EMANCIPATION DAY 2010

August 1 is Emancipation Day in Canada and other countries that were once British colonies. Africans who had been enslaved in Antigua, Canada and South Africa were freed on August 1, 1834. Africans who had been enslaved by the British in several Caribbean islands including Barbados, Dominica, Trinidad and Jamaica, in British Guiana (Britain’s sole South American colony) and in British Honduras (Britain’s sole colony in Central America) were subjected to a system of “apprenticeship” which lasted from 1834 to August 1, 1838. Africans were forced to continue living on the plantations of the people who had enslaved them and worked 40 hours a week without pay (paid a pittance for work over 40 hours) as “apprentices.” They were forced to pay taxes and rent for the dreadful hovels in which they dwelled on the plantations. In 1838 two British men Thomas Harvey and Joseph Sturge documented the brutality of the “apprenticeship” system when they published The West Indies in 1837: Being the Journal of a Visit to Antigua, Montserrat, Dominica, St Lucia, Barbados and Jamaica, Undertaken for the Purpose of Ascertaining the Actual Conditions of the Negro Population of Those Islands. Harvey and Sturge wrote;

“A new kind of slavery under the name Apprenticeship; an anomalous condition, in which the negroes were continued, under a system of coerced and unrequited labour.” They also observed that “the planters have since succeeded in moulding the Apprenticeship into an almost perfect likeness of the system they so unwillingly relinquished. An equal, if not greater amount, of uncompensated labor, is now extorted from the negros; while, as their owners have no longer the same interest in their health and lives, their condition, and particularly that of mothers and young children, is in many respects worse than during slavery.”

While the Africans were suffering in slave like conditions under the apprenticeship system, white people in Britain were in self congratulatory mode. The Guardian, a British newspaper, published the following piece dated Saturday August 2, 1834:

“Throughout the British dominions the sun no longer rises on a slave. Yesterday was the day from which the emancipation of all our slave population commences; and we trust the great change by which they are elevated to the rank of freemen will be found to have passed into effect in the manner most accordant with the benevolent spirit in which it was decreed, most consistent with the interests of those for whose benefit it was primarily intended, and most calculated to put an end to the apprehensions under which it was hardly to be expected that the planters could fail to labour as the moment of its consummation approaches. We shall await anxiously the arrivals from the West Indies that will bring advices to a date subsequent to the present time.”

Meanwhile on Saturday August 2, 1834, a group of Africans were on their second day of demonstrations in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad because they were furious that complete freedom was still 6 years away. Africans in the Caribbean had learned that those who worked in the fields would be apprenticed until 1840 and those who worked in the homes of the slave holders or were skilled tradesmen would be apprenticed until 1938. It is hardly surprising that on August 1, 1834 a group of angry Africans had gathered at Government House in Port of Spain. Governor George Fitzgerald Hill sent the militia out to intimidate the group but the furious Africans stood their ground recognizing that the “apprenticeship” system was a scam used by the white plantation owners and the government representatives in the Caribbean to use free African labour for a further 6 years. In spite of the presence of the militia, the protest continued until nightfall when the protesters strategically withdrew because they were not allowed to be in the town during the night.

On Saturday August 2nd, when the group of protesters returned to Government House, Hill gave the order to arrest them. There were scuffles with the militia and some of the protesting Africans were arrested, tried, sentenced to hard labour and flogging and taken to the Royal Jail. Their incensed compatriots were forced to flee but returned on the Monday to continue the protest. The numbers had swollen by Monday and there were more clashes with the militia. Some of those who were arrested on the Monday were publicly flogged in Marine Square. The protests continued the entire week before it was quelled, but several of the Africans refused to return to the plantations and instead “squatted” in districts known today as Belmont and East Dry River.

On July 25th, 1838, Governor Hill called an emergency session of the Council of Government to seek approval of a special proclamation he had drafted which ended the apprenticeship period for Africans in Trinidad on August 1, 1838 whether they worked in the fields, homes or were skilled workers. Africans throughout the region protested their continued enslavement under the Apprenticeship system and on August 1, 1838 slavery was abolished in all the British colonies.


