Decolonising healthcare with Dr Annabel Sowemimo

Dr Annabel Sowemimo is a doctor, activist and writer. As well as being a sexual and reproductive health consultant in the NHS, she is also the founder of community-based organisation Reproductive Justice Initiative, formed to address the colonial history of sexual and reproductive health. Annabel is a PhD candidate and Harold Moody Scholar at King’s College London. Her first book, ‘Divided’ (Wellcome Collection/Profile Books) is an exploration of race and health.

The Five X More campaign was launched in 2019 by Tinuke Awe and Clotilde Abe, both from south London, after Tinuke had a difficult experience giving birth to her son. With Tinuke’s psychology degree and HR background, and Clo’s degree in business and marketing and her experience working in foetal medicine, the duo had the ideal experience to generate change. In 2020, they launched the petition ‘Improve Maternal Mortality Rates and Health Care for Black Women in the UK’, which gained over 187,000 signatures and led to Black maternal health being discussed in parliament for the first time.

Kimberly McIntosh is a writer and researcher with a focus on race and inequality. She has written for a range of publications including the Guardian, gal-dem, the Washington Post, the Independent and the Metro, and discussed her research on BBC Radio 4 and 5 Live, BBC News and Sky News. She is a Labour councillor in Southwark and a trustee at the Reproductive Justice Network and Wasafiri magazine, a quarterly British literary magazine covering international contemporary writing. Her first book, ‘black girl, no magic’, is an essay collection that will be published by the Borough Press at HarperCollins in June 2023.

Jacqueline Roy was born and raised in London. Her father was Jamaican and her mother was English and she comes from a family of writers. She is particularly interested in exploring racial identities and the ways in which those who are marginalised find strategies for fighting back. She is a full-time writer and has produced fiction for adults and children. She is the author of ‘The Fat Lady Sings’ (Hamish Hamilton) and ‘The Gosling Girl’ (Simon & Schuster). She lectured in English at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) for many years, specialising in postcolonial literatures. She also taught creative writing at MMU’s writing school.

Dr Sujitha Selvarajah is a founder of Race & Health, and has 13 years of experience in public and global health, working to improve the health and wellbeing of minoritised people. Sujitha is an obstetrics and gynaecology doctor and consults in health tech and global health. She also founded TEDxUCLWomen. Sujitha’s activism and advocacy has been internationally recognised – she was the first British person to be selected as a Women Deliver Young Leader.