Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

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Welcome to Fascinating Facts and Tantalizing Trivia

A Hartson Dowd Column

July 31, 2006

Hundreds gather in Halifax to remember Africville

When we think of Nova Scotia and the Maritimes, we think of the salt sea air and the fisherman. When we think of Canadian Black History we think of the Underground Railroad and people like Harriet Tubman who assisted slaves escaping from the US.

So why do we never put these two images together? The textbooks that teach us about slavery and the history of Blacks in Canada during elementary school rarely, if ever, mention one of the most important stories in Canadian Black History: Africville.

Africville was a small settlement in the north end of what is now Halifax settled by former Black American slaves after the War of 1812. It was officially founded in the 1840s, but many of the families who settled there can trace their origins in Africville as far back as the 1700s, its people were among the first settlers in Nova Scotia.

The ANSA website ( www.gov.ns.ca/ansa ) features historical facts about the African Nova Scotian community, as well as information about the office and its mission, vision, mandate and goals. The office's quarterly newsletter will be posted regularly along with any notices or news releases. The site also features a community events page that will be updated weekly. All pages are framed with photos of members of the African Nova Scotian community.

According to Parks Canada records, the population of Africville never exceeded 400 people, who came from up to 80 different families. It was a tight community of law-abiding, tax paying, Baptist citizens who did their best to survive in the conditions they were forced to live in by the Canadian government.

Despite the rosy reputation Canada has of equality and the anti-slavery movements, the travesty that was Africville shows another side of the story. In the decades before the city of Halifax bulldozed Africville to the ground, they made life miserable for its citizens.

Due to unequal political rights and discrimination, the residents of Africville had no say in what happened with their community. The city built up a series of offensive industries around the community?s borders; a prison, night soil disposal pits, an Infectious Disease Hospital, and a dump and incinerator.

As a result of these industries and the lack of sewage, water, and lights, Africville gained the reputation of a dirty lawless slum, when in reality it was a group of heart bound citizens striving to survive while being treated like lower class citizens.

In the 1960s Halifax began post-war renewal projects to clean up the city and wanted to clear out the area where Africville stood. The government officials offered the residents of Africville better homes, jobs, and economic opportunities in turn for tearing down their homes; the residents resisted, but having no rights, the city went through with it anyway. Many citizens were shipped off to slum housing, their personal belongings transported to their new locations in city garbage trucks, and they were given less than $500 compensation. Bulldozers were sent in to level the community, not only the houses, but their livelihoods?-stores, businesses, and even the church were all destroyed in the dead of night.

The site where Africville used to stand is now an underused park. It stands only in memory of the spirit of Africville, a strong little city, that survived hundreds of years of neglect and turmoil. The surviving citizens now put forth all their efforts to recover the history of the community and its amazing spirit.

Saturday - Sunday July 29-30, 2006 Click here africville.html  for pictures of Africville, Before and After.

Hundreds of former Africville residents gathered on the grounds of their old community on Saturday to keep its memory alive.

People pitched tents at Halifax's Seaview Park — where their houses once stood — for the 23rd annual Africville family reunion.

Africville was settled in the late 1790s and grew into Halifax's oldest and largest black neighbourhood. But city officials claimed the community — which did not have running water, a sewage system, street lights or paved roads — was an embarrassment.

In 1967, bulldozers cleared the site, making room for a new harbour bridge. About 70 families were forced from their homes.

Earlier this month, Percy Paris, Nova Scotia's only black MLA, called on the province to formally apologize for its past treatment of blacks.

Paris, the New Democrat representative for Waverley-Fall River-Beaver Bank, said Nova Scotians of African descent deserve an apology for centuries of systemic discrimination that denied them access to health care, justice and education.

Barry Barnet, the minister responsible for African-Nova Scotian affairs, said his office hopes to reach a deal to make amends for the destruction of Africville.

Hartson S. Dowd

hsdowd@telus.net