Since the abolition of slavery Africans have celebrated August 1st as Emancipation Day or August Monday. British author J.R. Kerr-Ritchie in his 2007 published Rites of August First: Emancipation Day in the Black Atlantic World: Antislavery, Abolition, and the Atlantic World has written about the global impact of August 1. In her 2010 published Emancipation Day: Celebrating Freedom in Canada, African Canadian author Natasha Henry has researched and written about the history of August 1 celebrations throughout Canada including the connection of Caribana (modeled on Trinidad’s carnival) to Emancipation Day. The government of Trinidad and Tobago was the first of the former British Caribbean countries to declare August 1 a National holiday in 1985. In 1997 the Caribbean Historical Society (CHS) of Trinidad and Tobago, supported by the Ontario Black History Society (OBHS) advocated for global recognition of August 1st as Emancipation Day. The OBHS has been successful in gaining recognition of August 1st as Emancipation Day at the Municipal and Provincial level and close to gaining recognition at the Federal level. On August 1st the OBHS will host an Emancipation Day event at Nathan Philips Square.

HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY HAILE SELASSIE I

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.
Quote from Ethiopia’s Emperor, His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I

One of Africa’s most significant historical figures was born 118 years ago on July 23, 1892. The child who was born Tafari Makonnen was also given the name Haile Selassie at his christening. Born in Ejersa Goro, in the Harar province of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) he was the son of Ras Makonnen Woldemikael Gudessa, the governor of Harar and Woyzero Yeshimebet Ali Abajifar. His paternal grandmother, Princess Tenagnework Sahle Selassie, was an aunt of Emperor Menelik II. On November 2, 1930 in a ceremony of great pomp and splendour His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia with titles including Lord of Lords, King of Kings, Conquering Lion of the tribe of Judah, Elect of God. The Ethiopian royal family traced its roots back to Makeda Queen of Sheba and King Solomon whose story appear in First Kings chapter 10 verses 1-13 and Second Chronicles chapter 9 verses 1–12 of the King James version of the Bible. The coronation of His Imperial Majesty was attended by leaders or representatives of 72 countries www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyyLOgs190Y

Ethiopia and His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I fired the imagination of countless Africans in the Diaspora. Ethiopia as the sole African nation that had never been colonized by Europeans was a beacon of hope for those who had been separated from the continent for generations and knew that Europeans had carved up the continent to exploit the people and resources of the continent. Ethiopia was the Promised Land for those generations who had been born of enslaved Africans and only knew of Ethiopia from what they had read in the Bible. Since most Africans in the Diaspora had been Christianized, the Bible and what it contained was of paramount importance. The messages in the Bible comforted generations who had forgotten that their ancestors had been forced to accept Christianity. As a very spiritual people Africans adopted and adapted Christianity. When the white supremacists sought to convince Africans that they were less than human they could read in the Bible that Africans had been included in this Christian holy book since Ethiopia and Ethiopians are mentioned in several meaningful ways. Ethiopia being one of the earliest nations to embrace Christianity was also highly regarded by Africans in the Diaspora.

Apart from the Queen of Sheba, Ethiopia and Ethiopians are mentioned in the King James Version of the Bible several times. In Numbers chapter 12, verse 1, we read that Moses married an Ethiopian woman much to the displeasure of his siblings Aaron and Miriam. If as in some cases European Christians tried to make Ethiopians white there was proof in the Bible that this was not so. In Jeremiah 13, 23 the question is asked “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” We could also read about African royalty: Tirhakah king of Ethiopia is mentioned in Isaiah 37, 9. In Psalms 68, 31 “Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.” Chronicles 2, 16, 8 has documented proof of the might of Africans in those ancient times: “Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen?” and also in 2 Chronicles chapter 14 verse 9 “And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and came unto Mareshah.”

In 1993 William R. Scott published The Sons of Sheba's Race: African-Americans and the Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935-1941 where he documents the support that many African Americans gave to Ethiopians when the Italians attempted for the second time to colonize Ethiopia. In 1994 Joseph E. Harris published African-American Reactions to War in Ethiopia 1936-1941 where he discusses the efforts of African Americans to support Ethiopia. African Americans lobbied the reluctant United States government to support Ethiopians as they struggled to maintain their independence and freedom from the Italians who were brutally attacking Ethiopians in a desperate effort to claim the country as their colony.

