Our definitions explained

Black African/Caribbean. Baobab describes Black African/Caribbean people as people who may or may not live on the continent of Africa and who navigate the world in a black body that society has racialised. This can include but is not limited to: all descendants of enslaved West Africans taken to other lands; all people of Africa and its current 54 countries; Caribbeans; South Americans; African Americans; Afro-Caribbeans; Afro-Latin Americans; Black Canadians; people of Black mixed heritage and so many more. Blackness and how it is expressed or used are defined by Black people and no one else. Blackness and Politically Black people mean different things to different people.

Global Majority (People of Colour). Baobab recognises that people who are defined as black and minority ethnic are, in fact, the global majority, at around 80% of the world’s population. The reduction of global majority people to a minority in the West is part of a broader context of systemic oppression.

Pro-black. Baobab is reshaping the funding ecosystem by unapologetically centring and prioritising Black African/Caribbean people in our funding, staffing and support to dismantle structural, systemic anti-blackness. We also more broadly support all Global Majority individuals, groups and organisations.

Intersectionality. Baobab focuses on the ways that systems of oppression, such as capitalism, imperialism, homophobia, ableism, xenophobia, anti-blackness, Islamophobia, sexism, racism, etc., are interconnected. Taking an intersectional approach allows us to call out oppression in all its forms.

Disability justice. Baobab knows that we are powerful not despite the complexities of our bodies and minds but because of them. We understand that our bodies are bound by ability, race, gender, sexuality, class, nation-state and imperialism. We cannot separate these things, and so we must dismantle the whole machine.