Hackney People
Kaday Rose Kamara
From Africa and back
Growing up in Sierra Leone, it was an eight-mile round trip for Kaday Rose Kamara to walk to school, so 40 years later she helped build one in the village where she lived.
Homerton resident Ms Kamara, 63, has devoted more than a decade to helping Hackney folk better understand African and Caribbean cultures, after founding the community group and registered charity, African Caribbean Reunion, in 1996.
Ms Kamara trained and worked as a teacher and civil servant in Sierra Leone, visiting the UK during the 1970s, but moved to London for medical reasons in 1987, settling in Hackney two years later.
She said: “Some people have said they want to leave Hackney, but I love it. I wear my I Love Hackney badge when I’m out.”
The charity’s touring exhibition, A Taste of Africa, about the history and culture of the continent up to the present day, has been seen by thousands of Hackney school pupils, residents, and people from all over London during the past five years. It has also visited a wide range of venues including the Round Chapel, Hackney Community College, and Brixton and Holloway prisons.
However, the grandmother-of-four’s commitment to education was born out of tragedy. It was after the death of her son in 1995, that she felt a calling to establish greater links between African and Caribbean communities, a course that changed her life.
So in 1996, she founded African Caribbean Reunion, adopting as its motto ‘Bridging Our Differences’. Since then, she has helped organise cultural events and visits to Africa for local residents, including trips to Gambia and Sierra Leone in 2000, to learn more about their heritage.
She also founded sister organisation Christ Evangelical Ministry, a non-denominational charity providing education in Sierra Leone, and working with homeless people in Hackney. And it was in 1997 that Ms Kamara was able to help establish a primary school in Kathantha, the village where she grew up.
More information
For further details, or to book to see the A Taste of Africa exhibition,call: 020 8986 4090, email:info@africarib-reunion.org; or visit: www.africarib-reunion.org.
Page updated: 15 Jun 2010
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