This project looks at Blackness across time and space to articulate hidden histories of Blackness. I am looking at key sites and moments of Blackness on the African continent in conversation with key sites and moments of Blackness in the African diaspora. Part of this project looks at the presence of Black Africans in Great Britain, specifically Scotland. The first black Africans we see in Scotland in 1478 are free and respected members of the community and court; then in 1778, documents tell us that the enslavement of Black Africans was outlawed in Scotland. What happened in these 300 years?

Hope Wabuke is a Ugandan American poet, essayist, and writer. She is the author of the poetry collection The Body Family, (forthcoming from Haymarket Books) the nonfiction book Please Don’t Kill My Black Son Please (forthcoming from Vintage Books) and the chapbooks her, The Leaving, and Movement No.1: Trains. She writes literary and cultural criticism for NPR, is poetry editor for Ruminate Magazine, and an Assistant Professor at the UNL. Her work has been published in The Guardian, The Paris Review online, The Los Angeles Review of Books.