In doing research for this article I read several other books about His Imperial Majesty where he was both revered and reviled. However, after all that he is still the regal figure posed in various framed photographs in my grandparents’ home whose eyes seemed to follow us around the room especially after we learned that he was descended from a common ancestor with Jesus (King David). Whatever information we may read about His Imperial Majesty or hear from people who knew him or think they knew him the fact is that he inspired generations of Africans in the Diaspora who looked to Ethiopia for proof that we are a great people capable of defending and maintaining our freedom. In his royal bearing we saw evidence that the images of Tarzan movies that sought to denigrate our heritage was just fiction and this Emperor from Ethiopia was the reality. His Imperial Majesty visited Trinidad and Tobago on April 18, 1966 for a three day visit and spoke at the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuNmCrmUO68 On April 21, 1966 he visited Jamaica where he received an overwhelming welcome as he arrived for a three day visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rZlVkBwgpg His Imperial Majesty visited Haiti on April 24, 1966 ending his three Caribbean island visit.

The reception that the Ethiopian Emperor His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I received when he visited the Caribbean islands in 1966 and the support from Africans in the Diaspora when Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1936 proves that there is hope for us to unite as African people. This hope of unity was recently demonstrated at the Forum that took place on July 18, 2010 at OISE where members of the African Canadian community and allies attended and began organizing to address the issue of racial profiling. We refuse to be inactive and allow the evil of racial profiling to silence the voice of justice.

GROUP OF 8 (G8) IN TORONTO

We’re hungry!
We’re angry!
We won’t go away!
Stop the war, on the poor!
Make the rich pay!

Chant heard at several G8 – G20 rallies in Toronto June 2010.

The Group of 8 or G8 as it is popularly known had its start as the Group of 6 in 1975. From November 15 to 17, 1975, French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing hosted the heads of states and governments plus three other delegates each from West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States to a summit in his country. The oil crisis and subsequent worldwide recession of 1973 brought these countries together to coordinate their macroeconomic policies. They also felt the need to formulate a common strategy to deal with the developing countries which were becoming less dependent on these superpowers. Canada joined the group in 1976 making the group the G7 and Russia in 1997 making the group the G8. The G6, G7 and eventual G8 came together in a united front against the developing countries, putting their considerable weight behind the neoliberal structural adjustment policies imposed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) on more than 90 developing economies. In the 1990’s, this group of developed nations became the main promoters of corporate-driven globalization and radical privatization that happened in developing countries under “structural adjustment.” These Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) caused a decline in the economic gains that had been made in developing countries during the 1950’s and 1960’s and gave rise to absolute poverty, increasing inequality and the consolidation of economic stagnation in developing countries.

With many of the developing world’s population becoming wise to the effects of globalization, resistance began to build against the destructive policies sanctioned by the G8. Poor and working class people in industrialized countries were also negatively affected by the policies sanctioned by the G8 and that recognition caused mass opposition to the G8. By the new millennium activists were organizing huge demonstrations against G8. In July 18-22, 2001, approximately 300,000 people took to the streets to protest when the G8 met in Genoa, Italy. They were viciously attacked by security forces who even raided two schools where activists from several European nations including Britain, France, Germany, Poland and some from the USA were staying. Close to midnight on July 21, 2001 the police invaded the school buildings (Diaz-Pascoli and Diaz-Pertini) which had been provided by the Genoa city council as a base for the activists. Some people were already asleep, wrapped in their sleeping bags while others already dressed for bed were lined up waiting to brush their teeth when they were attacked by baton wielding, helmeted members of Italy’s security force. Besides the late night raid on the school, people were beaten on the streets and when the smoke cleared hundreds of activists had been seriously injured and one killed by police.

Several police officers were brought to trial due in no small part to the videotaping of the brutality to which they subjected unarmed defenceless men and women. Hamish Campbell videotaped the carnage from his hiding place on a roof across from the Diaz school building. In October 2005 the trial of Italian police and medical staff began and ended in November 2008 with only 16 police found guilty in spite of the images of brutality captured by Campbell who speaks here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AHL7CGRPFk

Even more distressing none of the convicted police will spend any time in jail because of the length of time it took to bring the trial to a conclusion. Italy’s statutes of limitations law ensures that none of the convicted police will have to pay for their crimes.

