North Tyneside's first ever Black councillor says she endured racism and hostility and even "considered suicide" following her arrival in the UK.
Josephine Mudzingwa-Siziba was elected as Labour councillor for Benton Ward in North Tyneside in 2022 in a landslide victory. However, it has been a very long journey since she arrived in the UK in 2000 from Zimbabwe, a former British colony, which she left aiming to provide for a young son and daughter who have since joined her in the North East.
Though she was a qualified nurse in her home country with 13 years of experience, she was unable to work for three of her first five years in the UK. She was housed on the Meadow Well Estate, where she claims to have faced racism and hostility, and had her home and vehicle targeted.
