For nearly two centuries, Black women in Britain have had to tell their own stories to be seen at all. As Black History Month 2026 honours our communities, Soul Purpose 360 is launching the first national survey of Black women and girls in Britain to make sure the next chapter is written in our own words.
In 1831, a woman who had been enslaved in Bermuda and Antigua did something extraordinary in London. She told her own story. The History of Mary Prince was the first account of a Black woman’s life published in Britain, and it shook the nation. Her words helped turn public opinion against slavery. Mary Prince understood something that Black women in Britain have known ever since. If we do not tell our story, someone else will tell it for us, and they will get it wrong.
“Every generation of Black women in this country has had to fight to be heard in their own words,” says Palma Black, founder and CEO of Soul Purpose 360. “Black History Month reminds us that our voices have always changed Britain. The question is whether Britain is ready to listen properly this time.”
A long line of women who refused to be silent
Look back and you find Black women at every turning point, speaking up and building platforms when none existed.
- Mary Seacole wrote her own account of nursing soldiers in the Crimean War, at a time when her contribution was easy to overlook.
- Una Marson became the first Black woman broadcaster at the BBC during the Second World War, carrying Caribbean voices across the airwaves.
- Claudia Jones founded the West Indian Gazette in 1958 and organised the Caribbean carnival that grew into Notting Hill Carnival. She knew that a community needs its own press and its own celebrations to be seen.
- Olive Morris fought for decent housing in Brixton and helped found the Brixton Black Women’s Group in the 1970s, part of a wave of organising that gave rise to OWAAD, the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent.
Then, in 1985, Beverley Bryan, Stella Dadzie and Suzanne Scafe published The Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives in Britain. They gathered the testimony of ordinary Black women and placed it at the centre of the record. It remains a landmark.
That was more than 40 years ago. Since then, rarely has anyone asked Black women and girls across Britain, on a national scale and in their own words, about the whole of their lives.
Soul Purpose 360 member and founder of Black women’s health magazine Bidii said: “This national survey represents not just having our unique voices heard while giving a detailed look at the experience of Black women. But it also gives an opportunity of self-determination. By creating, promoting, facilitating and analysing this piece of work Soul Purpose 360 is striving to bring about change on our terms. The survey will help unpack our multifaceted challenges with true empathy and establish foundations we can build upon.”
Honouring our communities
This year’s Black History Month theme is Honouring Our Communities: recognising the everyday people who shape and sustain Black life across the UK.
Black women are those people. We are the carers and the nurses, the church mothers and the youth workers, the entrepreneurs and the aunties who hold families and neighbourhoods together. We volunteer, we organise, we raise the next generation. Our labour sustains our communities, and much of it goes unrecorded.
“You cannot honour a community while ignoring the women who carry it,” says Palma. “Honouring us means more than a poster in October. It means hearing us, counting us properly and acting on what we say, all year round and that is what we do at Soul Purpose 360.
#DefinitionRedefined: the next chapter
That is why Soul Purpose 360 has launched #DefinitionRedefined: The National Survey of Black Women & Girls in Britain.
The survey is open to Black women aged 18 and over and girls aged 16 to 17, anywhere in the UK, until 31 January 2027. It covers health, housing, work and money, safety, education, identity, community and ambition. We want to hear from at least 2,000 women and girls, and we are aiming for 5,000.
“I see this survey as part of a long tradition,” says Palma. “Mary Prince wrote her story so the nation could not look away. The women behind The Heart of the Race gathered our testimony so it could not be erased. #DefinitionRedefined carries that torch into 2026. This survey gives us an opportunity to honour the voices and opinions of Black women across the UK and this time, thousands of us will write the story together.”
The findings will shape our call for a National Commission on the lives of Black women and girls in Britain: a lasting body that keeps our outcomes in the national spotlight long after October ends.
“As a Black woman, grandmother and community advocate, I know the strength, resilience and contributions of Black women are too often overlooked. We are more than statistics, stereotypes or labels. Our lived experiences matter, our voices carry power, and our stories deserve recognition. This survey is about challenging inequalities, redefining our narrative and creating lasting change for future generations.” Commented Patricia Wharton (DJ Blaze), Community Advocate, Broadcaster & Women’s Empowerment Champion
Becoming history-makers
History is not only something we remember. It is something we make, one decision at a time.
The girls who take part in this survey today will be the women of 2050. The evidence they help create could shape the services, laws and opportunities they grow up with. That is what it means to honour our communities: to leave the next generation more than we inherited.
“Our ancestors spoke up when it was dangerous to do so,” says Palma. “All we are asking is that women today take the survey and share it with five sisters. That is how a whisper becomes a chorus, and how a chorus becomes history.”
Take the survey and share it with five sisters: soulpurpose360.co.uk/definition-redefined
Open to Black women aged 18+ and girls aged 16–17 across the UK. Closes 31 January 2027. Questions or access needs: definitionredefined@soulpurpose360.co.uk
#DefinitionRedefined #BlackHistoryMonthUK #BHM2026
About Palma Black
Palma Black is Founder and CEO of Soul Purpose 360 CIC, a Black and Global Majority women’s empowerment organisation based at Soul-Full in Croydon. Lewisham born and bred, she brings 30 years in community activism, social housing, community regeneration and personal performance coaching, and leads a community of nearly 2,000 women. Soul Purpose 360 is a Big Issue Changemaker 2026.