Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Ugandan born Yasmin Alibhai-Brown got her first degree from Makerere University in 1972. That same year Yasmin left Uganda for Britain, and eventually a Masters degree from Oxford University.

After starting a family she taught and then started in journalism. Amin’s forced expelsion of Asian Africans forced her to view Britain as her new home: a defining moment, it left an enduring legacy on Yasmin's future work on race, nationality and identity formation.

Yasmin took up a post as a Research Fellow at the influential Institute for Public Policy Research where she published in 1999 'True Colours', a report which called on the British government to be more active in combating racism. It was an influential and timely publication, following the Macpherson Inquiry into the racist murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, and the failure of British police to bring his killers to justice.

Following the publication of 'True Colors' she served on the Home Office Race Forum and advised various key institutions on race issues.Yasmin left the Institute for Public Policy Research in 2000 to become a Senior Researcher at the Foreign Policy Centre (The European Think Tank with a Global Outlook); a think tank launched under the auspices of the Prime Minister Rt. Hon Tony Blair to find new and dynamic ways to address foreign policy issues.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown was appointed MBE in 2001 for services to journalism although famously had doubts about it later. She has also recieved the BBC ASIA Award for Achievement in Writing 1999, the Commission for Racial Equality Special Award for Outstanding Contribution to Journalism 2000, EMMA Media Personality of the Year 2000, Windrush Outstanding Merit Award 2000, and the George Orwell Prize for Political Journalism 2002, among others.She claims to be a a terribly flawed but practising Shia Muslim” and is often seen as a supercritical of the faithful – she is well informed and her views should be not lightly dismissed. A well known face and voice on the metropolitan media circus and commentatorwith her own column in the Independent