Education is in our hands. Let us hold hands

Sis Nzingha Assata, BA (Hons) RGN, RHV, LPE, works as a Health Visitor in London providing advice on all aspects of care and management of children for families with children under five. She also provides cultural literacy training, empowerment facilitation and other education programmes.

Nzingha has been active in a variety of Black voluntary organisations over the years including being the main co-ordinator of the Universal Afrikan Peoples Development Association (UAPDA) during the 90s. She has been involved in numerous demonstrations and campaigns demanding Afrikan rights and justice; a few of these include the Black People For Justice Demonstration 1986, the Slave Babies Campaign 1996, also ALD marches. A main feature of Nzingha's work has been to ensure empowerment for women; during the 80s she was one of the founding members of the Harriet Tubman Sisters womens group, the Black Women's Movement and the UAPDA women's group, she also co-founded the Pan-Afrikan Women's Forum in Brixton with Sis. Affiong of Moyo Watifa grassroots women's organisation, all of these groups provided political education for women.

Nzingha has been involved in pan-Afrikan work in Jamaica, she attended the Reparations Conference in Barbados which saw the formation of the Global Afrikan Congress established to work towards claims for reparations. She has also presented papers at cultural events and conferences. As well as political work Nzingha is a mother, grandmother and author of "In Praise of our Ancestors" (1997) and "Women in the Garvey Movement" (2008). Through protest letters Nzingha has regularly raised issues concerning equal rights and justice for Black people with the BBC, the government and anyone disrespecting Afrikan people

One love

Sis Nzingha

Women are the backbone of the nation; the book Women in the Garvey Movement sets out to highlight the contributions made to the advancement of Afrikan liberation by women who were in the Garvey Movement. It informs us of the work of leading members such as Henrietta Vinton Davis, Lillian Galloway, and Mary Lawrence. The sterling contribution to race work made by Amy Ashwood and Amy Jacques Garvey challenges contemporary women to look critically at what role they are playing to bring into being Afrikan freedom and self-determination.

One cannot help being inspired by some of the essays written by Amy Jacques Garvey in the 1920s and parallels can be drawn with our existence in the present century. Women in the Garvey Movement is about Sankofa (go back and fetch it); it can help us critically review our past, it can be used to help us organise in contemporary society and direct us to plan for our future.

The book is for all people of Afrikan origin, our men, our women and our children and seeks to acknowledge and honour the contribution our women make towards the development of our people.