Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 255-284
Black Canadian Studies and the Resurgence of the Insurgent African Canadian Intelligentsia1
Tamari Kitossa Brock University
Dr. Tamari Kitossa, Department of Sociology, Brock University [email protected]
Abstract: This essay seeks to account for the appella on, factors and forces implicated in the nascent ar cula on of Black Canadian Studies. I suggest that the emergence of Black Canadian Studies is a dialogic interplay of the African Canadian intelligentsia and community’s proac on toward apprecia ng the agency of African Canadians, and, a reac on to racist epistemology and research that objec fies them. I seek to account for this dialogue as a progression of the earlier development of African and Caribbean Studies by the African Canadian intellectuals. I speculate on what the field of Black Canadian Studies might look like, challenges it may encounter and propose steps for how its development might proceed. In doing so, I draw lessons primarily from African American Studies, but also Women’s Studies.
Introduc on be included) by this insurgent appellation and also as a bona fide As a practical matter, the study of emerging area of study. Toward a Black Canada is an established fact, but sociological analysis of the forces at it is not a contradiction to say it is not play, for further consideration are the yet an officially designated area of study. following: What is in a name – Black This could easily be an essay on the Canadian Studies – and what are its sociology of knowledge, on how characteristics – Pan-Africanism, disciplines or fields of study come to be Africentrism, Diasporic Studies? constituted and legitimated in the Compared to the 40-year time-line for academy by processes of political action. African American Studies, why has this That Durkheim for example was able to area of study not had an appellation until institutionalize sociology is no less an now, even if the content of its character act of politics than say African are yet to be worked out? Finally, who Americans or feminists who achieved a and under what conditions have similar end, but still with less legitimacy constituted this appellation and now seek from the dominant order. Some of this to elaborate the emergent fields’ will be addressed insofar as my aim is to contents? account for the emergence of Black Canadian Studies as a description for the This essay is a descriptive and work of African Canadian and other speculative social history of the people scholars (some of whom may not wish to and social forces implicated in the
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insurgent field of Black Canadian Robinson Johnston Chair in Black Studies – the African Canadian Canadian Studies and the proposed intelligentsia, broadly speaking, and the Michaelle Jean9 Chair of Black community of African Canadians. I Canadian, Caribbean and African suggest this move can be explained by: Diasporic Studies at the University of an insurgent and self-conscious African Alberta will likely move in this Canadian intelligentsia; a small “p” pan- direction. Though a research institute, Africanism2 that is the historical the Harriet Tubman Institute at York consequence of the dynamics of University adds weight to the drive for dispersion (forced and voluntary) and re- Black Canadian Studies. In view of engagement with the African continent Althea Prince’s (2001, 56) concern about (Adeyanju and Oriola, 2011), anti- other such initiatives at York University, African racism and a pursuit of it is not clear what role African Canadian elaborating Black people’s place in the academics played in the naming and Canadian narrative; and, the fact that founding of the Institute, its relationship African Canadian communities are to the African Canadian intelligentsia in increasingly aware of the political general and community overall and implications of knowledge and research. orientation to an African centered, Pan- This move derives also from the tireless African worldview and diasporic work of Black Heritage societies across worldview. Canada, local historians, family genealogists and stalwarts such as Since description and speculation Wilma Morrison3, Rosemary Brown4, contain normative assumptions, I aim to The Hon. Jean Augustine5 and Senators make the latter explicit throughout the Anne Coles6 and Donald Oliver7, among essay by reference to small “p” and large others, who have ensured government “P” pan-Africanism, Africentrism and and school board recognition of Black diasporic Studies. The emergence of contributions to Canadian society. Black Canadian Studies is a dialogic interplay of the African Canadian At this point, one may find intelligentsia and community’s proaction across Canada individual courses on the toward appreciating the agency of African Canadian experience and a African Canadians, and, a reaction to similar concern in sections of courses racist epistemology and research that devoted to anti-racism, Canadian history, objectifies them. As such, the field in its post-colonialism, urban education and of nascent constitution is not an anemic course, problematically, criminology. imitation of African American Studies. It One may find also in African Studies is also a development arising from the and Caribbean and Latin American earlier establishment of African and Studies courses and dissertations on Caribbean Studies programs in the 70’ various African descended communities and 80’s founded in Toronto and in Canada.8 But as yet, there are no elsewhere, by the likes of Drs. Fred concentrations or degrees in African Case, Rudy Grant, Althea Prince, Percy Canadian Studies. The Dalhousie James Anderson, Ato Sekyi-Otu, Winston
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Husbands and Paul Idahosa (see Prince 20th century undertook the task of 2001, 55-56). While African American knowledge production as key to the Studies and to a lesser degree Feminist/ political and socio-economic life of Women’s Studies offer vital lessons for African Americans (Drake 1993). Thus, issues to be considered in developing whatever the merit of Houston Baker African Canadian Studies, it is important Jr.’s contention that some African to consider that Black Canadian Studies, American intelligentsia have betrayed though informed by these inquiry, begins Dr. King’s vision, he writes his from a very different position. That said, excoriation precisely because there is African American Studies offers a sound such a class of persons (2008). Benjamin body of referential ideology and theory (2010), Jackson and Greggory (2010) as well as a socio-historical counter- and Rockquemore and Laszloffy (2008) point to explain why Black Canadian have also written about the African Studies emerges some 40 years after American intelligentsia and academic such a move in the United States. elite, but with attention to its experiences Extending the normative assumptions and resiliency in the academy. So much about Black Canadian Studies, I draw on do African Americans constitute an lessons from African American Studies intelligentsia, research into their and Women’s Studies to develop four numbers and training constitutes a points for consideration toward subfield in higher education research concretizing Black Canadian Studies in (Anderson 1988; Edwards, Bennett, Canadian universities more fully. White and Pezzella 1988; Spalter-Roth and Erskine 2007). Different from Baker’s concern with ‘betrayal,’ the problem in Canada is not a question of The African Canadian collusion with capitalism and white Intelligentsia? supremacy but rather the production of In spite of the implied elitism, Du Bois’s an essentialist Black political philosophy call for the “Talented Tenth” to assert that too narrowly construes the itself willed into being what was without complexity of Black ontology. Aside form. That call, and answer, gave birth to from the fact that George Elliott Clarke the African American intelligentsia as a is sympathetic to the necessity for a collective conscious of their shared normative Black political philosophy existence, aspirations and objectives. Of given the context of white supremacy in course what we would call public Canada, what is striking about his work intellectuals abounded: Ouladah is that in producing one of the first Equiano, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. thoroughgoing critiques of the African Wells, Booker T. Washington, Phyllis Canadian intelligentsia he has called Wheatley, Edmonia Lewis and Martin attention to a self-consciously aware Delaney are but a few examples. The African Canadian intelligentsia.. core point is that a self-consciously aware intelligentsia that emerged with If George Elliott Clarke’s critique the race man and woman of the early of the African Canadian intelligentsia is
