Black Oot Here: Black Lives in Scotland(Bloomsbury Global Black Studies)

What does it mean to be Black in Scotland today? How are notions of nationhood, Scottishness, and Britishness implicated in this? Why is it important to archive and understand Black Scottish history? Reflecting on the past to make sense of the present, Francesca Sobande and layla-roxanne hill explore the history and contemporary lives of Black people in Scotland. Based on intergenerational interviews, survey responses, photography, and analysis of media and archived material, this book offers a unique snapshot of Black Scottish history and recent 21st century realities. Focusing on a wide range of experiences of education, work, activism, media, creativity, public life, and politics, Black Oot Here presents a vital account of Black lives in Scotland, while carefully considering the future that may lie ahead.

Table of Contents:
Preface List of illustrations Acknowledgements List of abbreviations 1. Tis 'ere tae: A long and winding introduction 2. Scottish exceptionalism, naw: (Re)inspecting Scotland's Black history 3. Yin o' us?: Multiculturalism, “New Scots”, and Black women's lives 4. “No like us, a wee bit different, them pure exotic fowk”: Black Scotland in the media and public life 5. Tis nae th' end: Some not so final thoughts Notes References Index

About the Author :
Francesca Sobande is a writer and senior lecturer in digital media studies at Cardiff University, UK. She is the author of The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) and Consuming Crisis: Commodifying Care and COVID-19 (SAGE, 2022). layla-roxanne hill is a writer, curator and organiser, living in Scotland. Her work focuses on anti-colonial cultural contributions, and the way our conditions move us to act. She is also active in the trade union movement, holding elected positions within the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Scottish TUC (STUC).

Review :
Presenting a wit account of the historical Black presence in Scotland, Black Oot Here stages a much-needed conversation concerning the racial and capitalist representation of Scottish nationalism and offers a refreshing process of knowledge production towards a blooming possible decolonial future. Sobande and hill centre Black narratives to expand the understanding of wor(l)ds-making in Scotland as they dissect anti-Black racism and offer an invitation to envision Black lives beyond intersecting oppressions. The methodology is sophisticated to indicate what constitutes data, refusing to quantify experiences, lives and feelings. A creative design is present in the book with a careful curation of images and narratives within the struggle, sitting with the fear, with the movement of home-making experienced by Black lives 'oot here'. The authors subvert the Scottish language, appropriating the vernacular to advance the discussions on anti-Blackness, representation, and nationalism, offering an interdisciplinary contribution to anti-racist decolonial care for academic and activist communities. Black Oot Here is a rigorously researched, kaleidoscopic chronicle of Black lives in Scotland. It expands the debate around nation-building, questioning who, exactly, is deemed to help or hinder the process. Sobande and hill's work rightly joins the canon of Black Feminist literature, delving deeply into myriad ways of relating to Scotland; presenting a slice of Black Scots experience in order to explore complicated notions of “belonging”. A significant and original contribution… required reading for scholars and students who are interested in the studies of racism (anti-racism) and Black lives and experiences in Scotland. Combining the result of academic surveys with photograph analysis, archived materials & personal experiences of the authors makes this book an enjoyable, lively & interesting piece of writing.