Five Young Black Leaders You Need To Know
It’s Black Leaders Awareness Day this Sunday - a day for people from all cultures to experience the wisdom of past, current and next-generation leaders, ensuring that the history of Black leaders remains at the forefront of society so that we understand and acknowledge the impact that has been made throughout history, right through to now and beyond.
In honour of the day, we’ve put together a list of five young Black leaders that you should definitely know about and support.
Lavinya Stennett, 24
Lavinya is the founder of the Black Curriculum, which addresses the lack of Black British history in the UK curriculum and provides teachers with the resources they need to bring insights about Black British history and culture into their lessons. The idea came to Lavinya when she visited New Zealand whilst at university, and saw the heavy recognition of the history of colonialism within the country. It inspired her to come back to London and do something about the way history is taught in the UK. One year later, her social enterprise is at the forefront of conversations about race and education in the UK. They offer school programmes, teacher training, assemblies and curriculum consultancy, along with loads of different resources, in a range of art forms, for people to use.
Timothy Armoo, 26
Timothy is the founder and CEO of Fanbytes - an agency who are powering next generation marketing. They help brands all over the world connect with Gen Z audiences on social media, through its network of influencers on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube. Timothy has always loved business, starting his own maths tutoring service at only 14 years old. At 17, he had started EntrepreneurXpress, an online magazine and media company that he then sold to Horizon Media, a large media agency from the United States. And, during the pandemic, Fanbytes has grown from 27 employees to 57 and launched a new fund to help support Black businesses and creators.
Nyasha Duri, 23
Nyasha works in the transparency team at mySociety, which helps empower people through the world’s largest open source freedom of information database. She’s also helped develop curriculums and delivered classes for the Black Codher coding bootcamp, been headhunted by Google, is the Chair of the Board for the Policy Centre for African Peoples, and has studied Quantitative Politics, Social & Public Policy, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Software Engineering. She’s also worked for the UK government, led a project for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and spoken at Parliament. And her campaigning has led to her being recognised as a Jo Cox young leader too. Phew!
So excited for a double 2-parter @Girls20@RevlonCanada partnership ft Hana Chaudhury @Nadia_Theodore@MicheleRomanow@ClancyMcDaniel@MiriamButtu@Nursey16 on Imposter Syndrome & Negotiation: sign up! https://t.co/toB102jLBs #RevlonCanadaxGirls20 #LeadWithConfidence#withGirls20 pic.twitter.com/crKnZdR1CE
— Nyasha Duri (she/her/any) #CongoIsBleeding (@NyashaDuri) June 15, 2021
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, 22
Sheku shot to fame as the winner of the 2016 BBC Young Musician competition, the first Black musician to win the award since its launch in 1978. Then, two years later, billions of people watched him play his cello as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle signed the registry at the Royal Wedding. Since then, Sheku has released two chart topping albums, played with some of the most famous and well-loved orchestras, made people all over the world fall in love with classical music, become an ambassador for London Music Masters, Future Talent, and JDRF, the type 1 diabetes charity. And in 2020 he was awarded an MBS for his services to music!
Khadija Owusu, 23
Khadija is an award-winning medical student and a founding member and the director of programmes at Melanin Medics - a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting diversity in medicine whilst supporting African and Caribbean aspiring students, medical students and doctors. She’s also an ambassador at Medics2You and the GUBA-Enterprise and is an advocate and voice for Black medical students and doctors, helping to achieve their full potential, despite any barriers they may face. Khadija has also been a guest of Michelle Obama at the White house, won the Women in STEM Award, was selected as a 2020 Rising Star in Healthcare, and a ‘Top 150 UK Future Leader’, and has been featured on BBC, ITV and Channel 5!
Related content
Job Dreams: Barrister
Mass tells us all about different types of law to study and what it’s like being a barrister...
Black Figures Who Have Shaped British History
From footballers to musicians to politicians, we’re celebrating the Black British historical figures who have paved the way; from unsung heroes to everyday individuals who have made an incredible impact on our communities and beyond!
Read time: 6 minutes
