Dame Elizabeth Anionwu leads BME Honours

The Professor of Nursing and leading campaigner for the Mary Seacole Statue Elizabeth Anionwu has been awarded a Damehood in the Queen’s New Years Honours list. Professor Anionwu is part of a record number of Honours award to Black and minority ethnic individuals in 2017.

Other awards include:

• Knighthood for Mo Farah
• Damehood for Jessica Ennis-Hill;
• Knighthood for Professor Shankar Balasubramaniana
• CBE for Professor Anita Thapar
• CBE for Cecilia Anim, President, Royal College of Nursing
• CBE for Professor Guang-Zhong Yang, Director, Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery
• CBE for artist Chris Ofili
• CBE for anti-slavery ambassador Vanita Patel
• MBE West Midlands Police volunteer Marcia Shakespeare,
• MBE for football agent  Manisha Tailor

OBV is particularly pleased about Professor Anionwu honour having worked with her in 2013, when the then Education Secretary Michael Gove threatened to remove Mary Seacole and the slave campaigner Olaudah Equiano from the education curriculum. With Anionwu’s attention to detail and passion for Black British history being everyone’s history, we together forced Gove to climb down.

Moreover, his capitulation also brought about a complete rethink to the extent that he would then promote Black British  history as part of the  British history curriculum.

http://www.obv.org.uk/news-blogs/we-ve-won-mary-seacole-olaudah-equiano

For Elizabeth and indeed OBV this remains one of our greatest victories. That campaign also helped raise the profile of the Mary Seacole Statue campaign that was finally unveiled last year.

Congratulation to Dame Elizabeth and all the BME recipients of this year’s honours.

Simon Woolley