Black Scottish people are a

racial A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...

ethnic group An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

of Scottish who identify as or are ethnically African or Black. Used in association with black Scottish identity, the term commonly refers to Scottish of

Black African Black is a Racialization, racialized classification of people, usually a Politics, political and Human skin color, skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have ...

and African-Caribbean descent. The group (also referred to as African-Scottish, Afro-Scottish, or Black Scottish) represent approximately 0.7 percent of the total population of Scotland.

Background

Census

According to the

2011 UK Census A census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Internet. The Office for National ...

, 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. The group represents around 0.7% of Scotland's population, compared to 3.0% of the overall UK population.

Identity

The identity of Black Scottish people has evolved since the arrival of

Black people Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in s ...

in Scotland as early as the fifteenth century, with significant numbers arriving in the twentieth century after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The development of a cohesive Black Scottish identity has progressed, with

and

Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...

descent the most commonly claimed ancestry involved in the sense of identity. Among other factors, 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.

Notable Black Scottish people

Arts and entertainment

* Aminatta Forna (writer) *Kayus Bankole (member of

Mercury Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom by a British or Irish act. It was created by Jon Webster and Robert Chandler in association with the B ...

winners

Young Fathers Young Fathers are a Scottish band based in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2014, they won the Mercury Prize for their album ''Dead''. History Formed in Edinburgh in 2008 by Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and Graham 'G' Hastings, the group starte ...

) *Shereen Cutkelvin (singer in girl group

Neon Jungle Neon Jungle were a British girl group consisting of Shereen Cutkelvin, Amira McCarthy, Jessica Plummer, and Asami Zdrenka. They were best known for their second single " Braveheart", which peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart. Their 20 ...

) * Nicolette (musician) *

Tony Osoba Tony Osoba (born 15 March 1947) is a Scottish actor best known for his role as Jim 'Jock' McClaren in the 1970s British sitcom ''Porridge'' alongside Ronnie Barker. He also guest starred in the first episode of the spin-off '' Going Straight ...

(actor) * layla-roxanne hill (writer) *

Finley Quaye Finley Quaye (born 25 March 1974, Edinburgh, Scotland) is a Scottish musician. He won the 1997 MOBO Award for best reggae act, and the 1998 BRIT Award for Best Male Solo Artist. Life Finley Quaye is the son of vaudeville pianist Cab Kaye and t ...

(musician) *

Jackie Kay Jacqueline Margaret Kay, (born 9 November 1961), is a Scottish poet, playwright, and novelist, known for her works ''Other Lovers'' (1993), ''Trumpet'' (1998) and ''Red Dust Road'' (2011). Kay has won many awards, including the Guardian Fictio ...

(writer) *

Eunice Olumide Eunice Olumide MBE is a Scottish fashion model and actress. Early life Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Olumide has dual British and Nigerian nationality. The name "Olumide" means "God has come" or "My Hero has come" in the Yoruba language. ...

(model) *

Luke Sutherland Luke Sutherland (born 1971) is a Scottish novelist and musician. A full-time member of two independent bands and an occasional member of Mogwai, active also as a music producer, he has also published a number of written works. Biography Sutherla ...

(novelist and musician) *

Ncuti Gatwa Mizero Ncuti Gatwa ( ; born 15 October 1992) is a Rwandan-Scottish actor. He rose to prominence as Eric Effiong on the Netflix comedy-drama series ''Sex Education'' (2019–present), which earned him a BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Actor in Te ...

(actor) *Stewart Kyasimire (film director)

Military

The diary of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

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.

Sport

Association football

The

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...

-born Andrew Watson is widely considered to be the world's first

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

er of Black heritage (his father was White and mother Black) to play at international level. He was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

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 The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup, With some brief exceptions, such as Jamaican born

Gil Heron Gilbert Saint Elmo Heron (9 April 1922 – 27 November 2008) was a Jamaican professional footballer. He was the first black player to play for Scottish club Celtic and was the father of poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron. Career Born Gilbert Her ...

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

Walter Tull Walter Daniel John Tull (28 April 1888 – 25 March 1918) was an English professional footballer and British Army officer of Afro-Caribbean descent. He played as an inside forward and half back for Clapton, Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Tow ...

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 Mark Everton Walters (born 2 June 1964) is an English former professional footballer who made 600 league appearances between 1981 and 2002. A midfielder, Walters played top-flight football for Aston Villa, Liverpool and Southampton in Englan ...

at Rangers in 1988. Walters arrival at the club resulted in incidents of racial abuse. 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 Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

in May 2004. He qualified to play for Scotland, due to having a grandfather from Scotland. Subsequently

Coatbridge Coatbridge ( sco, Cotbrig or Coatbrig, gd, Drochaid a' Chòta) is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. Along with neighbouring town Airdrie, Coatbridge forms the area known as ...

-born

Chris Iwelumo Christopher Robert Iwelumo (; born 1 August 1978) is a Scottish former professional footballer, who played as a striker. Iwelumo started his career with St Mirren before moving to Danish club Aarhus Fremad for two years. A move to Stoke City ...

