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Halifax Apologizes for Razing Africville
February 24th, 2010 by maysie

It’s Black History month, dontcha know. The fine white folks of Canada would rather this not be remembered.

Africville, Nova Scotia.

From Daniel Paul’s website. He wrote this in 1997:

From its founding, the community’s residents, like their brothers and sisters in other African Nova Scotia communities, and likewise members of the Mi’kmaq community, were victimized by harsh racial oppression. They were segregated at will. Up until recent times, many of the province’s public and private facilities, including schools, were closed to them and in many instances, people were segregated unto death, by being buried in sections of white cemeteries reserved for “coloureds.”  

By the early 1960s, after approximately 170 years had passed since Africville had become part of the City of Halifax, the city had not extended water and sewer and many other municipal services to it. Actually, Halifax intensified the trying living conditions that the neglected people of Africville suffered, by locating the city’s dump and other undesirable entities upon their doorstep. One can only assume that the city’s historic mistreatment of Africville’s residents was motivated because of their colour and cultural differences. Therefore, when in the early sixties, the Anglo-dominated city council developed a paternalistic attitude towards the residents of Africville and decided unilaterally that they should be relocated for their own good – the same scenario was used by the Feds to justify relocating the Mi’kmaq – they crossed the boundary of acceptable conduct by a controlling culture towards a weaker one. This is especially so when members of the affected cultural group are not part of the decision-making process. 

Today, where Africville once stood, Halifax has located an under-used public park called Seaview. This situation is unacceptable. The time has come for Halifax Regional Council to accept full responsibility for the unthinking actions of its predecessors and institute a process to restore this property to its rightful owners. Then it should provide unfettered assistance to help rebuild the community. Until such time as this occurs, justice will not have been accorded these badly used people! 

 

Flash forward to 2010. And now, the apology:

“We realize words cannot undo what has been done. But we are profoundly sorry and apologize to each and every one of you. The repercussions of what happened to Africville linger to this day. They haunt us in the form of lost opportunities for the young people who never were nurtured in the rich traditions, culture and heritage of Africville.”

The apology was backed up a total of nearly $5 million from three levels of government for the black community — $3 million from the city, $1.5 million from the province and $250,000 from the federal government.

Story at cbc.ca

Don’t, under any circumstances, read the comments at the cbc.ca link. And when you do, don’t come crying to me.


  • Hi there Maysie!

    I grew up in Halifax. Africville was demolished before I was born, but as a small child I remember the open air rubbish tip they replaced it with. I remember the seagulls, and the smell of the sea because it was right at the harbourfront, and the strange discarded bits of other people's lives. It was behind a chain-link fence, to keep the garbage in and the memories out.

    I had no idea that Africville had ever existed until I was about 16 or so, when some newspaper article in the Fail Star mentioned it tangentially. One library book later and I was shocked and horrified beyond belief. Then one by one certain memories took on new meaning.

    Nova Scotia's black population is unusual, because it has been there a very long time. They were descended from slaves brought by Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution. The Loyalists were promised land by Britain, but Nova Scotia land is pretty crummy for anything other than rock farming (apart from the Valley), and pretty soon they sailed off back to Blighty and left their former slaves to farm the rocks and fend for themselves. They have held on tenaciously through the centuries.

    Halifax's (in fact all of Nova Scotia's) black population is heavily ghettoized, in a way not normally seen beyond American cities. The Africville refugees were placed all together in a very dense block of slummy government apartments called Uniacke Square. Uniacke Square had a fearsome reputation in the 80s, the highest violent crime rate in the city, and it was feared by all white people. People didn't even want to take the bus past it, and all would breathe a guilty sigh of relief when the last person got off at that stop.

    For the most part, blacks and whites lived in separate universes. Blacks were marginalized, downtrodden and nearly invisible, the same way natives are in Winnipeg. Only a few brave people would cross that divide. Most weren't aware that it existed. I wasn't until I read that book.

    This was one of the pivotal moments in my understanding of race issues, because it had been in front of my eyes all along, and I never saw it until something surprised me.

    I'm actually one-fourth Egyptian but white enough to "pass" and get the privilege ticket. Thanks for letting me talk, I actually have many more stories about that, including spending six months in Apartheid South Africa when I was 4 or 5 years old and had a small child's perspective. Because we left and never came back, those memories are all untouched by later events. Who would think that a place as beautiful as Cape Town (still the most beautiful city I've ever seen in my life) could be so ugly below the surface?
  • I already read those comments on CBC.ca today, unfortunately.

    ...

    I clicked to read your blog post, hoping that you would provide therapy.
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