Protesters at G8 gatherings have brought attention to the lives that are affected of the people who have no voice at these summits. Even when leaders of developing nations are invited to the fringes of the G8 summits they are there as window dressing and the voices of people living in grinding poverty are nowhere on the agenda. These are the people on whose backs the wealth of the countries that make up the G8 can continue to mount. The debts that the citizens of developing countries are forced to incur keep the industrialized countries rich. In her 1988 published book A Fate Worse Than Debt: The World Financial Crisis and the Poor political scientist Susan George wrote :

“Debt is an efficient tool. It ensures access to other peoples’ raw materials and infrastructure on the cheapest possible terms. Dozens of countries must compete for shrinking export markets and can export only a limited range of products because of Northern protectionism and their lack of cash to invest in diversification. Market saturation ensues, reducing exporters’ income to a bare minimum while the North enjoys huge savings.”

In 2005 the G8 met in Gleneagles, Scotland accompanied by great media hype of the Live 8 concerts and the slogan Make Poverty History. The promised aid for developing countries where most people live in dire poverty never materialized. Instead developing countries are forced to contend with unfair trade terms that keep the prices of their export items very low while the prices of their imports continue increasing. The G8 countries insist on developing countries opening up their markets while industrialized countries continue protecting their products (especially agriculture products and textiles) and their labour markets through high subsidies and tariffs and by keeping their countries closed to foreign workers. With developing countries pressured to cut their tariffs, cheaper imports flood their markets and local farmers and industries lose their markets and business, causing huge unemployment and poverty.

The police violence that we witnessed in Toronto over the duration of the G8 is standard for the attempts to suppress the voices of those who recognize the gross unfairness of the process that is used to keep industrialized countries exploiting mostly racialized developing countries. While many people watched in horror as mostly young white Canadians were brutalized by police as they protested the G8, this treatment is meted out to racialized youth in Toronto especially those who live in lower income communities.

The reality of over-policing and brutalization of racialized communities is well known and has been acknowledged by members of these communities including Chris Ramsaroop of the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance (ACLA) who writes:

“While we abhor this weekend’s police violence, ACLA reiterates that these actions reflect the realities experienced by low-income, indigenous, and racialized communities across this city on a daily basis. Illegal searches, entries without warrants, large-scale police and immigration raids, the use of excessive and arbitrary police powers are ongoing experiences of our communities, perpetuated through unjust socio-economic structures and institutions that at the same time exploit the labour of indigenous and racialized communities. Instead of addressing chronic underfunding, inadequate resources and systemic unemployment that impoverishes our members, the police and elected officials persist in marginalizing and criminalizing our communities. The resolve of the G20 will deepen this crisis through its focus on deficit and debt reduction and not on economic and environmental justice. Regressive and racist immigration policies, inadequate labour protection and the absence of resources for housing, day care, healthcare and numerous other entitlements further perpetuate a cycle of precarious existence for racialized communities across the city, the province and the country.

Ajamu Nangwaya who is one of the organizers of a July 17 Forum (6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at OISE 252 Bloor Street West, Room 5-170) to address racial profiling writes:

Some mainstream activist groups and individuals have been referring to the police violence during the G20 Summit as an "unprecedented" or "abnormal" attack on civil liberties. Based on the evidence, I can say without fear of contradiction that that's not the case. This type of police repression is a rather normalized affair in racialized communities in the city of Toronto and other areas in this country...for many years. Police violence has merely reared its hideous head in the full glare of a part of the public that is not used to this form of treatment from the armed might of the racist, patriarchal and capitalist state in Canada. We must disrupt this "unprecedented" narrative by having the stories of the African community and other racialized and working-class peoples at the centre of this discourse on police brutality and repression. The February 2010 three-part series by Jim Rankin of the Toronto Star speaks to the intense surveillance and containment of the African community by the Toronto police. Rights are being massively violated and class, race and gender are very much implicated in this state-sponsored violence against racialized peoples.