257 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 255-284 a sound point of departure in recognizing make the foregoing points to suggest the existence of an African Canadian there have been African Canadian public intelligentsia, we are now afforded the intellectuals in all stages of African opportunity to imagine the social history descended people’s migration and of Black intellectual life and culture in settlement in Canada. Canada. This is not to say that there have not been socially responsible African Yet, there appears to be a Canadian intellectuals in times past. decisive emergence of an African Indeed, from the 1812 to the 1860’s Canadian intelligentsia, connected by among free and escaped African interpersonal and professional networks Americans were the earliest African and this, I suggest, is qualitatively and Canadian public intellectuals who quantitatively different than in the past. founded schools, established reading Indeed, increasing attention is being rooms, discussion groups, newspapers devoted to racism in higher education in and undertook moral and temperance Canada and what implication this has for reform (Bristow 1994; Cooper 1994; students (Ryerson University Task Force Kitossa 2002; McLaren 2008). Among 2010) and faculty of colour in general them are to be counted storied (James 2011; Stewart 2009). As to the personages such as Mary Ann Shadd, numbers of African Canadian faculty, Samuel Ringold Ward, Mary Bibb and not much at present is known, but Martin Delany inter alia. Despite the through the auto-ethnographies of existence of gender bias, Black women Charmaine Nelson (2010), Althea Prince as much as men of the 19th century (2001), Anthony Stewart (2009) and played a lead role in the development of George Elliott Clarke (2002) the flavor African Canadian intellectual life. For of their experiences are being, example, Peggy Bristow shows that undeniably, heard. Moreover, fully Mary Bibb founded the Literary Ladies recognizing the limits of my English- Society of Chatham at which members Canadian bias, there are many African and invited guests gave and heard and Haitian Francophone across Canada speeches ‘to improve their minds’. who make important contributions to Moreover, this group deployed African Canadian intellectual culture. knowledge for broader civic purposes through its charitable work (1994, 122). So, while I am sensitive to the Moreover, as noted by Marano (2010), fact that there were African Canadian the intellectual culture of African intellectuals in the past, the subtle point I Canadians has drawn on and contributed strive to make is that the category of to various political philosophies such as persons about whom Harold Cruse wrote the Pan-Africanism of Garvey’s United in Crisis of the Negro Intellectual Negro Improvement Associationism (1984), both in their numbers, insurgent beginning in the 1920’s. And, if one orientation and contribution to African chooses, one may go further back to the Canadian ontology, has not existed in African centered and Pan-Africanist Canada until lately. Set against self- political of Martin Delany. To be clear, I awareness among African Americans
258 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 255-284 that their intellectuals constitute a appellation – Black Canadian Studies – category of persons, we in Canada have there is more than an effort to carve out no crisis of the African Canadian a rarified field for a self-interested elite; intellectual in the way described by rather, epistemology becomes a site for Cruse and Baker – yet . My concern in the debate, expression and recognition of this paper is not whether African a broader politic of Black existentialism Canadians intellectuals have a ‘crisis’. and ontology that joins the African They do, but as described by Du Bois Canadian intelligentsia to their and Fanon, they have no more of a crisis community/ies. From Education, the than any other African Canadian Humanities to the Social Sciences, the confronted with the psychic fracturing past decade has seen an explosion of and double consciousness produced by scholarly work by and about African the effects of colonialism and white Canadians attesting to the existence of supremacy. Rather, to the extent African the field, though, until recently, without Canadians experience this collective the appellation as such. Excluding sense of crisis, articulate resistance and journal publications, a non-exhaustive explore strategies of adaptation, the sample of such publications in 2010 emergence of Black Canadian Studies indicate the gravity of these publications signals the emergence of a self-defining and their increasing volume (Adeyanju and insurgent intelligentsia class that 2010; Austin 2010; Brand 2010; James, deploys knowledge and research toward Este and Bernard 2010; Henry 2010; elaborating the complex evolution of the Nelson 2010; Shadd 2010; Walker African experience in Canada. 2010).10 This list suggests that since Robin Winks’ 1971, rich though If we then assume there is an problematic, The Blacks in Canada other insurgent African Canadian standards not only followed (Hill 1981; intelligentsia, this fact is inseparable McClain 1979; Thomson 1979) but the from the nascent constitution of Black body of writing by and about African Canadian Studies. Seen from this Canadians has grown to be diverse and perspective, African Canadian substantive. There are two probable intellectuals are beginning to comprise a reasons for the dialectic I describe class of persons that are recognized as above. existing and which, dialectically, demonstrate consciousness of its First, despite highly existence and social responsibilities. differentiated waves of migration since They are seeking to define their role in the founding of British and French elaborating the content and meaning of colonies in Canada, the past four the African Canadian presence in its decades has witnessed the rapid growth diversity, the relationship of African and stabilization of continental African Canadians to the State and Canadian and African Caribbean immigrant society, and, articulating the complex populations (Mensah 2002). In effect, engagement of the diaspora with the the emergence of an African Canadian Continent. It would appear that in the intelligentsia is the most recent chapter
259 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 255-284 in the story of African people’s patterns Canadianness without of migration, assimilation, adaptation, accounting for both African- negotiation, reinvention and resistance in Canadian cultural production Canada (see Tettey and Pupamlu 2005, and history and the ways in p.152). In part due to multiculturalism, w h i c h b l a c k n e s s a n d African Canadian groups retain and Canadianness have already celebrate their cultural distinctions. blended (and are blending). Because of their shared blackness, It is the duty of African- affiliated cultural worldview and Canadian intellectuals to subjection to the underbelly of undertake this work. multiculturalism (ie., white supremacy), the celebration of cultural distinctions Emerging from this complex picture is shade into a small “p” pan-Africanism that anti-African racism and class and creole11 idiom. One is therefore as inequality are acting as a push toward a likely to find Nigerians and Ethiopians common sensibility, hybrid identity and celebrating Jamaica day as Caribbeans communal cooperative institution are likely to commemorate Ghana’s and building as ‘African Canadians’. There Somalia’s Independence Day. Taking is little doubt that there is class cultural integration seriously, one also antagonism among African Canadians finds a growth of intimate unions among and this is a moderating effect. But, various African Canadian populations as given the subjective experience of small “p” pan-African cultural exchange leveling caused by exposure to the ‘wage occurs and as African Canadians, of whiteness,’ for example with upper regardless of nationality and length of class African Canadians being stopped stay in Canada, experience white and searched for driving “nice cars,” supremacy and social exclusion in high SES stimulates rather than insulates shared ways. None of this, however, against racism (Kitossa and Deliovsky denies conflict and tension between 2010, 518-520). The realities of anti- various African Canadian groups. The Black racism in Canadian society (Lewis reality is that neither polarity, romantic 1992; R v. Parks 1993), systemic racism ideal or the realism of intra-racial (ie., the criminal legal system, schools, conflict, will neatly capture the historic work) and the ‘racialization’ of the accretions and the renewed mélange of vertical mosaic (Foster 2009) facilitate African and transplanted diasporic the convergence of social justice communities that once typified the slave activism with the extant cultural memory ship and plantation. To this end, George of Pan-Africanism and Black Elliott Clarke (2002, 198) notes in his nationalism in the Americas. Concrete incisive and ironic critique of Black trans-African Canadian inequality is nationalism: pushing the envelope of hybridity as much as there is a desire for these It is now impossible to different groups to explore their shared u n d e r s t a n d C a n a d i a n worldviews as Africans in the diaspora. b l a c k n e s s o r b l a c k For example, the push factor can be
260 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 255-284 found in the experiences of African creolization of African Canadian Canadian males. Regardless of country communities, and, within universities of origin and length of stay in Canada, and Canadian intellectual life more Torontonian African Canadian males broadly. with a university degree experience employment advantages no greater than Second, as a consequence of the non-African Canadian males with a embededeness of African Canadians in grade 10 education (Torczner 2003, 52). Canadian society and because And, on aggregate African Canadian educational attainment is highly valued males, both immigrant and Canadian by Black Canadians, Canadian born, suffer a 22% income penalty: the universities have graduated more African highest for any negatively racialized Canadian PhD’s than at any other time in group in Canada (Hum and Simpson the nation’s history. Comprising what 2007, 104). Moreover, compounding may constitute a ‘critical mass’, these gender inequality experienced by graduates along with more senior African Canadian women, African researchers and African Canadian public Canadian men’s economic exclusion intellectuals are exploring subject impacts the stability of African Canadian matters such as the contributions of families and the poverty levels for African Canadians to Canada, examining African Canadian women and children. the social problems affecting African As a consequence of inequality and Canadian communities and explicating demographic factors, African Canadians the