Sabarr Bookshop
Sabarr Bookshop was a crucial institution for the Black and women's literature community in Brixton, London.
The bookshop, established at 121 Railton Road, Herne Hill, London SE24, was closely associated with the Brixton Black Women’s Group (BBWG), a radical collective formed by former members of the British Black Panthers, including Olive Morris, Liz Obi, and Zainab Abbas.
The BBWG was created in response to the misogyny and lack of attention to female issues within the Panthers. It aimed to connect, educate, and empower local Black women in South London.
Sabaar quickly became a hub for the local Black community, providing literature that was otherwise inaccessible, especially Black and women's literature.
In 1980, Sabaar moved to new premises at 378 Coldharbour Lane, SE11, where it continued its mission of promoting Black literature and empowering the community until the early 1990s.
Meanwhile, the building at 121 Railton Road, after being vacated by Sabaar, was used as an anarchist centre and remained a significant site for social activism until its closure.
The closure of Sabaar Bookshop in 1999 marked the end of an era, but its legacy lived on through the continued activism of its founders and the communities they influenced.
Sources:
Radical Bookshops Listing, Radical Bookshop History Project (November 2023) [Available online here, accessed 4.7.2025]
Lyndsey Jenkins 'Quiet Resistance: Black Women in British Publishing in the 1970s and 1980s by Preeti Dhillon', Women's History Network, 19.10.2021 [Online, https://womenshistorynetwork.org/quiet-resistance-black-women-in-british-publishing-in-the-1970s-and-1980s-by-preeti-dhillon/, accessed 4.7.2025]
Remember Olive Morris website [https://rememberolivemorris.wordpress.com/2007/09/26/sabaar-bookshop/, accessed 4.3.2025]
University of Bristol website [https://www.bristol.ac.uk/history/public-engagement/blackhistory/snapshots2021/eomorris/, accessed 4.3.2025]
Black History Month [https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/civil-rights-movement/how-olive-morris-fought-for-black-womens-rights-in-britain/, accessed 4.3.2025]
The Radical Bookseller, No. 67, 1990; No. 75, 1991
