Earlier this month, John Swinney of the pro-Scottish independence Scottish National Party was sworn in as Scotland’s leader. In his speech, he quoted from Scottish poet Hamish Henderson’s anti-colonialist anthem, “Freedom Come All Ye.” The poem goes, “so come all you who love freedom; never heed the prophets of doom; in your house all the children of Adam; will be welcomed with bread, barley and painted rooms.” Henderson envisioned Scotland as an unwilling participant in British colonialism that was destined to win its freedom and ally with the colonized, like those in South Africa at the time.

Henderson’s internationalist view was first shown as a young man in World War II, where he was known to have gotten information out of Italian and German prisoners by singing their national anthems to them. A few years later, while serving in North Africa, he described the horrors of war in Elegies For the Dead In Cyrenaica, winning acclaim as well as the Somerset Maughan award. Perhaps most famously, when Nelson Mandela was convicted in the 1963 Rivonia Trials in South Africa, Henderson once again wrote a song with cross-border origins. This time, it was a Spanish Civil War melody that was borrowed for his new song, “Rivonia.” “Free Mandela, Free Mandela” Henderson writes, replacing the original chant of the song. From Europe to Africa, Henderson constantly crossed borders to gain experience and shape his vision for Scotland.  

As Swinney spoke in front of Parliament, he described a “burning ambition for a better future” and to “listen to other people’s perspectives.” Hamish Henderson’s vision of an independent Scotland, and an internationalist world order never came to pass in his lifetime. It remains to be seen whether Swinney and his generation of Scottish Nationalists will be able to live up to daring vision of the man they so often quote.