(Black father from Nigeria), has also played for Scotland. Other notable players with black heritage who were born in Scotland, and have represented Scotland, include: *

Ikechi Anya Ikechi Anya (born 3 January 1988) is a Scottish former professional footballer. A versatile player, Anya was fielded in a number of positions, including winger, wing-back and full-back. He played for Wycombe Wanderers, Northampton Town, Wa ...

Charles Boli Charles Boli (born 30 August 1998) is a French-Scottish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ligue 2 club Pau FC. He is the son of footballer Roger Boli, and as a result he also holds French and Ivorian citizenships. Career O ...

* Ethan Erhahon *

The player has appeared for the

Scotland national football team The Scotland national football team gd, Sgioba Ball-coise Nàiseanta na h-Alba sco, Scotland National Fitbaa Team represents Scotland in men's international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. It competes in the t ...

* Vic Kasule *

Leeroy Makovora Leeroy Makovora (born 5 February 2002) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Penicuik Athletic. Career He made his senior debut for Heart of Midlothian on 13 May 2018, in a 1–0 league defeat away at Kilmarnock. H ...

* Leighton McIntosh *

Brian McPhee Brian McPhee (born 23 October 1970 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish retired footballer who last played for Wishaw Juniors. He had a long career as a striker in the Scottish Football League with several clubs. Career McPhee joined Queen's ...

* Kieran Ngwenya *

Iffy Onuora Ifem "Iffy" Onuora (born 28 July 1967) is a Scottish former professional footballer, manager, and coach for the England U21 national team. He is also the current equalities coach for the Professional Footballers Association. As a player, he wa ...

* Emmanuel Panther * Jai Quitongo

Other Sports

* Joe Ansbro, Rugby *

Sean Crombie Sean Crombie (born 25 June 1986) is a former Scotland 7s international rugby union player. He played at hooker. Rugby Union career Amateur career He won the Scottish Premiership with Boroughmuir. Crombie received the first ever U.A.E Playe ...

, Rugby * Kieron Achara, Basketball * Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, Winter Olympic Skier

Miscellaneous

Ellen More Ellen or Elen More () was an African servant at the Scottish royal court. There are records of clothing and gifts given to her, although her roles and status are unclear. Some recent scholarship suggests she was enslaved. She is associated with a ...

, servant to Margaret Tudor *

Lesley Lokko Lesley Naa Norle Lokko is a Ghanaian-Scottish architect, academic, and novelist.Lesley ...

(architect, academic, and novelist) * Jessie M Soga (suffragist and singer)

Cultural influence

Politics

In 2017, the SNP's Graham Campbell was elected as Scotland's first

Rastafarian Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control ...

councillor, and

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

's first to have

African Caribbean Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...

ancestry.

Social and political issues

Discrimination

The group have faced prejudice and racism in Scottish society. In a

Strathclyde University The University of Strathclyde ( gd, Oilthigh Shrath Chluaidh) is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal chart ...

survey, almost 45 percent of black Scottish reported experiencing discrimination between 2010 and 2015.

In fiction

* " Of Ane Blak-Moir", a poem describing an African woman at the court of

James IV of Scotland James IV (17 March 1473 – 9 September 1513) was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauchi ...

. *Tavish Finnegan DeGroot, more well known as the

Demoman ''Team Fortress 2'' is a 2007 multiplayer first-person shooter, first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to the 1996 ''Team Fortress'' Mod (video gaming), mod for ''Quake (video game), Quake'' and ...

from ''

Team Fortress 2 ''Team Fortress 2'' is a 2007 multiplayer first-person shooter, first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to the 1996 ''Team Fortress'' Mod (video gaming), mod for ''Quake (video game), Quake'' and ...

'', is a self-described "black Scottish cyclops". * Jerome "Chef" McElroy, a character from ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...

'', hails from Scotland. * Jim "Jock" McClaren, a character in ''

Porridge Porridge is a food made by heating or boiling ground, crushed or chopped starchy plants, typically grain, in milk or water. It is often cooked or served with added flavourings such as sugar, honey, (dried) fruit or syrup to make a sweet cereal, ...

''. *Elmo McElroy in ''

The 51st State ''The 51st State'' (also known as ''Formula 51'') is a 2001 action comedy film directed by Ronny Yu, written by Stel Pavlou, and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Carlyle, Emily Mortimer, Ricky Tomlinson, Sean Pertwee, Rhys Ifans, Stephen ...

'' 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 reported that

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

actor

Denzel Washington Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has been described as an actor who reconfigured "the concept of classic movie stardom". Throughout his career spanning over four decades, Washington ha ...

would play the Scottish title character in

Joel Coen Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957),State of Minnesota. ''Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002''. Minnesota Department of Health. collectively known as the Coen brothers (), are American film ...

's movie adaptation of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's play ''

Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...

''. The film was eventually released in 2021 as

The Tragedy of Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those wh ...

References

{{Immigration from Africa Demographics of Scotland Ethnic groups in Scotland Black British history Black British culture