African Nova Scotian – Mi’kmaw Relations
  • ISBN: 9781552663233
  • Price: $15.95 CAD
  • Publication Date: Sep 2009
  • Rights: World
  • Pages: 128

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African Nova Scotian – Mi’kmaw Relations

Paula C. Madden

The Indigenous people of Nova Scotia, the Mi’kmaq, have been dispossessed of their lands and, since the early 1820s, confined to reserves. African Nova Scotians have also been dispossessed of lands originally granted to them by white colonial governments and settled in communities with names like Africville, Preston or Birchtown. Yet “the story of Africville, and other stories of dispossession,” argues author Paula C. Madden, “cannot be told and understood outside the context of the dispossession of Indigenous peoples. To do so would be to erase and cover over Mi’kmaw stories and their very existence within the territory/nation.” Madden concludes that “Mi’kmaw people resisted the dire conditions of their lives and their demands for justice were generally ignored. The (provincial) state’s insistence on pinning their fortunes to that of African Nova Scotians by forced collaborations such as the Transitional Year Program and the Indigenous Black and Mi’kmaq program did not serve them well in creating programs specific to the needs and desires of their community. It also created a situation in which African Nova Scotians failed to appreciate the meaning of their relationship with the Crown, thereby causing resentment and at times anger between the two communities.”

Contents

Introduction • Citizenship, Race and Identity • The Mi’kmaw People and the Descendents of the Pre-Confederation Black Community: A Brief History • Racial Subjects and Human Rights • Black/Mi’kmaw Rela-tions in Nova Scotia • Conclusion

About the Author

Paula C. Madden holds a master’s degree in Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies from Trent University.

Excerpt

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Reviews

Dr. Hudson Review of African Nova Scotian-Mi’kmaw Relations

In this bold and provocative book, Paula Madden takes an unflinching look at the complex history of African Nova Scotian-Mi’kmaw Relations.  She shows that despite similarities in the challenges facing these communities, in the past and in the present, African and Native-descended peoples in Nova Scotia (and indeed in the Americas) frequently have drastically divergent notions of place, nation, citizenship, and belonging.  Madden makes clear that, despite the liberating impulse behind the rhetoric, assertions of “Indigenous Blackness” require the denial and continuing erasure of First Nations peoples and their claims to their traditional homelands.  Such a project, Madden argues, aligns African Nova Scotians with the colonial regime that still structures daily life for many Mi’kmaw people and compromises the emancipatory potential of Black rights, Native rights, and more broadly, human rights campaigns.  This book is an important contribution to a growing literature on Afro-Native relations in North America, particularly in its focus on a largely understudied region and its uncompromising commitment to understanding not only what unites these communities, but also what keeps them divided. 
— Dr. Angela Pulley Hudson, Texas A&M University

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