Black activist rejects Queens Honour

The impossible dilemma Black people face around accepting or not a Queens honour was no better highlighted by Black activist Phyll Opoku-Gyimah better known as ‘Lady Phyll’ who rejected the call to be honoured.

When that letter from the Prime Minister David Cameron came through ‘Lady Phyll’s' door recommending that she be honoured by Her Majesty the Queen for her tireless fight against racism and for the rights of the LGBT community, she took a deep breath, searched her own conscience and said, ‘thanks, but no thanks’.

She told the magazine DIVA that she could not accept this accolade offered to her, because:

"As a trade unionist, a working class girl, and an out Black African lesbian, I want to stand by my principles and values."

"I don't believe in empire. I don't believe in, and actively resist, colonialism and its toxic and enduring legacy in the Commonwealth, where - among many other injustices - LGBTQI people are still being persecuted, tortured and even killed because of sodomy laws… that were put in place by British imperialists."

"I'm honoured and grateful, but I have to say no thank you."

In the last piece that I wrote earlier this week I argued that it is up to the individual to decide whether or not they take these awards. What is clear, whilst we have an honours system given in the name of the British Empire, many Black will have to decide : can I be rightly recognised for making the world a better place by this archaic and baggage laden symbol?

Although you don’t have a Queen’s honour ‘Lady Phyll’ your community salutes you for the work you have done  to help change our world.

Congratulations.

Read our 2011 article - Time to rename British Empire awards?

Simon Woolley