The issue of violence in society has been given a higher profile on radar of Canadians since the police display of naked aggression against demonstrators on the streets of Toronto during the recent G20 Summit. Canadian state violence, through its security forces, is a daily feature of this society. We need a broad-based alliance of progressive forces to push back against police violence. This work must be done while we struggle to transform this society based on private ownership of the means of production. There cannot be any sense of neutrality or indifference in the face of targeted racist, sexist and/or homophobic violence against despised sectors of the population.

Meanwhile a government that claims it cannot afford to ensure its most vulnerable citizens have a healthy diet spends upward of 1.2 billion on “security” for the G8 party.

We’re hungry! We’re angry! We won’t go away!

CANADA DAY 2010

Canada Day has been officially celebrated on July 1, since 1982. The holiday was first established in 1879 under the name Dominion Day to recognize the formation of the Dominion of Canada. The Dominion of Canada had been federated 12 years before on July 1st, 1867 through the North America Act and included New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec. In 1870 Manitoba and the Northwest Territories joined the Dominion of Canada followed by British Columbia in 1871, Prince Edward Island in 1873, Yukon in 1898, both Saskatchewan and Alberta in 1905, Newfoundland in 1949 and in 1999 Nunavut was created from the eastern portion of the Northwest Territories.

According to the Kids Book of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada published in 2005: The word "Canada" is derived from the Huron-Haudenosaunee word "kanata," which means "our village." Apparently when the French explorer Jacques Cartier first heard the word “kanata” he mistakenly thought the word was Canada and that it was the name of the country. Cartier’s first voyage to Canada was documented in 1534. Cartier’s discovery eventually led to other Europeans settling here bringing with them enslaved Africans to do much of the backbreaking work needed to exploit the resources of a new world. When European adventurers first came to North America (Canada, USA, Mexico) they found thriving well organized communities of people who had lived here for millennia. In less than a hundred years most of the original people of this land had been reduced to living in restricted areas (reservations) their communities decimated by the theft of their land, the murder of their people and diseases brought from Europe to which their bodies had no immunity.

Columbus is documented as the first European who accidentally found his way (as he searched for India) in 1492 to this part of the world which Europeans named America. Other Europeans quickly followed and spread across the Americas claiming land by force and trickery. In spite of the centuries of European efforts to break the spirit of the people who were here first there has always been those who kept their culture alive. Canadian singer/songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie’s poignant 1966 performance of My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl08n8_b3Sw) could be about any group of indigenous people in these Americas, including Canada. The Saskatchewan born Sainte-Marie is a Native Canadian activist who co-founded Canada's "Music of Aboriginal Canada" Juno Awards category and her performances have been acclaimed internationally.

On Thursday, June 24 Torontonians got an up close and personal look at thousands of Native Canadian activists, community members and their allies as they took to the streets to bring attention to the plight of their communities. The indigenous groups organized this rally and march in Toronto to protest the G8 and G20 meetings. The Native Day of Action protest demanded recognition of Native rights within Canada including urging the government to sign the United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on September 13, 2007. The dreadful conditions in which Native communities live on reservations were also addressed during the rally and march. With people gathered at Queens Park several members of the Native community spoke about the issues of concern before the group of 2500 set out on the march that went down University Avenue to Queen Street then east on Queen Street, north on Bay to Wellesley to Yonge, south on Yonge to Gerrard and east to Allan Gardens.

Mark Corbiere of the Ojibwe Nation condemned the G20 and its role in marginalizing indigenous populations: “The G20 are not respecting indigenous rights across the world. They’re bending over backward, so that way corporate colonialism can control indigenous lands and its indigenous people, who are directly affected by the decisions made at the G20. So, being in solidarity with Palestinians and liberation armies from southern America, we’ve felt the need to come out here today and represent the warrior’s voice.”

Darlene Ritchie of the Toronto Council Fire spoke about Canada’s failure to address the issue of “disappeared” Aboriginal women: “In Canada today there’s over 500 missing women—584, to be exact, determined by the Native Women’s Association. In March 2010, Stephen Harper cut the funding to the Native Women’s Association - the money that was going to go to the Sisters in Spirit Campaign to identify ways and means of protecting women and ways and means of making sure that we don’t lose any more. Those missing women have gone as a direct result of the Indian Act and the Indian Act is alive and well here in Canada today in 2010. Racism is legislated.”

