On Wednesday, the Office of Africa NS Affairs (@officeofANSA) will be hosting a conversation with Chasing Freedom author Gloria Wesley (@youknowglo). So if you’re dialled into Twitter, leave a comment, ask Gloria a question, something!
We’ll give you some ideas: click here for more info about, and an excerpt from, Chasing Freedom.
We love it when our authors take the time to write something for us, and you, here on the Fernblog. So it is our distinct pleasure to present our latest guest blog entry from Gloria Ann Wesley, author of Chasing Freedom. February is African Heritage Month (or Black History Month, depending on which side of the border you reside), and we asked Gloria to share her thoughts on the matter.
African Heritage Month
Some say, “When the contributions of people of African descent are acknowledged, when Black people are embedded and affirmed through our curriculum and treated with equality in the media, then there will no longer be a need for Black History Month.” So after February, when March arrives, and a month of singing, dancing and proclaiming the accomplishments of Black people from mainly the United States is over, what impact has the month had on reaching these goals and changing attitudes?
African Heritage Month began in 1926 with the announcement of “Negro History Week,” by American historian Carter G, Woodson, some 86 years ago. At first it was met with enthusiasm and drew the interest of progressive whites; however today, many feel rightfully or wrongly that it is divisive. An annual event here in Canada, African Heritage Month’s main objective was to level the imbalance in historical perspective. Because history has often been told by and about those who hold power, the contributions and achievements of people of African descent have been largely ignored. Theoretically, then, African Heritage Month should not only reclaim the history of Black people of African descent, but also the history of the majority. But does it?
My question then becomes, does African Heritage Month advance these goals? Teaching our history separately somehow diminishes the contributions of Blacks and gives the impression that it co-exists separately from “regular” history. Our history is woven into every aspect of North American life and should be taught as such, giving everyone a fuller appreciation of our accomplishments by celebrating our history, culture and heroes in the context of being part of the historical record. Black history is world history and should be integrated fully into school curriculums.
Is African Heritage Month benefitting those for whom it was created? Are we preaching to the converted and failing to reach white historians and people in positions of power to make a difference and reduce racism? The celebration is now 86 years old and considering that President Obama receives more hate mail than all the other presidents combined and here in Canada the people of color continually face discrimination and racism, is the impact of African Heritage Month even measurable? Change has come about because of the hard work and dedication of the Human Rights Commission, folks sitting on committees and people vocalizing their grievances over unfair practices in our schools and institutions. They work hard to advance our cause and unfortunately, most go unrecognized, even at our celebrations, focusing on the famous and the past.
Are we taking Black history seriously? Does running an official “Black History Month,” wherein we sing, dance and tell of a past that only exalts, or replaying Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech until it begins to lose its genuineness really help? Has the month boosted the self-esteem of our young people, or does current pop culture have more influence on our youth? Is there more physical work to be done to ensure that the history of African Americans is now fused into mainstream history? Are employers adapting more inclusive practises? The mission is clear, and how we get there requires more than a month of entertaining ourselves, not that we couldn’t do this any time we wanted to get together.
Dr. King and Rosa Parks didn’t talk about the past. They didn’t put on a performance. They used peaceful protest to draw attention to their condition in their time. Seeing how people fight injustice and studying how unjust practises devalues all human experiences sharpens our empathy. And when we sit together with others, we learn that we all have history and we all have a story to tell. To quote Bob Talbert, “Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best.”
Recognizing our heritage in a separate distinct month cannot fulfill the dream of a world where all human beings are affirmed, connected and empowered as one. In an ideal world, we would sit and drink together, talk about our history in a global context and admit that it was not perfect, but that we are willing to do better and leave a fine legacy as inhabitants of the planet Earth. This we could celebrate every day of the year.
–by Gloria Ann Wesley
For more information on Chasing Freedom, click here.
Wow. Dartmouth–Cole Harbour MP Robert Chisholm recently made a statement this statement congratulating author Susan Dodd on her latest book, The Ocean Ranger: Remaking the Promise of Oil. We’ll just let you watch the video:
Also, the Chronicle Herald has printed a terrific article about Susan and the Ocean Ranger tragedy. Read it here.
Dr. Kathy Absolon will celebrate the launch of her most recent book, Kaandossiwin, February 15th in the Paul Martin Centre at Wilfrid Laurier University. Dr. Kim Anderson will also release her latest, Life Stages of Native Women. Please see the poster below for more information.
For more on Kaandossiwin, click here.
