Cécile Nobrega

Cécile Nobrega, née Burgan (1 June 1919 – 19 November 2013) was a Guyanese-born British teacher, poet, playwright, composer and community activist. She led a 15-year campaign to establish a monument in Stockwell Memorial Gardens, Bronze Woman, the first public statue of a black woman to be on permanent display in England.

Life in Guyana Cécile Burgan was born in Georgetown, Guyana, on 1 June 1919, the daughter of Canon William Granville Burgan and his wife Imelda. On the suggestion of her maternal grandmother, she was named Cécile after Cécile Chaminade, the first French female composer to receive the Legion of Honour. In 1942 she married Romeo Nobrega, with whom she had three children. She graduated from Bishops' High School, Guyana.

After training as a teacher, Cécile Nobrega started two schools in Guyana: a kindergarten and a vocational school for teenage girls. She wrote music and plays, including the play Stabroek Fantasy (1956), which had record runs in Guyana, and the song "Twilight". She was the editor of You magazine for St. Sidwell's Anglican Church, and president of the kindergarten section of the Guyana Teachers' Union. She also represented Guyana at the 1964 International Children's Theatre Conference, held in London.

Bronze Woman The Bronze Woman Project was a charitable organization that successfully raised funds for a public monument to womanhood in Britain. on 8 October 2008. The Baroness Scotland of Asthal delivered a keynote speech; alongside Nobrega around the statue were artist Anissa Jane, entrepreneur Sonita Alleyne, Rosalind Howells, Baroness Howells of St Davids, community activist Jessica Huntley, MOBO Awards founder Kanya King, diversity expert Brenda King, equal rights campaigner Doreen Lawrence and community campaigner Sybil Phoenix. It is the first public statue of a black woman to be on permanent display in England.

Works

Theatre (with Helen Taitt) Stabroek Fantasy. Musical, 1956.

Publications

Verse in Soliloquies (in Verse). 1968. Japan, the Butterfly. Hansib Publishing, 1991.