multiple meanings of blackness and have drawn the attention of identity in Canada (Prince 2001; D. academicians and public policy makers. Clarke 2011; G. Clarke 2002; Foster But, more importantly, as African 1996; Walcott 2003;). It is vital to Canadian communities pull and are appreciate also that the African Canadian pushed toward (small “p”) pan- intelligentsia consists of artists, activists Africanism and creolization, the polyglot and scholars who, by choice or African Canadian intelligentsia is compulsion, research and write outside emerging to provide explanations and the university. Despite their policy recommendations that address the independence from the university, some experiences and complex identity/ies of of these individuals remain connected to African Canadians (Foster 2009; Gosine the university through a web of 2007; James, Este and Bernard 2010; professional and social networks, Kelly 1998; Tettey and Puplamplu partnership in research grants, 2005). There are those also who attend fellowships and scholars in residence. to questions of development and policy These public intellectuals such as issues regarding the Continent as well Lawrence Hill, Lillian Allen, Dionne (Ezeonu 2008a; Smith 2010). In so Brand, Afua Cooper12, Adrienne Shadd, doing, they are beginning to exhibit and M. Nourbese Phillip, Rosemary Sadlier, experience their identities as a class of Itah Sadu and Sheldon Taylor, inter alia, individuals within the dynamic of small are having a profound impact on the “p” pan-Africanism and the collective content and tone of knowledge about
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English-speaking Black Canadian life. Legacy After School Program. Both Others yet, such as Zetta Elliott programs should be seen as instances undertake their artistic and public where the intentions of the emergent intellectual work in the US. This list is African Canadian intelligentsia cross by no means exhaustive given there are disciplinary lines and draw their focus many more African Caribbean, from the intent of highly influential continental African, African individuals who give self-conscious Francophone and ‘legacy’ African direction to the life experience of the Canadians I know little or not at all African Canadian community. about. Nevertheless, there is a certain degree of fluidity in the spatial flow of The foregoing provides a the emergent African Canadian simplified explanation for the explosive intelligentsia with the University. In growth in scholarly work by and about Ontario for example, some have moved African Canadians as well as the role of from community-based organizations African Canadian scientists in (eg., Drs. Ralph Agard, Akua Benjamin community based learning initiatives. and Carl James), politics (eg., Drs. But, given that inquiry about the Black Grace-Edward Galabuzi and Howard experience in Canada is well-established McCurdy) and the civil service (eg., Drs. and African Canadians are not strangers Lorne Foster) into the academy. to the ranks of the professoriate, why has a call for Black Canadian Studies as a In addition to engagement by distinct field of inquiry emerged only those in the Humanities and Social now? This is a complex question that Sciences, the African Canadian cannot be separated from the fact that intelligentsia and diverse scholars African Canadian intellectuals did not, interested in the life conditions of until recently, imagine themselves as a African Canadians, from social work to category of persons. It must be the sciences, are affecting public policy considered that until recently, the White and the social experience of African academics that were dominant in writing Canadians. For example, Dr. Francis about the African Canadian experience Jeffers, a noted private sector Toronto made no moves toward developing chemist of Trinidadian heritage, who African Canadian Studies as its own founded Visions of Science and the field of inquiry. As St. Clair Drake noted Black Inventors Museum, has helped to of Melville Herskovits (1993, p. 486), it popularize science, technology and might be that the fidelity of White innovation not only for African academics is to their subject matter and Canadians but other communities as disciplines even if they are empathetic well. Similar work is being done toward African Canadians in general. elsewhere by African Canadian Moreover, because of the ways in which scientists. For example, founded on an the wage of whiteness and systemic African Centered approach to science racism functions in the academy and the learning, Dr. Kevin Hewitt of Dalhousie granting of research awards, the University, has established the Imhotep relationship between Black and White
262 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 255-284 academics in writing about race and relationships between African Canadian African Canadians wavers somewhere faculty and students with the African between ambivalence and Studies Association as well as that of misapprehension. Some White Centre for Latin American and academics, instead of respecting the Caribbean Studies is an important principle of academic freedom, take their silence that will have to be written about “tutelage” of some African Canadian by others. In fact, more needs to be academics as a proprietary right on their known about similar initiatives and the consciousness. On a more generous note, role of African Canadian faculty and it may be that some White academics students at other Canadian universities who contribute to research on African that developed African and Caribbean/ Canadians may feel that to take a Latin American Studies programs. The leadership role in formulating African key point here is that we are dealing with Canadian Studies is an act of a situation of the progression and appropriation. Whatever the case may maturation of ideas along with an be, the past and present contributions of insurgent intelligentsia in which there is White and other researchers of Black meaningful intergenerational exchange Canada is invaluable (Backhouse 1999; and mentoring. To be sure as noted by Frost 2008; Pachai and Bishop 2006; Prince, there are African Canadian Shepard 1997; Walker 1985; Yee 1994). academics who do not imagine If the foregoing credibly accounts for themselves a part of such insurgency why the move toward African Canadian (2001, 60). Related to the Studies emerges only recently, it begs abovementioned is certainly the question the question why. of ‘critical mass.’ We have little sense as to the numbers of African Canadians An answer may be ventured currently in the professoriate ranks and assuming this emergence is a with PhD’s. Nor do we have any idea progression and “maturation,” even if whether the numbers and percentages of the insurgent African Canadian the African Canadian professoriate has intelligentsia is only now asserting itself increased, decreased or remained stable. through the vehicle of Black Canadian Whether ‘critical mass’ is a question of Studies. This does not deny the point I numbers or consciousness, at least in the have stressed thus far, since it affirms Humanities and Social Sciences, the last rather than negates the dialectic between 25 years has seen the graduation of the African Canadian intelligentsia and many undergraduate and PhD’s who the rise of African Canadian Studies. took courses with African Canadian, Althea Prince noted the role played by South Asian and White professors with African Canadian faculty and students in expertise on Africa and the African the 70’s at York University and diaspora.13 Such graduates, in addition to University of Toronto toward the public intellectuals with an African development of African and Caribbean centered consciousness have come to and Latin American courses and imagine themselves as a specific programs. That she said nothing of the category of knowledge brokers
263 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 255-284 connected to institution building, civil rights activities led by individuals memory and the health and well-being of such as Rocky Jones to develop African Canadians. The central point educational programming that would here is not to claim that African counteract the epistemic violence of the Canadian academics and public educational experience (Oliver 1973).14 intellectuals were not interested in the This period also saw the emergence and well-being of people of African flowering of organizations such as the Canadians before this time. They clearly Harriet Tubman Centre, the Black were as the work of African American Education Program and the African expatriate pan-Africanist Clarence Canadian Heritage Association not only Munford (1996) indicates. Rather, my in Toronto but in other Canadian cities claim is that African Canadian such as Montreal (e.g. The Alfie Roberts academicians and intellectuals did not Institute), Edmonton (Marcus Garvey until recently imagine themselves as a Centre for Unity) and in another places category of specialized persons where sizeable African Canadian connected to transitional flows and populations are found. Years later, invested in staking claims as Canadians concern with African Canadian on the life experiences of the children’s educational experience is still communities from which they came and perennial (Hampton 2010). The which are now being constituted as Africentric School in the Toronto (small “p”) pan-African creoles. I may District School Board, which opened in well be wrong on this point but the 2009, came about through great national rather more localized scope of community effort that was reminiscent what I suggest cannot be denied. of the struggles of the past decades. With the support of the Toronto District With little to go on besides School Board’s Director of the Prince’s (2001) brief account of the Education, Dr. Chris Spence and African issue, the demand for African and Canadian academics such as George Dei Caribbean Studies appeared to be and Carl James who played central roles institution specific rather than part of a with the provision of robust and critical general trend. This is not, however, the research data, the Africentric school case of the instantiation for a Pan- initiative was successful. African approach to youth education across Canada. The channeling of It may well be the case that African Canadian communities’ cultural Black Canadian Studies did not develop and intellectual assets into their youth’s because the protest conditions that educational experience likely arose from formed the basis for the foundation of the psychic violence of their children’s African American Studies were encounter with White education. For substantially undermined by the example, in the late 60’s and early 70’s, Canadian state in the early 70’s. For especially in central Canada and the example, it is likely that just such a Maritimes, Canada saw the concurrence move could have developed out of the of Pan-Africanism, Black power and 1969 Sir George Williams affair where
