Stella Dadzie

Biography of Stella Dadzie

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.

Her work extended beyond the written word into practical action, contributing to the enrichment of curriculums and development of anti-racist strategies in educational and youth services. Stella’s poetry also found its place in publications, intertwining her activism with a passionate expression of lived experiences. In 2020, Stella explored the resistance of enslaved women in her book A Kick in the Belly: Women, Slavery and Resistance. The work epitomizes her persistent drive to unveil and explore the oft-neglected narratives of Black and brown-skinned women throughout history, validating their experiences and contributions.

In 2021, Stella wrote the foreword to Hairvolution: Her Hair, Her Story, Our History by Saskia Calliste & Zainab Raghdo—also published by Aurora Metro/Supernova.

One of her artworks was recently on display in Tate Britain’s exhibition ‘Women in Revolt’ celebrating the feminist movement from 1974-1990.

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