An Evening with Jenni Kirby
Lived Experiences of Apartheid and Exile
An Evening with Jenni Kirby: Lived Experiences of Apartheid and Exile
📍 Islington’s Black Cultural Centre, 16–18 Hornsey Road, N7 7BT
🗓️ Wednesday, 12 June 2025 | 6:30 PM (Doors open 6pm, light refreshments provided. Talk begins at 6.40pm and will be followed by an opportunity for questions and discussion. Ends 8.30pm.
🎟️ Free – Registration Required – Click here to register
Join us for an unforgettable evening with South African elder Jenni Kirby, as she shares her powerful personal story of life under apartheid. Born into a “Coloured” * family forcibly removed from their home under the apartheid regime’s racist laws, Jenni brings a deeply human perspective to one of history’s darkest chapters.
Hosted by the Anti-Apartheid Legacy Centre in association with Go Africa Community Hub CIC at Islington’s Black Cultural Centre. An event supporting Refugee Week 2025, whose theme for the year is ‘Community as a Superpower’.
The evening will feature Jenni’s reflections on identity, justice, love, and the inner journey of resistance. She will discuss her activism both in South Africa and as a political exile in Britain, and read from her evocative memoir, Angry Love: Memoirs of a Fellow Seeker for a Better Country. A limited number of signed copies will be available on the day, with more available via New Beacon Books. Proceeds from the books sold are pledged to the Douglas Murray Home in Cape Town, which provides care for vulnerable elders.
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear firsthand testimony of courage, loss, the enduring quest for belonging and justice, and the power of community.
Jenni Kirby (top) and Jenni Kirby (bottom image, seated on left) in 1985, speaking on behalf of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (who at the time had offices near Angel, Islington). Images courtesy Jenni Kirby.
‘Angry love – Memoirs of a fellow Seeker for a Better Country’ is the autobiographic recollection of an exceptional life journey. Jenni Kirby grew up in Apartheid South Africa. As young Coloured* girl she had been adversely impacted by Apartheid; she vividly recalls profound experiences. She angrily joined the Struggle. In the UK Jenni entered the ministry as a Methodist minister, but she could never detach from her mother country. These memoirs are about her pilgrimage in seeking a better country, it is about relationships and being connected, about identity and rejection, the struggle between anger and love, and about the inner journey towards grace. It is a remarkable story, captivating and brilliantly written.
*Under apartheid, South Africans were categorised as White, Black, Indian or Coloured. Whilst coloured in South Africa, is and was used to refer to all people of mixed heritage, it primarily references a distinct ethnic group, primarily living in the Western Cape area.
Black Cultural Centre
Islington’s Black Cultural Centre,
16–18 Hornsey Road,
London
N7 7BT
Accessibility:
Facilities include wheelchair access and accessible toilet facilities.
Transport:
• Nearest stations: Holloway Road (Piccadilly Line) – 3 mins walk, Highbury & Islington (Victoria Line, Main Line and Overground) – 12-15 mins walk.
• Local buses stop on Holloway Road or Hornsey Road. Please check TFL for details.
