: Past, Present and Futures – Black Cultural Archives – London {{!}} womensgrid – women's news |url=http://www.womensgrid.org.uk/news/?p=4194 |access-date=2022-12-16 |website=www.womensgrid.org.uk|date=19 February 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |first=Siana|last= Bangura |date=2015-03-13 |title=I too am Black and a Feminist: On the importance of Black British Feminism |url=https://mediadiversified.org/2015/03/13/i-too-am-black-and-a-feminist-on-the-importance-of-black-british-feminism/ |access-date=2022-12-16 |website=Media Diversified |language=en}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist|30em}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Obi, Liz}} Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:Black British activists Category:British women activists Category:People from Brixton Category:20th-century squatters