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Caribbean students mobilized against Dudley Laws, Milton Blake, Akua racism on the campus by taking over the Benjamin and Dari Meade undertook computer room. But, at the time, with questions of justice in the formation of the Canadian government ever ready to the Black Action Defence Committee. In deport politicized African and Caribbean protests, such as those against the Royal students this was likely a dampener. It Ontario Museum’s racist “Into the Heart should be borne in mind also, that aside of Africa” (1989), the North York School from the disciplinary effects of status Board’s sponsorship of Live insecurity, there were many a student Entertainments mounting of who were strategically depoliticized as “Showboat” (1993) and the anti- much as there were those whose elite Apartheid movement, individuals like class consciousness obviated racial Stephanie Payne and Lennox Farrell and politics (see Winks 1997, 442). numerous unnamed students were a Significantly, some students, mostly bridge between cultural and political p/ Caribbean, influenced by a mélange of Pan-Africanists. Garveyism, Black power, civil rights and Pan-Africanism took an oblique With the confluence of factors I approach to Black Studies entirely list above, it is probably logical that consistent with the pastoral concern for confronted with the persistence of anti- the communities youth. Those like African racism in Canadian society, an Horace Campbell, Zanana Akande, Ken emergent and “maturing” African Jeffers, Margaret Gittens, Carl James, Canadian intelligentsia is staking claims Judy Jackson, Ken Alexander and many on the epistemologies and research that others channeled their proclivities into affect the life of their families and artistic, educational, cultural and social community. This move reflects the experience of African Canadian children earlier African and Caribbean by founding successful school/cultural- development of African and Caribbean based programs such as the Black Studies but is also qualitatively different. Education Program and Harriet Tubman Indeed, with being too frequently the Centre (see Prince 2001, 57). Moreover, object of pathologizing crisis oriented as Toronto’s Caribbean population research and African Canadian moved into parts of Scarborough and community/ies resultant feeling that they North York, Ontario, individuals such as have been ‘studied to death,’ there is an Drs. Inez Alliston and Avis Glaze were emergent consciousness among African instrumental in setting up night and Canadian intelligentsia about the summer school for African Canadian politicality of knowledge and research. It children.15 In Nova Scotia, Montreal and seems a subtle intellectual Edmonton there were parallel transformation has been made from individuals and organizations working aspiring toward higher education as the toward similar educational purposes. great equalizer and the chief bulwark While there were also those who were against racial discrimination to devoted to the cultural dimensions of recognizing that research and knowledge Pan-Africanism, others yet, such as must be infused with the normative
265 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 255-284 claims of African Canadian aspirations mirroring racial and immigrant dynamics altogether. Uniquely poised as central to the formation of the Canadian interlocutor between the world of nation-state as a mosaic rather than academia and the lives of African melting pot (see Bannerji 2000; Canadian individuals, the move toward Warburton 2007). Reflecting the Black Canadian Studies is a work in complexity of the African Canadian progress in part led by a nascent experience, some members of the intelligentsia class with a highly intelligentsia raise questions about what politicized consciousness and it means to be Black and yet party to background of social justice activism. settler colonialism (Madden 2010). Others yet on this very point, debate the It must be noted that the move cultural and political implications of toward Black Canadian Studies does not prefixes that enable identity distinctions follow the developmental patterns of between African Canadians.16 African American Studies in the late 1960’s, nor can it. As I show below, the emergence of African American/a Studies was contingent on a set of Lessons from African American conditions unique to the United States. Studies and Women Studies As an ‘indigenizing’ intellectual Interest in the study of Black Canada is movement both concretizing the role of by no means novel. I noted earlier that as the African Canadian intelligentsia in of the early 1970’s scholars in Canada Canada and drawing on the African established the basis for serious study diaspora as features of its consciousness that now forms the foundation for and scholarly inquiry, the demand for ongoing inquiry. The emergence of Black Canadian Studies should be seen Black Canadian Studies, however, has as unique to the current moment in and will continue on a different footing Canadian socio-political and intellectual from African American Studies in the life. Both the latter and the former are United States. The existence of African instantiations of the theory of “cultural American Studies and the fact that such remittance[s]” that Tettey and Puplamu programs have been the chief medium borrow from Jenny Burman (2005, by which African Americans 150-1). That is, African Canadians (intelligentsia, students and community) exercise cultural and social-political have shaped knowledge production casts linkages with the memory of home an inviting shadow on Canada. African places and spaces to a contingent and American Studies is a product of place modified articulation of ‘new’ and and space and it will not be reproduced historic space of settlement in Canada. in Canada for reasons of history Naturally, there are those for whom demography and role of the state in place is embedded in pre-Confederate managing political struggle through Canada. In all, the ‘new’ African multiculturalism. No doubt for some, Canadian intelligentsia class reflects any effort to model African American both a current reality as well as Studies in Canada will be undesirable, if
266 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 255-284 only because it is perceived that like the sponsored the development of African broader United States culture of which it American Studies programs in part is a part, African Canadians must resist because that knowledge was vital to the the tendency to be engulfed by the development of social programs that idioms and experience of African demobilized the Black power movement. Americans. Such opposition can So, if having Black Studies courses overreach itself by denying historical mollified angry African American youths parallels, allegiances and issues to be and communities, why not? In short, the worked out among diasporic Africans story of how African American Studies (G. Clarke 2002,73). While African came into being is a good deal more Canadian experience is simply not complicated than the romantic image of reducible to the African American Black Spartacus overwhelming the experience nor is there one African barricades of white supremacy and the Canadian experience for that matter, racist White settler colonial state (Rojas there is no doubt that scholars such as 2010; Rooks 2007). Nonetheless, the W.E.B. Du bois, Patricia Hill Collins, fact that only about 9 percent of Cornel West, bell hooks, Henry Louis undergraduate institutions have Black Gates and Afrocentrists such as Molefe Studies programs offering degrees, most Asante and Marimba Ani, among others, such programs have less than 7 cross will continue to impact the thinking of appointed faculty members and there are the African Canadian intelligentsia as some with only one faculty member much as Kwame Toure, Kwame (Rojas 2007, 3), stands in stark contrast Nkrumah, Marcus Garvey and C.L.R. to the paranoia of the conservatives. James. These paltry numbers, however, belie the impact African American Studies and The history and miscues of African Diasporic Studies in general has African American Studies present a and will continue to have on the political counter-point and valuable lessons for culture of knowledge production in the developing African Canadian Studies. As United States and elsewhere (Drake a counter-point, we cannot miss the fact 1993). that Black Studies emerged in the United States from the crucible of a massive One of the earliest statements on social upheaval in which the state the impact of Black Studies on accommodated in the least expensive epistemology and methodology, as well way to the demands for civil and human as representing a framework for its rights. If granting educational development, is that of Joyce Ladner. In opportunity meant absorbing epistemic the introduction to the Death of White conflict in matters of race so that Sociology, a collection of essays from equality of opportunity prevailed over 1973, Ladner points to the significance equality of condition, this was a price the of the civil rights and Black power state could afford to pay. Moreover, the movement on the development of ruling elite through the various inquiry centered on the African foundations (eg., Ford Foundation) American experience. She alluded to the