William Carroll, editor of Challenges and Perils, put together this video essay/collage/homage to jazz. Give it a spin to get your Monday morning started. Here’s William’s words on the video:
“ I am pleased to announce the posting on YouTube of Jazz Lives, my new music video paying homage to our era’s most innovative music genre. The five-minute production is a tribute to jazz — its vibrancy, hybridity, open aesthetic, political progressiveness, and communal spirit. It includes photos and footage of some of the greats, spanning a century, and tasty lead work by emerging jazz guitarist Wes Carroll.”
If you’re interested, you can also check out some of William’s more critical music video projects here.
Our first (of twenty!) Spring 2012 book is available to order now. The Ocean Ranger, by Susan Dodd, recounts the tragedy of the Ocean Ranger oil rig, which sank off the Newfoundland coast in 1982:
On February 15, 1982, the oil rig Ocean Ranger sank off the coast of Newfoundland taking the entire crew of eighty-four men — including the author’s brother — down with it. It was the worst sea disaster in Canada since the Second World War, but the memory of this event gradually faded into a sad story about a bad storm — relegated to the “Extreme Weather” section of the CBC archives. Susan Dodd resurrects this disaster from the realm of “history” and maps the socio-political processes of its aftermath, when power, money and collective hopes for the future revised the story of corporate indifference and betrayal of public trust into a “lesson learned” by an heroic industry advancing technology in the face of a brutal environment. This book is a navigational resource for other disaster aftermaths, including that of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, and a call for vigilant government regulation of industry in all its forms.
“This is an extraordinary book. Much more than a personal narrative about the impact of an industrial disaster on a family, Dodd explores memory of industrial disasters as a complex and multi-layered project. Her reading of government reports, lawsuits and monetary settlements, songs and novels illuminate the different ways the past is commemorated and reconstructed and the implications for moving forward. Dodd’s discussion of personal injury litigation and the role of monetary compensation, or ‘blood money’, should be mandatory reading for all first-year law students.”
— Eric Tucker, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
To order your copy, click here.
Happy 2012 everybody! Hopefully everyone has survived the holiday season. We figured we were way past due to update this blog and let everyone know we’re still here. Plus, we have some pretty exciting news:
It’s our 20th anniversary! Needless to say, we’re all very honoured to be here because we wouldn’t be here, 20 years on, without you, our readers and supporters. So thank you! We’ve got a few surprises up our sleeves that we won’t reveal just yet. But keep an eye out on our blog, Facebook and our webpage for announcements and details.
Also, our newly revamped newsletter is in the works. In fact, this issue is going to be a 20th anniversary issue of sorts, so you’ll probably want to get it. How do you get it, you find yourself asking your computer screen. Well, click this link and sign up. We send out four newsletters a year. That’s it. We won’t sell your email address or start spamming you every two days. Promise.
The fine people at The Dominion and Media Co-op recently posted this terrific video interview with Joan Kuyek, where she talks about her latest book, Community Organizing. Watch the interview below. And be sure to check out The Dominion!
We just got word the Costas Panayotakis, author of Remaking Scarcity, will be interviewed on CBC’s The Current tomorrow morning. Be sure to tune in. We’ll post a link to the archived episode after the fact, just in case you missed it.
Fresh off her hugely successful launches in Nova Scotia, Chasing Freedom author Gloria Wesley will deliver a series of talks and reading in Winnipeg, beginning the week of Oct. 17. Gloria will also be signing copies of Chasing Freedom at McNally Robinson on Oct. 23 at 2pm. If that weren’t enough, she will also be speaking at several Winnipeg schools. So keep an eye out here for more information and don’t miss out!
Poet Gloria Wesley is back — this time with a young adult historical novel that tells the story of struggle of Black Loyalists and their arrival in Canada. Wesley holds the distinction of being the first published Black Nova Scotian poet (To My Someday Child, 1975).
Wesley, a retired school teacher, found a true lack of stories reflecting the history of African Canadians during her teaching career and hopes that the publishing of Chasing Freedom will help to fill the gaps. “We seldom get resources about the African Nova Scotian experience, by those of African Nova Scotian descent,” Wesley claimed when talking about her motivation for writing the novel, “I’m happy to be part of the move to change that.”
According to writer George Elliott Clarke, “Reading Wesley, you hear that sweet, special Africadian lingo, ‘right to the marrow in the bones.’ By the end, you understand why folks’d ‘rather be ruled by the king than a bunch of rebels with nothing to offer but gab and blood.’ But you can’t gain freedom without experiencing ‘a rough tussle and a good shake.’ Grab hold of this tale: It won’t let you go.”
