At Howell's School in the 1980s, Lebo was the only black girl in her year.  She had a fabulous singing voice and was a star performer in our school choir: she was always singing and dancing.  Her fashion sense was legendary too and she often used to help her teenage friends dress to impress.  Everyone has their own memories of her, as a fun-loving individual full of character.  Lebo was also fiercely political.  She talked openly about race and racism and her South African heritage, persuading us, her friends, to join the African National Congress and campaign for Nelson Mandela to be freed from prison. 

Now many of her friends are thankful to be in contact with Lebo’s twin daughters, who are in their 20s, but very sadly Lebo herself died when they were little, at a time when many of us had lost touch with her.  It was a privilege to be her friend; and even though her being Black was, of course, only one aspect of what Lebo brought to our school community and our friendship group, it was an important part, to her and to us.

Lebo would have been 50 on 28^th November 2020 and we have been thinking about her a lot lately, because of the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement this year.  As schoolgirls, we had naively hoped systemic racism would be dying by now.  Instead it’s Lebo who is dead and racism is apparently thriving.

Reni Eddo-Lodge says “White support looks like financial or administrative assistance to the groups doing vital work”, so with the blessing of both Lebo's daughters we are launching a crowdfunding initiative in Lebo’s memory, to coincide with Black History Month in October and continue until her birthday at the end of November.  We will be raising money for the Runnymede Trust, who are the UK's leading race equality think tank, supporting national and local government, policy-makers, influencers and activists with evidence-based solutions, which work towards their vision for a just society.  All donations made in Lebo's memory will be put towards the charity's running costs.  They say this tribute is an invaluable affirmation of their work and thank every donor for your kind generosity.