267 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 255-284 fact that while there was a long standing reclamation of those like Dubois led to a intellectual tradition from both African clarification of the role of epistemology American and European American and research in political struggle against academics that challenged the the state and oppressive ruling relations. Eurocentric pathologizing discourse, of Long anticipating C. Wright Mills’ “The which the Moynihan report was then a Professional Ideology of Social current example, mainstream sociology Pathologists” (1943), students drew on and other disciplines in the social Dubois classic Black Reconstruction in sciences and humanities constituted America (1992, 634) to articulate their enterprises of epistemic violence against skepticism about the formal limits of African Americans. As Ladner points bourgeois politics when confronted with out, the very existence of African collusion between the state, capital and Americans is taken as a problem in need the rationalizers of mainstream of correction rather than capitalism and epistemology: racism constituting a problem to which African Americans were compelled to …there began to rise in develop adaptations. As students such as America in 1876 a new Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) and capitalism and a new Angela Davis moved from the agenda of enslavement of labor. Home civil rights with its emphasis on labor in cultured lands, exclusion to a Black Power politic that appeased and misled by a raised issues of exploitation, police ballot whose power the violence, imperialism, and, the role of dictatorship of vast capital racist ideas in perpetuating colonialism, strictly curtailed, was bribed imperialism, environmental degradation, by high wage and political class exploitation and patriarchy, they set office to unite in an the tone for a smug academia to come up exploitation of white, yellow, with credible responses. brown and black labor, in lesser lands and ‘breeds What was unlike prior social without law.’…The immense movements in the United States, the profit from this new revolutionary ferment of the late 60’s exploitation and world-wide explicitly launched a counter intellectual commerce enabled a guild of narrative for environmental and social millionaires to engage the justice paralleled by grass roots street greatest engineers [and] the demonstrations, protests and rebellions. wisest men of science… This period, Ladner reminds us, saw the restoration of African and Caribbean While proponents of the Black American intellectual titans: W.E.B. Power movement saw clearly the power Dubois, Oliver Cox, Marcus Garvey, Ida of epistemology and correctly identified B. Wells, Carter G. Woodson and Fanny higher education as a prime locus for Lou Hamer among others. Demanded by capitalist, racist, and, in the case of African American students, the Angela Davis and Elaine Brown,
268 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 255-284 patriarchal ideology, they missed that the approach in the early going of Black demand for greater educational access Studies: was in some ways a Trojan horse gifted by a state, ruling class and a system in In the first place…the crisis. Nonetheless, with a politicized emphasis on the race of the consciousness that celebrated Black professor to be hired led cultural nationalism, the children of Jim African American students Crow demanded courses of study that into a dead-end when some provided them with a vocabulary and black professors, continental method to explain their social reality. and diasporan, were less Under these conditions Black faculty knowledgeable than some were at a premium. To meet the demand, white professors…Insistence mainstream institutions poached historic on biology always leads to a Black Colleges, hired organic misunderstanding of the community intellectuals and artists as cultural, social, and adjunct faculty and in sizeable numbers, psychological experiences hired continental African professoriate that are necessary for (Asante 2007; Drake 1993; Ladner empathetic relationships. 2003). This move forced an open schism One might say that biology, among the African and African at some point, is important American professoriate. Some of the but it is not defining in terms more established faculty would reject the of who should teach African radicalism of the students. The actions American Studies. and consciousness of those faculty that failed to admit the political nature of Indeed, the work of Herbert Aptheker, knowledge and research, signaled an Bettina Aptheker, Leon Litwack, David open breach of class conflicts among Wellman and Sidney Willhelm, and African Americans famously others, were central to the intellectual apprehended by Harold Cruse’s 1967 drive of African American students to classic Crisis of the Negro Intellectual reinterpret their history and reality. (1984). But, the lesson of the internal Indeed, to this day, many are not aware class conflicts among the African and that the classics Who Needs the Negro African American intelligentsia had the (1971) and Black in White America benefit of instructing students to be wary (1982) were both written by a White of the insistence on what Fanon (1967) man: Sidney Willhelm. Significantly, in called “an epidermal schema”. view of the economic and production Reflecting on the demand for more crisis facing the United States, African American professors and the Willhelm’s dual thesis of the economic emergence of an of epistemology that disutility of African Americans (see would be defined as African centered, Rifkin 1995) and the legitimation of Molefi Asante (2007, 95-6) points to an their genocide through mass ideological error in the students incarceration and other means (see
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Gibson 2006) is undergoing a while it is formally delinked from renaissance. biologism of the “epidermal schema”, cautions against relativistic de- Yet, standpoint predicated on the essentialization that rejects essentialism embodiment of experiencing white only to enthrone its own particular supremacy in its overt and covert forms variant – an identity without identity – embedded in cultural signs and the social that, like a loop in time brings us back to system cannot be denied its place in the very essentialism of Eurocentric intellectual substantiation. To this end, particularism masquerading as reflecting Ladner’s critique of universalism. Asante (2007: 17) says: Eurocentric academic pathologizing of African American women, Patricia Hill Afrocentricity…is a theory Collins (2000, 10) reminds us that of agency, that is, the idea “[e]very social group has a constantly that African people must be evolving worldview that it uses to order viewed and view themselves and evaluate its own experience”. as agents rather than Developing a theory to account for the spectators to historical social experience of that group, even if revolution and change. To the experience of individuals in that this end Afrocentricity seeks group may have unique valences within to examine every aspect of the life of that group, requires the subject place of Africans complexity and appreciativeness of in historical, literary, difference without eradicating all sense architectural, ethical, of that groups’ cohering elements. philosophical, economic, and Phenomenology, in effect, cannot be political life. denied its place. The message here is that there are twin elements for the Effectively, Africentricity is a social meaning of bodies doing the theorizing theory of embodiment. In centering the for African American Studies. On one African as historical agent, it requires hand, the race of the theorists is less that academics engage in epistemology relevant than their application of theory and research that is inclusive of their and the depth and breadth of their own embodiment and experiences. knowledge. On the other hand, if worldview is to mean anything at all, The question of embodiment is a then it is vital to appreciate that Africa serious matter that is either not well and the creolized cultures of the diaspora understood, under attack or, as life contain experiences and cosmologies usually has it, a bit of both. Feminists, that are derivative of African roots. too, are seriously grappling with this Retrieving and elaborating these roots as issue as their epistemology has drawn explanatory media for the ontology of them to examine masculinity and African descendants in the West requires patriarchy. Some feminists aiming to theory that draws on embodiment. Thus, delink the identity of women from the Asante’s articulation of Africentricity, binary oppositions of female and male
