Nelly Adam’s voice has been heard in Wales as the Black Lives Matter movement has grown here. In the second part of her interview with Africa News Wales, Nelly talks about the lessons she has learned since her world was turned upside down following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020.
Nelly was born in London to parents of Kenyan descent and Indian heritage. She moved to Cardiff with her family when she was 11 years old. She has emerged as a prominent figure in Black Lives Matter in Wales, and has found a voice as a campaigner for equality.
“Protests are grassroot, where people feel so aggrieved that this is the only way they can get heard and protests were taking place week after week after week and it became exhausting. It was a strain on the people involved” Nelly Adam, Black Lives Matter activist, recalls the time that surrounded the George
Floyd’s murder in USA. “Things had to change, tactics had to change and they are changing as I have been a part of a Welsh Equality Action Plan with the
Welsh Government and I am the Race Equality Head and Champion for Zero Tolerance to Racism”. “Now if I go out on the streets to protest it will be because there has been a miscarriage of justice somewhere and nobody is wishing to resolve that peacefully. People are now trying to help, to channel the energy into ways to help in some way”. “As long as we are being listened to, we see changes being made I don’t see the reason to protest and use all of that energy when it can be redirected into making positive change”.
She adds,” From all of those demonstrations there has been a mass of education. All the sectors are paying attention. Issues are starting to rumble and Governments starting to get involved about issues on statues and decolonisation, and street names across Wales. Organisations and public sector have started to understand that we have the ability to make the Government realise things are wrong. This inevitably will filter down and people are becoming more accepting of wanting to hear about our experiences but this is where the problem will start again. I have been sharing my
experiences for two years and now I want to know ‘how are my experiences shaping what you are doing to create the change I am looking to embed?’
There are changes but the scale of change is too slow”. Nelly continues,” Changes can be political but at the end of the day this is not about politics anymore”. Adding strongly,” This is about people’s lives”.
“I am personally asking people to snap out of it. If it hasn’t worked for all of these years forget about politics. Just go do it, YOU make a change. Too many
people like to sit around a table and argue a point but it just takes a leader to say ‘let’s stop, lets scrap that, let’s start again’. That is that’s it.”
Online and in social media, Ms Adam can be seen and heard under the name Queen Niche. “First and foremost, I am Queen Niche. I remain as me, as a grass
roots people’s people. I am not a people’s person - I am a people’s people because it doesn’t matter who I am around, the communities I liaise with, I just want to be a part of the people. Since this started I have had the opportunity to speak at the Senedd, I am involved with organisations such as National History of Wales, Royal College of Drama, and was even invited as a question asker on Question Time on the BBC.
I am here to make people understand that racism is real and needs to be acknowledged and I feel I am doing that with a new style of education. An education that hasn’t been experienced before and I have done this myself. I call it The Thought Provoking Session, Adam explains, and what I deliver no organisation or business has had. Like myself there are people from BLM in all areas, Swansea, Newport, Cardiff and the throughout the north. Leaders, spreading and raising awareness. It is like an explosion as the network grows.
The balance is shifting and there is a lot of white ally’s compared to many years ago when there were none. They acknowledge something is wrong. I am not
going to say that is monumental as much as I would like to be deemed but I applaud any ally as that is the strength, that is where the support comes from
but I can’t applaud something that shouldn’t exist in the first place”. “Should I be experiencing racism in the United Kingdom? “The United Kingdom - answer no. When my parents came here and I had all of these opportunities they made me study hard every day. Everything to help me excel and progress. All of that made no difference. It took a piece of cotton placed over my hair to deem what I call modesty to do a social experiment for everything around me and everything I was to unravel and unfold.
I cannot be silenced now, I can’t be told not to speak because when I speak it cannot be deemed as offensive because if it offends you, imagine how it has
made me feel. I am not telling you things I have seen in a book. Did I know about history, or BLM, actually no not until very recently but to stop Islamaphobia has always been at the forefront of my passion. At that BLM event we are talking about colour and the one thing, Islam, my religion teaches me is Islam has no colour. No man is superior to another based on the colour of their skin. Only based on their deeds, on his priority. Nelly adds confidently “I think now it has been accepted the power of the grass roots is very strong and if those that can, do not start acting and enabling we will stay in the status quo. The momentum has been so strong, the fact that schools especially in Wales are already looking at teaching Black History.
The Government have injected funding because they have looked at the statistics of only 12/14% of BAME teachers in Wales. Let’s start focusing on these skill sets and fill these rolls. Look at myself, I am educated, lets not lose the fact that BAME are intelligent and the input of these people like Betty Campbell have put in but its only now that stories are prevailing. People’s mind set is changing as people realise what we were taught is not accurately the truth and i will always remind people history was written by the oppressors, the people that harmed people, never the people that were harmed so everything we are looking at and learning from in history is the story of successive oppressors.
Nelly Adam has conviction to hers and many others cause. She is not only a talker but a doer. She makes things happen .
Do you agree with Nelly? Please tell us your views at Africa Welsh News
