Black Scottish people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 65,414 – 1.2% (2022 Census)[1] African: 58,636 Caribbean: 2,214 Black and Other Black: 4,564 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Glasgow City | 23,743 – 3.8% |
| City of Edinburgh | 10,881 – 2.1% |
| Aberdeen City | 9,419 – 4.2% |
| Languages | |
| Religion | |
Predominantly Christianity; minorities follow Islam, Irreligion, Atheism, Baháʼí Faith, Rastafari, Traditional African religions, other religions
| |
Black Scottish people (also referred to as African-Scottish, Afro-Scottish, or Black Scottish) are a racial or ethnic group of Scottish who are ethnically African or Black. Used in association with black Scottish identity, the term commonly refers to Scottish of Black African and African-Caribbean descent. The group represents approximately 1.2 percent of the total population of Scotland.[1]
Background
Identity
The identity of Black Scottish people has evolved since the arrival of Black people in Scotland as early as the fifteenth century, with significant numbers arriving in the twentieth century after World War II.[2] The development of a cohesive Black Scottish identity has progressed, with Black African and Afro-Caribbean descent the most commonly claimed ancestry involved in the sense of identity.[3] Among other factors,[4] studies into the experiences of Scottish Somalis, who tend to be historically newer immigrant groups to the nation, have shown that ethnoreligious factors can complicate the expression of any monocultural or racial identity of Black Scottish.[5]
Census
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 6,353 | — |
| 2001 | 8,025 | +26.3% |
| 2011 | 36,178 | +350.8% |
| 2022 | 65,414 | +80.8% |
| Source: National Records of Scotland[1] | ||
| Ethnic group | 2022[1] | 2011[6] | 2001[7] | 1991[8] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
| Black Scottish people | 65,414 | 1.20% | 36,178 | 0.72% | 8,025 | 0.16% | 6,353 | 0.13% |
| —African | 58,636 | 29,638 | 5,118 | 2,773 | ||||
| —Black Caribbean | 2,214 | 3,430 | 1,778 | 934 | ||||
| —Other Black | 4,018 | 3,110 | 1,129 | 2,646 | ||||
 Scotland
|
5,439,842 | 100% | 5,295,403 | 100% | 5,062,011 | 100% | 4,998,567 | 100% |
At the 2022 census, 2,214 identified as 'Caribbean, Caribbean Scottish or Caribbean British', 58,636 identified as falling under the broad 'African' category and 4,018 identified as falling under the 'Other Caribbean or Black' category, for a total of 65,414 making up 1.20% of the Scottish population. Migration from Africa is largely responsible for the growth in the black population in Scotland, with the African population increasing by more than 21-fold since 1991 when ethnic data was first recorded.[1]
According to the 2011 UK Census, Black Scottish people (self-described as African, Caribbean, Black or any other Black background) were numbered at about 36,000. This figure indicates an increase in population of 28,000 Black Scottish since the previous UK census in 2001.[9] The group represented around 0.7% of Scotland's population, compared to 3.0% of the overall UK population.[10][11]
The 2001 census recorded 1,778 Black Caribbean people, 5,118 Black African people and 1,129 people in the Black Scottish or Other Black category, for a total of 8,025 Black people in Scotland.[12]
The 1991 census recorded 934 Black Caribbean people, 2,773 Black African people and 2,646 people in the Black other category, for a total of 6,353 Black people in Scotland. This represented 0.13% of the total population of Scotland.[8]
Notable Black Scottish people
Arts and entertainment
- Aminatta Forna (writer)
- Kayus Bankole (member of Mercury Prize winners Young Fathers)
- Shereen Cutkelvin (singer in girl group Neon Jungle)
- Nicolette (musician)
- Tony Osoba (actor)
- Ncuti Gatwa (actor)
- Moyo Akandé (actress)
- Layla-Roxanne Hill (writer and activist)
- Finley Quaye (musician)
- Jackie Kay (writer)
- Eunice Olumide (model)
- Luke Sutherland (novelist and musician)
Military
The diary of World War I veteran Arthur Roberts has been noted as an important historical document, for its preservation of the historical record of one of the earliest known Black Scottish soldiers.[13]
