Ansel Wong

Ansel Keith David Wong (born 4 October 1945 ) is a Trinidadian-British cultural and political activist, who has been influential in many organisations particularly in the black community in the United Kingdom, where he has been based since the 1960s. He is the former Chair of the Notting Hill Carnival Board and founder of Elimu Mas Band. He is also an educationist and academic, and in a wide-ranging career has worked at senior levels in various organisations in the public and charitable sectors, including with the Windrush Foundation established in 1996 by Arthur Torrington.

Biography Ansel Wong was born in 1945 in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago. His father was a Chinese immigrant while his mother was a multiracial Caribbean of African and Spanish descent. Wong went to San Fernando Boy's Government School (1953–58) and Naparima College (1958–64). Wong intended to become a Jesuit priest before losing his belief in the order during studies. whose newspaper Grassroots he edited under the pseudonym "Ade Kimathi".

In the early 1970s, Wong chaired the West Indian Students Union (based at the West Indian Students' Centre in London's Earls Court), addressing the issues of black people in the UK, (from 1982 until its abolition by Margaret Thatcher in 1986), where he worked closely with Herman Ouseley and Paul Boateng. In subsequent years Wong was also Education Officer at the London Borough of Ealing (1988–89), and has held such public appointments including being the Chair of North West London Workforce Development Confederation, Chair of London Health Commission and Non-Executive Director of North West London NHS Mental Health Trust.

Wong was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to arts and culture.

In January 2021, he was announced as the new Chair of Black Cultural Archives.