LAST summer Bumi Thomas received a letter from the Home Office giving her two weeks to leave the UK.

The Scottish-Nigerian singersongwriter was born in Glasgow in June 1983, less than six months after the British Nationality Act came into force.

The act stated that children born to parents from the colonies were no longer entitled to automatic citizenship.

She grew up unaware of that fact, which is why, despite having lived in the UK solidly since she was 17, she was shocked to find she had a fortnight to leave her home or risk detainment.

“When I received the letter in June 2019 I was completely confused and shattered. I was in shock really, because it didn’t make any sense,” said Ms Thomas, who now lives in London.

“I’m still kind of decompressing and digesting it. The whole experience has been so high pressure, and there have been so many different stages of complexity, depression and disempowerment.”

Following the bombshell letter, community activists sprung into action, crowdfunding Ms Thomas’s legal fees and creating a petition that drew more than 25,000 signatures.

An immigration tribunal judge ruled in favour of withdrawing the threat of deportation and, as of last week, Ms Thomas finally received paperwork granting her indefinite leave to remain – though she must wait two years before she can apply for British citizenship.

“I was confronted with the harshness of a bureaucratic process that doesn’t take the human life or being into consideration when making blanket decisions about legitimacy and identity,” said Ms Thomas.

“It didn’t make sense to me because Glasgow has always been part of my identity.”

After months of battling deportation and overcoming threats of removal, Ms Thomas returns to Scotland today to play a homecoming gig of sorts, marking the opening of Edinburgh International Book Festival.

“It’s like the end of one chapter and the beginning of another,” she said.

“I’m teaching myself how to re-emerge from the traumatic experience and adversity.

“I have to be open to embracing the fullness of my identity and the landscape that has shaped the mould of who I am today, without the threat of erasure or removal.”

When she finally arrives back in the city of her birth, Ms Thomas also plans to revisit the premises of her parents’ Glasgow salon, Hairlynks, which served as a community hub for black artists and creatives from across the country.

She hopes her city homecoming will allow her to explore her past and give her “better clarity of her present”. “My return has been such a long time coming, I’m giddy,” she said.

“It’s like someone seeing their long-lost lover.

“It’s taken a lot longer that I had hoped, but I’m really grateful it’s happening right now. It couldn’t have come at a better time. 

“I have all these really beautiful and romantic memories of Scotland and Glasgow, they are vibrant and full of energy and warmth. My return to Scotland is my homecoming, and music is what’s bringing me home.”

It follows the release of her latest EP Broken Silence, which she was a tool for dealing with the ordeal of the past year.

“I found a space where I was able to work out a lot of the pain and the trauma, the sense of being uprooted and rejected,” said Ms Thomas.

“It was essential to allowing me to bellow and to cry and to wail, and to work through it.”

She added: “But it also brought with it a sense of belonging from the creative community’s love and the support from grassroots activists and everyday people that stood up and said ‘this is wrong’.”

Since her case went public, other Scots have reached out, offering their support and saying “it could have been me if I wasn’t naturalised”. Bumi Thomas will perform at the opening night of Edinburgh Book Festival with a streamed set today.