Martha Osamor, Baroness Osamor

British-Nigerian politician and activist

The Right Honourable

The Baroness Osamor of Tottenham

Official portrait, 2019

Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal

Incumbent

Assumed office
26 November 2018
Life Peerage
Personal details
Born|

Martha Otito Osantor

(1940-09-24) 24 September 1940 (age 84)
Delta State, Nigeria
Citizenship| United Kingdom
Nationality| British Nigerian
Political party| Labour
Children| Kate Osamor (daughter)

Martha Otito Osamor, Baroness Osamor (née Osantor; born 24 September 1940)[1] is a British-Nigerian Labour Party politician, life peer, community activist and civil rights campaigner. She is the mother of Kate Osamor, the MP for Edmonton and Winchmore Hill since 2015.

## Early life and career

[edit]

Born Martha Otito Osantor in Delta State, Nigeria, Osamor moved to the UK in 1963 to join her husband who was then studying in London. Osamor and her husband settled in Tottenham, where they had four children. Her husband died unexpectedly in 1975.

## Politics

[edit]

Osamor was a co-founder of the United Black Women's Action Group (UBWAG). From 1977 to 1997, Osamor worked at the Tottenham Law Centre (now called the Haringey Law Centre) and during this time became part of the Broadwater Farm Youth Association Mothers' Project on the nearby Broadwater Farm housing estate.[2]

From 1986 to 1990, she served as a Labour councillor representing the Bruce Grove Ward in the London Borough of Haringey, eventually becoming deputy leader of Haringey London Borough Council.[3]

Following the Broadwater Farm riot, Osamor and Dolly Kiffin organised a civil rights demonstration on 3 October 1987, and produced a Manifesto of the movement for civil rights and justice.[4] She became a founding member of the Broadwater Farm Defence Campaign.[5]

A left-winger and Labour Party Black Sections national vice-chair, Osamor was nominated by most of the branches within the Vauxhall Constituency Labour Party as the party's candidate for the by-election in 1989. The seat had been held by Labour since its creation in 1950. However, her candidacy was blocked by the party's National Executive Committee on the advice of the then leader, Neil Kinnock.[6] Osamor's future fellow life peer Kate Hoey was instead selected by the national party as the constituency's Labour candidate; Hoey held the seat for Labour.

Osamor was nominated for a life peerage by Jeremy Corbyn in May 2018, and on 26 November 2018, the Queen conferred upon her the title of Baroness Osamor, of Tottenham in the London Borough of Haringey and of Asaba in the Republic of Nigeria.[7][8][9]

## Personal life

[edit]

Baroness Osamor is the mother of Member of Parliament Kate Osamor.[10]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Martha Osamor". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
2. ^ "Papers of Martha Osamor". Black Cultural Archives Online Catalogue. Retrieved 16 June 2018.
3. ^ Aminu, Adedamola (26 April 2018). Nigerian-British Politicians in United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland: A Book of Profiles. Grosvenor House Publishing. ISBN 9781786232052 – via Google Books.
4. ^ "Summary of oral history interview with Martha Osamor". Black Cultural Archives Online Catalogue. Black Cultural Archives. Retrieved 16 June 2018.
5. ^ Aminu, Adedamola (2018). Nigerian British Politicians in United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland: A book of profiles. London: Leading Management Publications. ISBN 9781999965006.
6. ^ Cowburn, Ashley (12 March 2015). ""Who is this black woman?": Kate Osamor on her path to parliament". New Statesman. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
7. ^ "No. 62483". The London Gazette. 29 November 2018. p. 21785.
8. ^ "Queen confers Peerages: 18 May 2018". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
9. ^ Sabbagh, Dan; Perkins, Anne (18 May 2018). "May names nine new Tory peers to bolster party after Brexit defeats". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
10. ^ "Martha Osamor: unsung hero of Britain's black struggle - Institute of Race Relations". www.irr.org.uk. 23 November 2015. Retrieved 19 May 2018.

Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom

Preceded by

The Lady Heywood of Whitehall

|  Ladies
Baroness Osamor | Followed by

The Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford

Authority control databases: People |

* UK Parliament

|