Black Oot (T)here

When asked how our book came to be, I’m never quite sure how to answer. 

Perhaps I’ll never have a neat answer to this, because, as we reflect on in its preface, our book was penned during times of both “chaos and care”. 

Chaos and care, laughter and loss

Writing Black Oot Here: Black Lives in Scotland was a journey marked by much laughter (shared between us and with other people in our lives). But it was also an experience marked by much loss. For these reasons and more, this book is not simply ours. Instead, it reflects elements of the spirits, lives, and loves of many people, among them, my dad (Olu) who was oot here, long before me.

When layla and I wrote this book - a project that started in 2018, but was somewhere in the making much, much long before then – local, national, global, and personal circumstances meant that co-authoring it became a lot less about structured approaches to planning, research, and writing, and a lot more about co-creating something from the heart, while also trying to care for ourselves and others too.

Following on from spending time with loved ones, who I knew I would soon be parted from, the prospect of writing sometimes felt heavy, and deeply entwined with grief but, also, endless gratitude for those who have been part of our different experiences of being oot here. So, although writing this book was no doubt challenging, writing this together was also a source of levity and a way of making space to sit with feelings, and stay with people, including when remembering wondrous and blissful moments shared with them over the years. 

All that’s to say, much like life, our book is not just about one thing or another, nor is it just about one person or another. Instead, Black Oot Here is made up of both the mess and magic that can be part of living and experiencing life oot here, and oot there.

Depicting and dreaming oot (t)here

At some point along the way, between many voicenotes, care-fully written thoughts, and random visual ruminations (emojis, phone camera snaps, and an assortment of personal ephemera) our book came together.

It was brought to life not only by words, and not only by us, but also with, and by, many other people, including the vivid and beautiful photography of Najma Abukar, which features throughout the book and strikingly conveys and illuminates so much that words alone could never express. 

While it is titled Black Oot Here: Black Lives in Scotland, this book is also shaped by those oot there – be they ever-present ancestors, friends who live in different places, and memories from yesteryears or even those of yesterdays. So too is our graphic novel, Black Oot Here: Dreams O Us, with Chris Manson, Lesley Benzie, and Naomi Gessesse – funded by Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) “Impact Acceleration Account” (IAA) grants from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which were provided through Cardiff University.

Black Oot Here: Dreams O Us, follows the life of 14 year-old Ola who, after learning of a school project on Scottish history, finds herself dreaming of and embracing the many ways that she and her loved ones are living the galaxy of different experiences that are part of being Black oot here. In the process, Ola finds herself also dreaming with and about those who were oot here, before, and are still oot here in ways that no history books could ever capture.

Our book on Black Lives in Scotland includes reflections on some of the many different hopes and dreams of Black people oot here, but our graphic novel, which was a dreamworld brought to life by everyone involved in co-creating it, particularly stems from Black dreaming, in a way that has felt like both an exhale and a loving embrace.

Again, shaped by the words, works, hearts, friendships and care of many people, our graphic novel embraces, and holds close, Black dreaming – from reflecting on Black art and film, botanical collectives and practices, and speculative fiction, to the intergenerational love, beauty, and knowledge in Black being and the everyday(ness) of life. 

With that in mind, the vibrant and lush artwork of Chris Manson depicts aspects of such experiences, while also gesturing to the expansiveness of Black dreaming and life beyond the frame of each illustration – whether it is in the detail of the placement of the arms of the person who Ola fondly speaks with at home, or the cosmic patterns of colourful shapes that signal some of Ola’s unsaid thoughts, feelings, and dreams. 

Thank youse

Much gratitude to everyone who has dreamed up and created Black Oot Here: Dreams O Us, and much gratitude to everyone who brought life and love to what became Black Oot Here: Black Lives in Scotland.

This includes the generous work, creativity, and care of Najma Abukar, Chris Manson, Lesley Benzie, and Naomi Gessesse.

Thank you to the many different people and dugs who are part of our lives, including those who are no longer physically here but are always present and with us. In a sense, some Dreams O Us are also dreams o theirs, and is a galaxy of thoughts, feelings, and love that transcends time and space. 

Thanks to you too for whatever way you have found yourself here, and for the time you have made to be with Dreams O Us.

May your dreams bring you comfort, feelings of wonder, and heartening times.