Black Lives in Scotland

In Black Oot Here: Black Lives in Scotland, Francesca Sobande and layla-roxanne hill combine their love of photography and visual culture with their intention to create work that aids the archiving of Black Scottish history. The result of this creative approach is a book that covers themes and topics such as Black Scottish activism, media, digital culture, and arts – some of which is brought to life by the vivid photography of Najma Hussein Abukar.

Throughout this book, there is critical consideration of questions to do with the relationship between notions of nationhood, Scottishness, and Britishness, such as when discussing the different implications of the expressions “Black Scottish” and “Black in Scotland”.

Paying attention to some of the many ways that Black people in Scotland have collectively paved paths, Sobande and hill push against the idea that Black Scottish history is a history that belongs to a single authority or institution

While the book is based on more than four years of research by Sobande and hill, it is also inspired and informed by the work of many other people, including the 1995 account of June Evans on “African/Caribbeans in Scotland: a socio-geographical study”.

Dreams O Us

More recently, Sobande and hill co-authored Black Oot Here: Dreams O Us, a self-published graphic novel (illustrated by Chris Manson) which is available in English, Scots (translated by Lesley Benzie) and Scottish Gaelic (translated by Naomi Gessesse). The graphic novel was supported by funding from ESRC IAA and AHRC IAA grants from UKRI, provided through Cardiff University. Additionally, an accompanying animation was co-created with Leeds Animation Workshop (featuring music commissioned by Nathan Somevi).

To contact us, please email: BeingBlackinScotland@gmail.com