Shandra from Manitou Rapids First Nation had this to say about her experience as one of the children who were the victims of what some have termed cultural genocide: “Canada can’t hide genocide. And that means you can’t put a pretty face on top of the state-sponsored violence that has been done to people like me and my family, generations of children kidnapped, taken to residential schools where they’re imprisoned and tortured, for the longest time, generations of those people and then generations like me, that are taken by the Children’s Aid and adopted out into non-Native families to become non-Native Canadians and it’s an amputation. It’s an extremely violent act and it’s genocidal and Canada just can’t sweep that under the rug.”

On July 1 when Canadians are celebrating Canada Day some of the descendants of the people who welcomed Jacques Cartier and his crew to this land in 1534 will be boiling water to bathe, cook and drink in at least 75 Native communities (reserves) where they dwell in conditions similar to those that prevail in many developing nations. That is after the Harper government has finished spending more than a billion dollars (last count was steadily going past 1.2 billion) of Canadian taxpayers’ money for “security” of the G8-G20 party.

AUGUST HOLIDAYS

“No more Latin, no more French, no more sitting on teacher old bench” was a chant often heard in the Guyana of my youth at the end of the school year. For the entire month of August, part of July and part of September there was no school. Not surprisingly it used to be a grave insult to suggest to any Guyanese man, woman or child that they must have attended school in August. Since there is no school in August the assumption would be that the person who was told that they had attended school in August was uneducated/unintelligent. The time of year was popularly referred to as “August holidays” and many families packed up and moved across the country to spend time with relatives. Berbicians who had relatives in Demerara or Essequibo would send their children to visit for a few weeks and vice versa. My siblings and I visited relatives at interesting places like Courtland, Fyrish, Linden, Sandvoort and Wismar and they visited us at the many interesting places where we lived including Agricola, Kitty and Wortmanville. The Rupununi was a bit of a distance from most of our relatives so there was not much visiting when we lived there.

The several weeks away from formal education during the “August holidays” seemed like a magical time when we traveled by train from Georgetown to Rosignol along the East coast of Demerara and the West coast of Berbice. During those travels I received my earliest science lessons from my parents explaining how the MV Torani (ferry boat) was able to stay afloat with passengers and vehicles as it crossed the Berbice River taking us from Rosignol to New Amsterdam. History lessons about the people of Buxton (East coast Demerara) who stopped the British governor’s train (as it attempted to travel past Buxton) and demanded fair treatment from the colonial government were also part of our journey.

Spending time at my grandparents’ home was a history lesson in itself with the images of African royalty and landmarks like the Sankore University of Timbuktu that decorated the walls and also the many old copies of Ebony and Jet magazines that were meticulously preserved and stored for us. It was fascinating to read stories of events that took place when our grandparents were young and our parents were children. The story-telling times at night were some of the best times spent during those holiday weeks. We learnt about our ancestors who were taken from Angola, the Congo, Ghana, Nigeria etc., and the fact that some of them were first taken to places like Antigua, Brazil and Suriname before being moved (sold during slavery) or moving (after Emancipation) to Guyana. There were also very scary stories about Bacoo, Moongazer and Ol’Higue that would have us scurrying off to bed, scared to be outside after dark. As an adult I realize that those stories were told to ensure that children would not be tempted to wander away from home after dark, they were designed to keep us safe. When my children, nieces and nephews were small I tried telling them the same stories but they were not scared; they were fascinated and had so many questions that I could not answer that I eventually gave up. The scary stories did not travel well from Guyana to Canada.

Similar to the “August holidays” I enjoyed as a child in Guyana, in Toronto there are several weeks of “summer holidays” for students from elementary school and secondary schools. During the next two months unless students are attending summer school they are away from formal education and free to enjoy the summer weather without thinking about assignments and exams.