Sport
Association football
The British Guiana-born Andrew Watson is widely considered to be the world's first association footballer of Black heritage (his father was White and mother Black) to play at international level.[14][15][16] He was capped three times for Scotland between 1881 and 1882. Watson also played for Queen's Park, the leading Scottish club at the time, and later became their secretary. He led the team to several Scottish Cup wins, thus becoming the first player of Black heritage to win a major competition.[16]
With some brief exceptions, such as Jamaican born Gil Heron at Celtic, Walter Tull signing for Rangers, and John Walker at Hearts, Black players largely disappeared from Scottish football for the next 100 years until the arrival of Mark Walters at Rangers in 1988. Walters arrival at the club resulted in incidents of racial abuse.[17][18]
The Scotland national team did not call up a second player of Black heritage until Nigel Quashie (Black Ghanaian father and White English mother), made his debut against Estonia in May 2004. He qualified to play for Scotland, due to having a grandfather from Scotland.[19] Subsequently Coatbridge-born Chris Iwelumo (Black father from Nigeria), has also played for Scotland. Other notable players with black heritage who were born in Scotland, or have represented Scotland, include:
Other sports
- Joe Ansbro, Rugby
- Sean Crombie, Rugby
- Kieron Achara, Basketball
- Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, Winter Olympic Skier
Miscellaneous
- Ellen More, servant to Margaret Tudor
- Lesley Lokko (architect, academic, and novelist)
- Jessie M Soga (suffragist and singer)
Social and political issues
Discrimination
The group have faced prejudice and racism in Scottish society. In a Strathclyde University survey, almost 45 percent of black Scottish reported experiencing discrimination between 2010 and 2015.[21]
In fiction
- "Of Ane Blak-Moir", a poem describing an African woman at the court of James IV of Scotland.
- Tavish Finnegan DeGroot, more well known as the Demoman from Team Fortress 2, is a self-described "black Scottish cyclops".[22]
- Jerome "Chef" McElroy, a character from South Park, hails from Scotland.
- Jim "Jock" McClaren, a character in Porridge.
- Elmo McElroy in The 51st State is a descendant of a relationship between a slave and their owner who is of the McElroy clan; thereby making him the heir to the ancestral estate.
- In 2019, multiple media sources[23][24][25][26][27] reported that African-American actor Denzel Washington would play the Scottish title character in Joel Coen's movie adaptation of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth. The film was eventually released in 2021 as The Tragedy of Macbeth.
See also
- Demographics of Scotland
- Black British people
- Black Welsh people
- Black African
- African diaspora
- Spain (surname)
- New Scot
References
- ^ a b c d e "Scotland's Census 2022 - Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion - Chart data". Scotland's Census. National Records of Scotland. 21 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024. Alternative URL 'Search data by location' > 'All of Scotland' > 'Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion' > 'Ethnic Group'
- ^ Rebecca Finkel; Briony Sharp; Majella Sweeney, eds. (2018). Accessibility, Inclusion, and Diversity in Critical Event Studies. Routledge. ISBN 978-0815350828.
- ^ Millsom Henry-Waring (2004). Moving beyond Otherness: Exploring the Polyvocal Subjectivities of African Caribbean Women across the United Kingdom (Volume 30 ed.). Hecate.
At the group interviews, a video on Black Scottish Identity was selected as a focal point for discussions, as it questioned the nature of African Caribbean subjectivities in the UK.
- ^ Minna Liinpää' (2018), "Friendly and Welcoming?: Experiencing Nationalism in Scotland", Nationalism from Above and Below: Interrogating 'race', 'ethnicity 'and belonging in post-devolutionary Scotland, University of Glasgow, p. 213,
To some, it's obvious that the two are not mutually exclusive. To others, Black Scottish identity is a contradiction in terms: either you're of this place, Scottish and therefore Scots, or Other, Black.