270 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 255-284 have been led to a dead-end no less market-oriented education challenges the dangerous than the biological absolutism merit of these programs. As with many of the students Asante describes. On the Departments and programs, African other hand, men also, undertaking to American Studies and Women Studies examine masculinity and patriarchy from must contend with the question of their a feminist perspective are contributing to relevance for the post-graduate job a study of gender that delinks feminist market. Not only is the issue one of epistemology from women’s having enough “bums in seats” to justify embodiedness. It seems one of the the economic viability of these deepest cracks in feminism right now is programs, the relationship of these the tension between Gender Studies and programs to the market is a troubling Women’s Studies. As feminist scholar, one. Given that these programs are Tania Modleski (1991, 113) points out: predicated on a political project that enables African Americans and women …[I]t is easy to see how to develop theories and frames of an anti-essentialist reference that enhance their struggle for deconstructive move equity, the employability of their could banish the material graduates is a growing concern. Both implications of living in a programs have long faced doubts about body defined as woman, their legitimacy because both challenge and hence how women the canons and norms of Eurocentrism within feminism could and patriarchy. The question of entirely disappear. employment not only concerns students of these programs but also the staffing of In a similar fashion, moves to these programs themselves. disembody race and intellectual production affirmatively leads to Black Both programs must confront the nature inquiry without Black people. Suffice to of multi, inter and even anti- say, a line in the sand is the insistence disclipinarity in an academy that mouths that bodies matter in the production of these as virtues but whose narrow knowledge. Indeed, long before Patricia disciplinary preoccupations limits the Hill Collins articulated a theory of broad comprehension of their enterprise embodied knowledge, Joyce Ladner and the limited availability of (1973: xvi) spoke of a “Black publication outlets for such work. As perspective” which demands “Black such, with scarce resources to go on, sociologists…act as advocates of the these programs draw their faculty from a demands the masses are making for range of departments and Deans willing freedom, justice and the right to to support them. This fact raises special determine their destinies”. challenges for junior untenured faculty. For them, publication and the pursuit of Even as African American tenure dominate the early part of their Studies and Women Studies programs professional lives and so many are come under attack, the growth of understandably reluctant to undertake a
271 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 255-284 teaching regimen that might undermine interdisciplinary in nature. At designated securing tenure. Institutional inertia and universities where there are sufficient the special criteria by which academics faculty to draw from various secure their hold on employment departments, a degree granting program increasingly discourages young can be organized with a complement of academics from taking risks that may chair, administrative support, and a defy intellectual conventions and committed budget line from the canons. In short, to teach or research in administration. As is typical of programs peripheral areas of the academy seem to of study, there has to be one or two be a route to unemployment. Should departments that strongly endorse the African American Studies and Women program and will have a stake in the Studies concede to the demand to be survival of the program. By and large, ‘relevant’, this is the surest route to their these departments have a large enough destruction; critical thinking, social faculty complement and support from history and knowledge of self are the the Dean to ensure that where tenured foundation of liberal arts education and and tenure track faculty conduct it should be understood that these are the teaching in the program, money will be necessary creative forces for a available to pay for sessional instructors transformative and vibrant economy, for electives not taught by regular intellectual and political culture. faculty. A second alternative to a stand- alone program will be to offer a degree within an established department. This option will be most effective if it can Issues for the Advancement of mimic some of the characteristics of a Black Canadian Studies stand-alone program with an established Both African American Studies and relationship with other departments. Women’s Studies provide lessons that Presumably, the degree will include ought to be considered for the electives in its course banks from other advancement of Black Canadian Studies. departments in the Humanities or Social These lessons can be articulated in the Sciences. form of: 1. Institutionalization; 2. Ideology and Theoretical perspectives; The second aspect of 3. Praxis: a) Methodology and b) institutionalization is the endowment of Analysis and critique; and finally, 4. research chairs. Ideally, an endowed Community engagement.17 chair would work within the framework of one of the options just listed. But, 1. Institutionalization. where an intra-departmental program or Institutionalization involves three related a degree within a department does not but independent and inclusive initiatives. exist, a central task of an endowed chair First, establishing Black Canadian will be to work with the administration Studies as a coherent program of study is or committed departments to establish a an essential task. A program of this program or a degree within a receptive nature will necessarily be multi and department. SSHRC (Social Science and
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Humanities Research Council) and from?) and judged by the effects of NSERC (Natural Sciences and discrimination imposed by White Engineering Research Council of Canada, African Canadians are Canada) should be lobbied to sponsor perceived as both alien and a social five year Canada Research Council problem in need of a solution. Chairs that address a wide range of Repeatedly, prisons and/or deportation issues regarding African Canadians. As are the solutions offered by the state. an aside, this would require establishing From an African centered perspective, adjudicating committees of scholars who then, knowledge of the African Canadian are expert, yet sensitive and appreciative experience must be grounded on of the range of research concerning assumptions that affirm an African African Canadian scholars. Finally, diasporic worldview. Thus, citing Ama African Canadians of means and general Mazama, I take Asante’s (2007, 9) members of the community should assertion that Africentrism, and by invest in endowing Chairs of African extension, Black Studies contribute to Canadian Studies with agreement of the “...reconceptualization of the social matching funds from universities. This and historical reality of African was the case with Bev Salmon and people…”. With Africentricity as a others mobilizing personal and predicate, Black Canadian Studies will community funds to endow the Robert not only elaborate on the role of African Johnston Chair of African Canadian people’s in Canadian history and society, Studies at Dalhousie University. Other it will contribute to epistemology and Canadians, corporate sponsors, and research that orients public conscious endowments of goodwill should also be toward African Canadians as agentic and solicited through university thus fully human, rather than a social advancement offices. problem in need of expulsion or repressive control. 2. Ideology and epistemology. One can read accounts of the history of other Because African peoples are marginalized groups in Canada where generally perceived to be objects rather police surveillance, imprisonment and than subjects of history, far too much criminalization are not enduring themes. research on African Canadians is Pick your author of choice who has predicated on the alien and problem written on the African Canadian theses. In response, anti-racist research experience, past or present, and one in the arts and humanities have in part consistently encounters two related aimed to redress this Eurocentric bias: problems: poverty and criminalization. first by articulating the ways that White In spite of the distinct geo-political privilege is systemically reproduced and immigration patterns of African articulated in everyday practice and Canadians, White Canada, institutionally second, by demonstrating the rootedness and culturally, has been ambivalent of the African presence in Canada. But, toward the African presence. Perceived while anti-racist scholarship has aimed as non-Canadian (ie., where are you to reframe debates about inclusion and
