Elaine C Smith, the actress and campaigner for Scottish independence, has backed calls saying Glasgow should apologise ahead of the Commonwealth Games in July 2014 for its historic involvement in the slave trade.

Smith spoke out after Chris Dolan, author of a novel based on poor indentured white workers in a Caribbean plantation, urged Glasgow to apologise because the city's wealth was built on industries closely associated with slavery, such as tobacco and sugar.

Further support for his suggestion has come from Dr Robert Beckford, a theologian who has made two television documentaries on the subject of slavery.

Smith was spurred to offer her support to Mr Dolan after watching the film Lincoln and learning about the former US president's admiration of Robert Burns, who very nearly became a plantation manager.

She said: "Some form of apology, whether it is a public memorial to those who died in slavery or a national exhibition and discussion around the issue, would be appropriate before the Commonwealth Games because it would reach so many relevant groups.

"Half of Glasgow was built on the back of slavery, but the wealth also reached Perthshire and Fife. Confessing to our past as a nation is also important in the run-up to the referendum, which to me is all about becoming a grown-up country that's as good and as bad as other nations in the world, rather than the beatific one that's apart from all others.

"We need to get out of that collective permanent adolescence, where we always blame our parents for everything."

The actress said the country had matured since the establishment of the Scottish parliament but had still failed to fully take responsibility for its involvement in the slave trade and the dark side of the British empire.

She added: "I think an apology would show we are a nation ready to look at itself and acknowledge what we were responsible for. Imagine what kind of country we might have become had Robert Burns gone to manage the plantations."