By Professor Hugo Dobson
On Saturday 2 November, I will have the pleasure of hosting an event as part of the Off the Shelf Festival of Words focussing on the recently published book Black History for Every Day of the Year, co-authored by Yinka Olusoga from our School of Education, and her younger brother, the historian and broadcaster, David Olusoga.
What qualifies me to host this conversation is very simple - Yinka, David and I all went to school together in the North-East of England in the 1980s. I can clearly remember David arriving at our high school (which is no more. It was knocked down and built over with flats in the 1990s). He was by far the coolest and most interesting kid. My strategy then (and it's possibly still the case today) was to try and position myself in his slipstream and bask in some of the reflected glory.
In any case, Black History for Every Day of the Year is an excellent way for anyone to engage with Black and, as a result, Global History. You can dip in and out, or you could spend a few minutes every day reading one of the bite-size entries. Either way, you’ll come away having learned something. For example, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the father of Gil Scott-Heron, the American jazz poet and musician best known for The Revolution Will Not be Televised, was the first black footballer to play for Glasgow Celtic. Who knew? Clearly not me. This book is packed full of fascinating vignettes.
It's also written and presented in a way that is accessible to all. Yinka and David’s younger sister, Kemi, has illustrated the book beautifully. My 11-year old daughter has just started secondary school and she's already been introduced to David’s previous work in her history classes. She was naturally drawn to the book both by name recognition and by the way it looks.
If you have tickets for this event, I look forward to seeing you at the Montgomery Theatre. If you don’t, I’m afraid it sold out pretty quickly. My advice would be to get your hands on a copy of this excellent book.