273 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 255-284 exclusion and nation-building, a premise that centralizes the experience emphasizing social structure rather than of African peoples as agents of history. the common-sense of Eurocentric In addition, Black Canadian Studies biological or culturalist accounts, the must note that people of African descent field is noticeably reticent to advance are distinct in their relationship to comparative analyses of oppression. One European culture, no matter the ethnic can well appreciate on the surface the differences between African people. In rationale here; which is that given the support of this notion I cite Joseph inertia of White privilege, colonialism Washington Jr., (1984: xi) who argued in and white supremacy, a white historic his masterful Anti-Blackness in English bloc is created independent of explicit Religion, 1500-1800 that “No other initiative and intent of White individuals. people have been denigrated for so long Challenge to this order requires a solid and by so many because of the name by and unified front of resistance. The which they are identified and its problem with this approach is that in primordial symbolism”. Now, this is not assuming there is no justifiable basis to say that African people take their upon which oppressions can be definition of who they are by how they symbolically and materially are constructed in the White social hierarchicalized, glaring aggregate imaginary. Rather, as Asante (2007: 24) differences between negatively notes, the issue racialized groups are subsumed under the amorphous “racial minority” … a t t h e h e a r t o f category. Because African Canadians are Afrocentricity…[is] the subsumed under “visible minority” or recentering of the African ‘people of colour’ we have little person in the center of his or knowledge or explanation for their her own historical context, health disparities (Etowa and Keddy et reality, and time. We are not al., 2005; Rodney and Copeland 2009), on the margins of any other higher incarcerations rates (Gittens and people’s history; we are Cole1995) and higher levels of profoundly in our own time joblessness irrespective of higher and space and if we view education and immigration patterns ourselves outside of this (Hum and Simpson 2007), higher rates reality, we are disoriented of exposure to hate-crime physical and decentered. assault (Statistics Canada 2011), higher rates of single parenthood (Torczner To centre the African Canadian 2003; Torczner 1997), and higher rates experience means Black Canadian of poverty (Colour of Poverty 2007) than Studies will need to take seriously both other “racialized” groups, excluding Pan-Africanism and Africentricity as First Nation and Aboriginal peoples. organizing ideological propositions in which the intellectual and social Black Canadian Studies, like its experience of African people are recast counterpart in the U.S, must begin from from one of a social problem to one of
274 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 255-284 social agency in response to the material diverge in Canada and where as an conditions of a white supremacist culture aggregate they differ from other groups. that is anti-African. 3. Epistemology: a) Methodology and b) Framed this way, crime and other Analysis and critique. Closely related to assorted pathologies will cease to be an ideology and epistemology is the organizing principle of research concern, political economy of epistemology and instead, investigations of adaptation to research. Any and all research methods, deformed social conditions will be the theories and explanations must be priority. Instead of lamenting and predicated on the African centered lambasting young Black drug dealers, principle of African Canadians as we will see entrepreneurs foreclosed subjects of history. But, in addition to from licit economic opportunities by a these elements, an African centered state and economy which not only has theory must consist of a strong principle no use for them as laborers but also of corrective critique as it pertains to the commodifies them as feed for the reality of African Canadians. This means criminal industrial complex (Gibson the epistemological and 2006; Kitossa 2011; Willhelm 1971). As methodologically premises of the an alternative to a narrative that Eurocentric academy that prides itself on constructs young Black men as gang- distance, neutrality and objectivity must bangers, we will see spontaneous micro be fully confronted. Though the issue of organizational responses to state and value-free sociology as the handmaid of capitalist initiatives that have corroded state social control and repression was and undermined effective parental and subject to rigorous and compelling communal socialization capacities. To critique in the late 60’s and early 70’s, it believe that imposed social problems of nonetheless endures as a vital principle drugs, guns and “crime” can be solved of the academy. A disingenuous feature by ratcheting up the states repressive of the value-free assumption is that it capacities and to conduct research casts its academic practitioners as toward this end as is currently being rational and objective. This approach, done with millions of dollars being which obscures the relationship between thrown into “gang research”, is to epistemology and material reality, is effectively reinscribing into public duplicitous from the African centered policy a discourse of Black pathology perspective. Enough has been written that is already current in popular culture. about the relationship between Now, I am not suggesting anti-racism anthropology, sociology and psychology has nothing to offer African Canadian with respect to Western imperial Studies because this is clearly not the domination to make this clear (Agozino case. Rather, I suggest that to avoid anti- 2003). Reminiscent of Joyce Ladner’s racisms homogenizing imperatives, critique of Eurocentric and colonialist Black Canadian Studies must take research methodology, African centered account of how and where different scholars such as Marimba Ani African Canadian groups converge and (1994:7-8) have elaborated the cultural
275 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 255-284 foundation of Eurocentric epistemology racism that exposes African Canadians and assumptions that scholars to higher levels of state surveillance, consciously and unconsciously use to police brutality and miscarriages of reproduce the hidden cultural justice founded on the proposition that assumptions of the European worldview. they are criminogenic by culture or genetics. African centred analysis of the Thus, prior to the full elaboration so-called Black crime and gang problem of African centered theory in the U.S, must be considered a vital intervention African American academics such as in the mainstream discourse (Baker Joyce Ladner (1971) followed Dubois’s 2006; Crichlow 2005; Benjamin 2002; lead and rejected notions of scholarly Ezeonu, 2008b; Kitossa 2005; Lawson neutrality and objectivity in research 2002; Williams 2005). methods and their outcome. This epiphany is vital in a Western cultural 4. Community. Black Canadian Studies context that pathologizes African people will depend significantly on the extent (Gordon 1995; Mills 2003) and demands African Canadian communities mobilize a normative standpoint consistent with around the political implications of the agency of African peoples. Hence, epistemology and research and the analysis of the condition of people of communities’ disquiet about being African descent must proceed from a objects of study (see G. Clarke 2002, theory that appreciates the dialectics of 203). In part, this will depend on the agency and structure. By such means, effectiveness of the African Canadian analysis will be steered away from white intelligentsia to engage the community supremacist moralist explanations and on the implications of knowledge will produce knowledge that has an production. As I noted earlier, affirmative impact on the lives of epistemology and research were African Canadians by the way in which explicitly politicized by the civil rights it elaborates anti-oppressive strategies to and Black power movements in the U.S. social problems. Core to affirmative Questions were raised about research analysis, is that critique is central to the data that merely confirmed the politics of knowledge. presuppositions of the status quo, whether the quality of analysis was By implication then, scholars relevant to the experience of the African who contend that African Canadians are American masses. In short, based on the both predisposed to committing ‘crime’ U.S experience, the more effectively and who use the claim of racial profiling African Canadian communities can as an excuse to ‘commit more organize around knowledge production crime’ (Gabor 2004; Gabor 1996; Gold as a powerful force that shapes 2003; Melchers 2003) must be exposed democracy and Canadian institutions, as a damaging anti-African canard. Not the more likely it is that Black Canadian only for undertaking epistemic violence Studies can be established in a way to against African Canadians, but for more democratize knowledge production broadly legitimating the new scientific leading to healthy communities. We
276 Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1-2 (December 2012), 255-284 have in Canada a few models implicitly research and scholarly work by and predicated upon generative role of the about African Canadians will not of its community in epistemology and own lead to the formalization of Black research. These include reports produced Canadian Studies in Canadian by: the African Canadian Legal Clinic, Universities. As African American the African Canadian Community Studies and Feminist Studies have Coalition on Racial Profiling and the shown, there will need to be concerted McGill Consortium for Ethnicity and and collaborative action taken by Strategic Social Planning. Yet, in all communities and the intelligentsia to these research endeavors it is not clear give form and substance to this area of whether African Canadian communities inquiry. have sought to influence the production of affirmative knowledge through research protocols such as that articulated by a variety of First Nations References communities (ITHARES 2005). Such Adeyanju, C and Oriola, T. 2011. “Colonialism protocols serve notice that First Nations and Contemporary African Migra on: A will not be subject to predatory research Phenomenological Approach.” Journal of Black Studies, 42(6): 943-967. practices that do not serve their interests. Finally, the establishment of programs of Adeyanju, C. 2010. Deadly Fever: Racism, African Canadian Studies in the Disease and a Media Panic. Black Point, Nova Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario, the prairies Sco a: Fernwood Press. and British Columbia will not only work to ensure ongoing research, they will be Agozino, B. 2003. Counter-Colonial Criminology: A cri que of imperialist reason. London; Sterling, training grounds for young scholars who Va.: Pluto Press. will advance an African centered epistemological and research agenda to Aus n, D. 2010. “Narra ves of power: historical the betterment of African Canadians. mythologies in contemporary Québec and Canada.” Race and Class, 52(1): 19-32.
