Professor Uzo Iwobi CBE has worked across community organisations, education, policing and government to advance racial equality in Wales.
Her contribution has not been confined to one institution. She has helped establish organisations, advised public bodies, mentored young people and created platforms through which Black communities can influence the decisions affecting their lives.
Originally from Nigeria, Uzo studied law at the University of Nigeria. She qualified as a solicitor and barrister and was called to the Nigerian Bar before moving to Wales in the early 1990s.
Beginning a new life in Wales exposed her to cultural exclusion and racism. Those experiences helped shape the direction of her public work, but they did not define its limits. Uzo used her legal training, professional knowledge and personal experience to address barriers affecting Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.
She worked as a lecturer in law at Swansea Law School for nine years. Education would remain an important part of her career, whether through university teaching, professional development, public speaking or mentoring people seeking to enter civic and professional life.
In 2004, Uzo joined South Wales Police. During the same year, she founded the African Community Centre in Wales, the first organisation of its kind in the country, and served as its chair for 15 years.
The Centre provided a practical response to the needs of a growing and increasingly diverse population. It offered support, cultural activities and opportunities for African communities to organise and speak collectively about the issues affecting them.
Uzo later served on the Police National Diversity Team based at the Home Office. In that role, she contributed to national work on equality and diversity involving the Association of Chief Police Officers, police forces across the UK and other public bodies.
She also served as a commissioner with the Commission for Racial Equality until it was replaced by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2007.
These appointments gave Uzo opportunities to influence policy, but her work remained closely connected to community experience. She understood that national strategies could only be effective if they reflected what people were encountering in schools, workplaces, neighbourhoods and public services.
That connection between public policy and community knowledge became central to Race Council Cymru, which Uzo founded and now leads as chief executive.
Race Council Cymru works to challenge racial discrimination and promote equality across Wales. It brings together organisations and individuals, supports people experiencing racism and encourages public institutions to engage directly with the communities affected by their decisions.
The organisation’s work extends across advocacy, education, research, community development and cultural activity. Under Uzo’s leadership, it has become an important national voice on race equality.
Her contribution has also helped establish a stronger public record of Black history in Wales.
As one of the founders of Black History Wales, Uzo has supported events and educational programmes celebrating the achievements of African and Caribbean people. This work has challenged the idea that Black history in Britain is centred only in England or begins with recent migration.
Black people have contributed to Welsh life across generations, yet many of their experiences were missing from mainstream accounts of the nation’s history. Uzo has helped bring those stories into schools, exhibitions, public events and national conversations.
In 2018, she launched and facilitated the first national Windrush celebration in Wales. Her subsequent work with the Windrush Cymru Elders programme helped record the lives and experiences of African-Caribbean elders who had helped build modern Wales.
The project included the exhibition Our Voices, Our Stories, Our History and an accompanying film. Together, they allowed members of the Windrush generation to describe their journeys, working lives, families and contributions in their own words.
Recording those accounts was more than an act of commemoration. It created an educational resource and ensured that future generations would have access to a fuller account of Welsh social history.
Between 2019 and 2021, Uzo served as a Specialist Policy Adviser on Equalities to the Welsh Government. She has also served as an independent adviser to the Senedd Commission and contributed to the scrutiny of Wales’s anti-racism work.
Her wider initiatives include the Zero Racism Wales campaign, the Black Lives Matter Wales Policy Forum and the National Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Youth Forum for Wales. These projects have created opportunities for people of different generations to contribute to public debate and hold institutions accountable for their commitments.
Alongside her community and policy work, Uzo has continued to support education and leadership development. She was appointed Professor of Practice at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and is a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.
She has also mentored young people and adult learners, helping them develop the confidence and skills needed to pursue their ambitions and take part in public life.
Uzo was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2008 for services to community relations and communities in South Wales. In 2022, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to racial equality and for championing diversity and inclusion.
These honours recognise an extensive record of service, but the clearest measure of her work can be found in the organisations, programmes and opportunities she has helped create.
Professor Uzo Iwobi CBE is being honoured because she has turned advocacy into lasting public and community institutions. She has challenged discrimination while creating practical routes through which people can seek support, develop leadership skills and take part in decisions.
Her work has strengthened racial-equality campaigning in Wales and helped ensure that Black Welsh experiences form part of the country’s public history.
Through law, education, policy and community action, she has shown how determined leadership can change institutions and create opportunities for others to shape what comes next.