I wasn't Black until my family came to England... my parents and grandparents have never been Black. Identified by tribe, yes... as Somali, yes... as African, yes... but never as Black... not until we came to England.

But my sister and I were raised in England through a mirror of Blackness... we were told by teachers, neighbours and even kids on the playground, from a young age all the ways in which we were Black. Our hair, our clothes, our food....

...All the things we were raised to take pride in, to honour and cherish... parts of our identity that had never been shaped by Blackness, became markers of Blackness.

We felt it, it was real.

We grew up identifying as Black, alongside tribe, Somali and African... but this Blackness was and is intrinsically British. I don't know what it means to be British without being Black and I don't know what it means to be Black without also being British.