June 21 was the official beginning of summer, even though we have been enjoying summer like weather for more than a month. With the many video games and other electronic gadgets many children do not have the experience of spending quality time with their elders. This is not part of the modern North American culture. However, from speaking with older African Canadians whose families have been here for generations they recount similar experiences to mine of traveling to visit relatives in small town Ontario, Nova Scotia and British Columbia during the summers of their childhood. There they would hear from their older relatives, stories about their ancestors and the history of their communities.

In her 2005 published book Finding Martha's Vineyard: African Americans at Home on an Island African American author Jill Nelson writes about the enchantment of the summer vacations her family spent on Martha’s Vineyard one of the few places where middle class African Americans could escape the daily grind and living with the daily reality of racism. It was a magical place for the children whose parents could afford a summer vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard. Many other African Americans living in Northern cities choose to send their children down south to spend time with relatives. Sometimes not such a wise decision for some families including Emmett Till’s mother Mamie Till who sent her 14 year old child from Chicago to Money, Mississippi in the summer of 1955 to spend time with his great-uncle Mose Wright. (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=536339677935896178#)

Thankfully not every family experienced the heart wrenching tragedy of the Till family. There are several delightful books of African American children enjoying their summer visits to relatives down south including Donald Crews’ Big Mama’s published in 1991 which tells the story of four African-American children and their mother traveling by train to visit grandparents in the rural town of Cottondale in Florida and the joy they experience spending the summer at Big Mama’s. Crews’ follow-up book Shortcut published in 1992 continues the story of the four children spending their summer at Big Mama’s and their alarming adventure that resulted from not following Big Mama’s safety rules.

How are you spending your summer?

HERI YA SIKU YA KINA BABA! HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

In my Daddy’s arms I am tall and close to the sun
and warm in my Daddy’s arms
In my Daddy’s arms I am strong and dark like him and laughing
Happier than the circus clowns with red painted grins
When Daddy spins me round and round
and the whole world is crazy upside down
I am big and strong and proud like him
In Daddy’s arms my Daddy

By Folami Abiade

Excerpt from In Daddy’s Arms I Am Tall: African Americans Celebrating Fathers illustrated by Javaka Steptoe published 1997

Sunday, June 20 is Fathers Day. In North America a special day to honour fathers was first suggested in 1909 and first observed on June 19, 1910. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honouring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. Six years later, in 1972 the day was made a national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law. On June 20 some fathers and grand fathers will receive cards, ties, shirts, jewelry, artwork from class projects etc., as their children and grandchildren honour them.

The beautifully illustrated book In Daddy’s Arms I Am Tall: African Americans Celebrating Fathers is a special tribute to a distinct group of men, “African American fathers.” This term encompasses more than African men born in the USA. It includes those in the Diaspora who live outside of the African continent and were disconnected from their roots through slavery and colonization. During the Maafa, the enslavement and upheaval of African people, the family structure was fractured; mothers and fathers were robbed of the ability to parent their children. During those dreadful times African men were sometimes not even allowed to see their children. Mothers would at least have their children with them for a few months or even a few years before they were sold but many fathers never even knew that a child existed which carried their genes and DNA. In spite of these circumstances our history tells us that African men persisted against all odds in their fathering roles; if not to their biological children then to children in their community.

These men were loving, nurturing and protective fathers. There are several written resources by enslaved African men and women as well as a collection of voice recorded interviews with formerly enslaved Africans documenting the positive parenting roles of African fathers during slavery. In her 2005 published book “Black Fatherhood: Reconnecting With Our Legacy” Dana Ross writes: “Black men during this era were dehumanized, humiliated and oppressed; however it did not deter them from being nurturing, loving, fathers, caretakers and entrepreneurs. They were able to rise above the social system set against them by pulling on their inner strength and love for their families. Even though some inevitably fell prey to the institution of slavery, there are more than enough documented stories and recorded family histories which evidence the significant and prominent role of Black fathers. These men were able to overcome the adversities of the institution of slavery on the strength of their family; leaving us a legacy to reconnect with.” http://www.blackinformant.com/our-expression/black-fatherhood-reconnecting-with-our-legacy-trailer

Many enslaved African men took great pride in their ability to care for their families and sacrificed their lives for their children. Some of these men refused to run to freedom when the opportunity presented itself because it would have meant leaving their children in slavery. There were enslaved men who bought their freedom as well as the freedom of their wives and children. The story of the Estes and Stark families who left Missouri and moved to British Columbia (BC) via California in 1860 is a case in point.

