‘Stand with Bayoh family’: Writer

The acclaimed writer and director behind Lament Fo r Sheku Bayoh has urged Black Lives Matter protesters to harness their energy and “stand with” the family of Sheku Bayoh when a public inquiry into his death is held in Edinburgh.

Speaking at the on l ine web ina r discussion held after the streaming of the play, Hannah Lavery urged people to “wake up” to the presence of racism in Scotland and hoped that stories, poetry and theatre could help demand greater empathy and understanding between all people.

She said: “There’s good reason why the last images of the play were the Black Lives Matter march at Arthur’s Seat.

“I think if those people could turn up to the public inquiry, if they could take that energy and that passion that they had at that moment in the middle of the pandemic to go and stand with this family and demand answers, then that is what art can do.

“That is what telling a story can do, and that’s what empathy can do.

“Go and take that energy that took you up that hill or took you to do whatever protest you did with Black Lives Matter – take that and stand with Kadi and stand with the family and stand outside that public inquiry.”

Hannah’s sentiment was shared by Bayoh family lawyer Aamer Anwar, who said any suggestion that racism was a “n ew ” story illustrated by the death of George Floyd in the USA was wrong.

The difference was, he said, that while American civil unrest had led to police officers being put on trial in the wake of George Floyd’s death, in Scotland, “five years of struggle had technically delivered no justice” for the Bayoh family.