Meet the Author: Esuantsiwa Jane Goldsmith

Q: In your memoir, The Space Between Black and White, you discuss your role as the first Black woman president of Leicester University Students' Union and your involvement in the Black Power and Women’s Liberation movements. How did these experiences shape your approach to leadership and activism?  

The 1970s were an exciting time; it felt as if we were part of something completely new, world-changing, and I wanted to be part of it. Women’s Liberation, Gay Liberation, Black Power, Anti-Apartheid. My favourite story in my book is when, in 1973, aged 19, as a member of the Women’s Liberation Group, I made a speech against strip shows in the students’ union, in front of 800 mostly hostile students in a packed students’ union hall. Few women ever got up to speak in those days; we got shouted down. People had never even heard the word sexism before! I was terrified. We still won. Feminism and anti-racism were my twin passions then and have been ever since. My biggest inspiration at the time, Angela Davis, said: “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” I try to live by that. 

Q: You speak about searching for your father in Ghana. How did this journey shape your understanding of your heritage and influence your activism? 

I met my Dad in Ghana when I was 37 – I felt driven to find him. I knew very little about my father, and I had never even seen a photograph. In my book, I describe how I was born in the 1950s and brought up by a white working-class single mother in an all-white neighbourhood, experiencing racist comments and attitudes in the school playground and in the streets of South London. By the time I reached my mid-thirties, even though I had a family of my own and great job in the women’s sector, I couldn’t bear to live with half my story missing any longer. When I found him, I discovered not only a long-lost father and a loving family, but a rich and inspirational matrilineal heritage. My great-great-grandmother was a powerful warrior Queen who saved her village from destruction. It transformed my ideas about women’s leadership and the Eurocentric, patriarchal and colonialist view of history we’re taught in school. I’ve recently become an activist in the reparations for Africa movement and was enstooled as Queen Mother of our village in Cape Coast in 2009.

Q: How do you hope The Space Between Black and White will inspire future generations of activists and feminists, particularly those from mixed-race or marginalised backgrounds?  

I wrote my memoir to help towards validation and recognition of our mixed-race community in the UK, especially for future generations of minoritised people. Mixed-race individuals are the fastest-growing ethnic minority, comprising 2.7% of the population. As mixed-race people, we can often struggle to establish our authentic selves or feel that we don’t really belong anywhere. We can move into multiple social and political spaces and gain perspectives that others don’t have. We can all find ourselves in the space between black and white, metaphorically speaking, at certain times in our lives – a painful space, but also one that can be the most creative, and full of possibilities. I hope my book will help people become more ‘conscious’ about what differences mean, through lived experience, and develop more empathy, solidarity and acceptance.

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Q: Looking back at your journey, what are you most grateful for in your activism and personal growth, and how has gratitude shaped your path? 

I’m immensely grateful for the inspiration of fantastic women, especially my mum, who fought to keep me with her in an era when there was huge hostility towards single mothers, and great pressure on white mothers giving birth to brown babies to give their babies for adoption. I am grateful for all the amazing women writers, activists and leaders all over the world who give us inspiration today and throughout Herstory, some of whom are only recently being rediscovered. I am grateful to have been born at a time when we are able to fight for change for women, and win, in health and reproductive rights, contraception, financial independence, the right to choose, to be elected for political office, and take on a whole range of jobs that we hadn’t done before. So many of these changes have happened within my lifetime. But we know not all these changes have happened equally in every society. My memoir is written against the backdrop of these evolving struggles and triumphs over more than half a century. My main message is that the current backlash we are facing as anti-racist feminists is a demonstration of our successes and our power. We must never give up.  

Q: What advice would you give to aspiring writers who are just beginning to find their voice? 

Have courage, you can do it! Writing can sometimes feel scary, especially writing about your own life. You wonder what your beloved will think of it, especially when they have their own completely different versions of events, and they are your main characters! Even more complicated if, like me, you are the only one with a different racial profile in your family. It took me twenty years to write my book. The trick is to write as if no one’s watching, stay true to yourself and to the story you want to tell. Find that golden thread that binds the whole together and follow it through to the end. If you catch yourself laughing, crying, getting angry, or feeling joy as you write, your readers will too. If you’re struggling to find your voice, try speaking your truth through voice recognition typing – it worked for me. And if you ever get that ‘writer’s block’, shut the door, pull down the blinds, pump up the music, and dance. Tina Turner. That should fix it. 

Esua's life and writing remind us that the space between Black and white, between past and future, between personal truth and collective struggle, is where transformation takes root. Her journey honours those who came before and inspires those still finding their way. Buy her book, The Space Between Black and White, in the WRC Online Shop.