National Library partners with Malik Al Nasir to launch fitba research club

National Library partners with Malik Al Nasir to launch fitba research club

The National Library of Scotland has partnered with Yesternight Productions Director, Malik Al Nasir, to develop a pilot project in Glasgow based on Andrew Watson, the world’s first Black International footballer.

Poet, activist and scholar Malik Al Nasir (formerly Mark Watson) is an ancestral cousin of the 19th–century sportsman. Mr Al Nasir’s considerable body of work includes award-winning projects based upon his academic research exploring his ancestry. His work also explores how his personal story up to the present day is bound up in the UK’s legacy of enslavement and colonialism, of which the negative effects are still evident.

The National Library is working with community organisations in Glasgow – as well as with the Scottish Football Association, the Scottish Football Museum, and Show Racism the Red Card – to recruit paid participants (young people aged 18–25) for the project. It will seek to encourage underrepresented and minoritised young people to engage with cultural heritage through celebrating the sporting achievements of Black people and people of colour in Scotland.

Mr Al Nasir said:

“My work looks at the legacies of slavery and colonialism and encourages reparative justice. I also encourage institutions to create opportunities for marginalised groups who suffer from this colonial legacy to develop their skills in interrogating and responding to their cultural heritage. It’s about making these spaces accessible to people who don’t see themselves in a cultural institution or university setting. This Andrew Watson project is one such example of helping organisations to be more accommodating to those who could really benefit from the experience.

“In deference to Andrew Watson and my own Scottish roots, I was looking for a word that would symbolise what we’re trying to do in terms of Watson’s legacy and came across ‘fitba’. Seeing as it’s Scots for ‘football’, it immediately came to me as an acronym for ‘football in the Black archives’. It just kind of worked – so this is a fitba project.”

National Librarian Amina Shah said:

“Stories such as Andrew Watson’s have been under-researched and under-celebrated so far in Scotland’s story. This project, generously funded by the Scottish Library and Information Council, will allow us to uncover hidden histories and give them the prominence they deserve."

Richard McBrearty, Curator at the Scottish Football Museum said:

“For the last two decades the Scottish Football Museum has studied, promoted and celebrated the achievements of Andrew Watson and we are still learning about the life of this outstanding sporting figure of the 19th century, particularly the challenges that he faced as an individual. This project will greatly contribute to the study and celebration of Watson as a sporting icon but, significantly, will also acknowledge important but sensitive subjects such as Scotland’s colonial past.”

Robin Drummond, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Manager at the Scottish FA said:

“The Scottish FA and Scottish Football Museum are proud to be working alongside Malik Al Nasir, the National Library of Scotland, and Show Racism the Red Card.

“We look forward to welcoming all involved in this exciting project investigating untold stories from Scottish sporting history.

“Andrew Watson is rightly celebrated as a pioneering and historic figure in Scottish and international football, but he is by no means the only person of colour in the long and diverse story of our national game.

“The Scottish FA is excited to work in collaboration to shine a light on the lesser-known stories of our game’s history.”

The project will be based at the National Library at Kelvin Hall, which is also home to the Library’s Moving Image Archive, Glasgow Life’s sporting facilities, and the University of Glasgow. Kicking off in mid-July, it will run over the summer and autumn, concluding in early December.