- ^ Emma Hill (2017), "Mapping whiteness, Somali voices and the spaces of Glasgow City", Somali Voices in Glasgow City: Who Speaks? Who Listens?An Ethnography, Heriot-Watt University: University of Edinburgh, p. 295,
In the meantime, a whiteness-led categorisation of a Somali person as 'Black' would compound their racialised exclusion from Islam and disregard their self-defined racial identity. Under the White gaze in Glasgow City, Somali people were thus subject to 'hailings' that saw them as doubly Other or as partial subjects, and extended the same categorisations to their occupations of public space.
- ^ "Table KS201SC - Ethnic group:Scottish Council Area 2011 by Ethnicity (Flat) by Term-time Address (Indicator)". scotlandscensus.gov.uk. Scotland's Census. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
- ^ "Table UV10 - Ethnic group (Scotland): Output Area Code by Ethnic Group in Scotland by Person". scotlandscensus.gov.uk. Scotland's Census. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
- ^ a b "1991 census - local base statistics". Nomis: Official Census and Labour Market Statistics. Retrieved 14 June 2023. Tables L01 to L18: Demographic and economic characteristics > L06 Ethnic group
- ^ "Black and Scottish: 'Are you a Protestant Rasta or a Catholic Rasta?'". BBC. 7 October 2019.
- ^ "Analysis of ethnicity in the 2001 Census – Summary report". The Scottish Government. 2004-02-09. Retrieved 2009-09-30.
- ^ "Resident population by ethnic group, 2001". Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 2011-06-29. Retrieved 2009-09-30.
- ^ "Table UV10 - Ethnic group (Scotland): Output Area Code by Ethnic Group in Scotland by Person". scotlandscensus.gov.uk. Scotland's Census. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
- ^ Jackie Kay (11 November 2018). "Jackie Kay on Arthur Roberts: the black Scottish first world war soldier who felt forgotten". The Guardian.
Arthur Roberts was a Black Scottish soldier who served in the First World War and died in a care home in Glasgow.
- ^ "First Black footballer, Andrew Watson, inspired British soccer in 1870s". Black History Month. Archived from the original on 2010-06-10.
- ^ "Andrew Watson". 100 Great Black Britons. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2010-04-04.
- ^ a b "Andrew Watson". Football Unites, Racism Divides. Archived from the original on 2016-03-18. Retrieved 2010-04-04.
- ^ Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research (June 2002). "Black Footballers in Britain – The Late 1980s and After – A 'New Era'?". University of Leicester. Archived from the original on 28 July 2010. Retrieved 6 July 2008.
- ^ "Letters". The Guardian. London.
- ^ "History calls on Quashie". BBC Sport. 2004-05-26. Retrieved 2007-08-12.
- ^ The player has appeared for the Scotland national football team
- ^ "Survey finds a third of black and ethnic minority Scottish experience discrimination". BBC. 14 September 2015.
Nearly 45% of respondents with a black African Caribbean heritage respondents, agreed with the statement that they had 'experienced discrimination in Scotland in the last five years'.
- ^ "Meet the Demoman". Teamfortress.com. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
- ^ Kroll, Justin (28 March 2019). "Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand to Star in Joel Coen's 'Macbeth'". Variety. Retrieved July 5, 2019.
- ^ Goldberg, Matt (28 March 2019). "Joel Coen to Direct 'Macbeth' Starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand". Collider. Retrieved July 5, 2019.
- ^ Colburn, Randall (28 March 2019). "Joel Coen ditches Ethan for Macbeth adaptation starring Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand". AV Club. Retrieved July 5, 2019.
- ^ Guardian Staff (28 March 2019). "Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand to star in Joel Coen's Macbeth". Guardian. Retrieved July 5, 2019.
- ^ Galloway, Stephen (6 June 2019). "Denzel Washington on Playing 'Macbeth' and His Dream Collaborators". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 5, 2019.