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Montreal: McGill University, School of Social Endnotes Work. 1 An original version of this paper was delivered Walco , R. 2003. Black Like Who? Wri ng Black at the second mee ng of the Black Canadian Canada. Toronto: Insomniac Press. Studies Associa on, University of Alberta, 2010. The Associa on was formed in 2009 at the Walker, B. 2010. Race on Trial: Black Defendants Knowledge Produc on and the Black in Ontario's Criminal Courts, 1858-1958. Experience, which was organized by Dr. Afua Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Cooper, then Chair of the Ruth Wynward of Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University. Walker, J. St. G. 1985. Racial Discrimina on in Canada: The Black experience. O awa: Canadian 2 Following St. Clair Drake (1993, 463-464), small Historical Associa on. “p” pan-African is used throughout this paper to signal an organic approach to the struggles of Warburton, R. 2007. “Canada’s Mul cultural African peoples that is socio-cultural rather than Policy: A Cri cal Realist Narra ve,” in Race and tradi onally poli cal in nature. The la er is the Racism in 21st-Century Canada: Con nuity, pursuit of elabora ng the connec on between Complexity, and Change, ed. by S. Hier and B. S. Africa and its diaspora but, while similar ends Bolaria, 275-290. Peterborough, Ontario: are desired the means by which its achievement Broadview Press. will arise is poli cally differen ated from socialism to Black capitalism. The la er, which Washington, H. 2006. Medical Apartheid: The may have outcomes consistent with the dark history of medical experimenta on on tradi onal approach to Africa and the diaspora, Black Americans from colonial mes to the is predicated upon challenging the denigra on present. New York: Doubleday. of African descended peoples and engaging interpersonal and cultural es between Africans Washington Jr., J. 1984. An -Blackness in English on the con nent and in the diaspora. Religion, 1500-1800. New York: E. Mellen Press. 3 Dr. Wilma Morrison is a legacy African Willhelm, J. 1982. Black in White America. Canadian and local historian extraordinaire. She Cambridge, MA : Schenkman Pub. Co. is a leading advocate of Black history in the Niagara region and was a core figure in the 1982 ---.. 1971. Who Needs the Negro. Garden City, official recogni on of Black Canada in the NJ.: Doubleday. Ontario public school curriculum. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by Brock Williams, C. 2005. “To Unnerve and Detect: University in 2010 and was a recipient of the Policing Black ac vists in Toronto.” In Law and Order Ontario in 2011. Criminal Jus ce: A Cri cal Inquiry, ed. L. Visano, 4 Brown was a Jamaican émigré to Canada. 95-113. Toronto: APF Press.. Elected to the Bri sh Columbia legislature (1972) she was first woman of African descent in Winks, R. 1997. The Blacks in Canada: A history. Canada to have accomplished this feat. She was McGill-Queen’s University Press: Montreal and a stalwart feminist and commi ed to Kingston. elabora ng the contribu ons of African Canadians. Yee, S. 1994. “Gender ideology and Black Women as Community-Builders in Ontario, 1850-70.” Canadian Historical Review 75(1): 53-73.
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5 Grenadian born, Augus ne is the first African 11 Creoliza on signals the adapta on and descended woman elected to the Canadian modifica on in cultural styles and poli cal Parliament (1993-2006). Following prior organiza on by diasporic communi es to lobbying by the Ontario Black History Society dominant hegemony. Following David Sealy, the Hon. Augus ne introduced the mo on in George Ellio Clarke (2002, 203) more Parliament that led to the federal government’s specifically calls this “Canadianiza on”. official recogni on of Black Heritage Month 12 (Ins tute Historica 2011). She is currently In 2011, Dr. Cooper was appointed to the Ontario’s Fairness Commissioner. As Chair of the Robert Johnston Chair of Black Studies at Ontario Bicentenary Commemora ve Dalhousie University. Commi ee on the Aboli on of the Slave Trade 13 A core aspect of future social histories of the Act and in advocacy capaci es, the Hon. African Canadian intelligentsia must explore the Augus ne has been at the forefront of African Canadian ‘brain drain’. That is, African elabora ng the contribu ons of African Canadian PhD’s, such as Edmund Abaka, Charles Canadians. Simon-Aaron and many others, who have, for 6 Senator Ann Cools is a Barbadian born various reasons, sought their fortunes in the U.S Canadian stateswoman. She was appointed to and abroad. Further, we know li le publicly of the Senate in 1984. She is a strong advocate of the experiences of the professoriate like families and issues concerning African Canadian. Bernard Moi who found appointments in the US and others such as Anne e Henry, who have 7 Senator Donald Oliver, Q.C., is a legacy African returned to Canadian academe from the U.S. Nova Sco an appointed to the Senate in 1990. One wonders whether the likes of Charles Mills, He is a strong advocate of equity hiring for a graduate of the University of Toronto, would African Canadian and other equity seeking ever have been appointed to a philosophy groups. department in Canada. In short, given that the likes of Horace Campbell, Linda Carty and Ebo 8 Althea Prince (2001) succinctly describes the Hutchful are graduates of Canadian universi es insurgency of African Canadian students and there is considerable research to be done on the faculty to ins tu onalize African Studies and wonderful African Canadian academic talent in Caribbean and La n American Studies. The the U.S and abroad. emergence of African Canadian Studies con nues this insurgency and in fact draws on 14 In private conversa on Dr. Afua Cooper the direct par cipa on of faculty who describes that this trend was much earlier. She spearheaded these earlier movements. directed me to the knowledge that in 1950’s (Judge) Stanley Grizzle, the sleeping car porters 9 Michaelle Jean is the Hai an born and the Canadian Negro Women’s Associa on th stateswoman who was Canada’s 27 Governor of Toronto held Negro History Week events in General, the Bri sh Crown’s representa ve to Toronto (see Ins tute Historica 2011). the Canadian Parliament (2005 - 2010). Ms. Jean is currently UNESCO Special Envoy for Hai . 15 As a child growing up in Toronto and Scarborough, the author benefited from the 10 It is instruc ve that the emergence of Black various programs just listed. Canadian Studies is largely traceable to the work of historians. See for example the collected 16 See Paula Madden’s cri cal rehearsal of the essays in the Special Issue of the Canadian Clarke-Walco debate (2009, 15-17). Review of American Studies, 30:2.
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17 Publishing through the crea on and development of a journal to be called the Journal of Black Canadian Studies in addi on to conferencing were recommended at the 2010 Black Canadian Studies symposium at the University of Calgary.
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