Howard Estes was an enslaved African from Missouri who was “owned” by Tom Estes while his wife and children were owned by Charles Leopold. Howard made an arrangement with his “owner” to buy his freedom but after the owner received the money he reneged on the promised freedom. Howard Estes who at that time was mining gold in California refused to return to slavery and instead continued to work and sent money to the “owner” of his wife and children to buy their freedom. Tom Estes took Charles Leopold to court claiming that any money Leopold received from Howard Estes as payment for his family’s freedom rightfully belonged to him (Tom Estes) since he “owned” Howard Estes. Leopold kept the money and unlike Tom Estes gave Hannah Estes and her children to Howard Estes since he had bought their freedom. The Estes family moved to California but because of vicious racial persecution eventually moved to BC. The African American community of California had received a letter of invitation from then governor of Vancouver Island James Douglas (born in British Guiana to an enslaved African mother and Scottish father.) Several African American families moved from California to BC including Sylvia Estes Stark (Howard Estes’ daughter) and her husband Louis Stark who are considered pioneers and significant historical figures in BC.

As we honour fathers and father figures on Sunday, June 20 we need to remember the legacy of those who went before us and set the example as excellent role models. The Ashanti proverb: When you follow in the path of your father, you learn to walk like him is an apt reminder. Today we read about African men who in spite of the odds; having to deal with racial profiling, the racialization of poverty, lack of job opportunities etc., continue to make sacrifices as they lovingly guide and nurture their children’s physical, spiritual and emotional growth as they also contribute to their community. The lives of these men are documented in books like Be A Father to Your Child edited by April R. Silver published 2008 which begins with the African proverb “We come here so we may learn to be better ancestors.” The best kept secret: single black fathers by Roberta L. Coles published in 2009 documents the struggles and triumphs of single African American men raising their children. Pop: A Celebration of Black Fatherhood by Carol Ross published in 2007 offers a fascinating look portrayed through photographs at a group of loving and nurturing African fathers interacting with their children.

Not all the wonderful dedicated African fathers are featured in books, some of them live here in Toronto and we see them regularly with their children and grandchildren. Some readily come to my mind as I read Sonia Sanchez’s poem I have looked into my father’s eyes and seen an African sunset. You may know some of these fathers: Sam Burke, Bonny Caesar, Glendale Caesar, Owen Sankara Leach, Ajamu Nangwaya, Norman Otis Richmond, Charles Roach and Owusu Young.

THE HEALING POWER OF THE DRUMBEAT

Drums and various drumbeats from around the world were heard at Queens Park on the first June weekend of 2010 as part of the celebration that helps to wake Toronto up in preparation for the summer. The drum is recognized as the oldest musical instrument and on Saturday June 5 and Sunday June 6, Queens Park in Toronto was transformed into a global village with the sound of drums from Africa, Asia, the Americas, the Caribbean and Europe. The people of Toronto owe this spectacular awakening to a group led by a man who has brought the drumbeat of the world to Toronto via Trinidad. The 11th Muhtadi International Drumming Festival is the brainchild of Trinidad born Muhtadi who is the founder and artistic director of the annual festival which “celebrates the drum, its universality as an art form and its presence in all cultures around the world.”

The image dominating the main stage of the Drumming Festival recognized Africa as the place from where the drum grows its roots (humans originated on the African continent) the drum grows then branches out to where people of various ethnicities and places are playing the drum. The drumbeat is the human way of imitating the heartbeat, remembering that our mother’s heartbeat is what we heard and felt for the first months of life while in the womb. Small children respond to the beat of a drum by moving to the rhythm because we never lose our response to the comforting sound of our mother’s heart beat. The beat of the drum has the ability to unite people of different cultures from around the world and Muhtadi has definitely tapped into this to make the drumming festival an awesome success for 11 years.

Academics and grassroots traditional healers across cultures have recognized and acknowledged the healing properties of music including drumbeats. Researching and acknowledging the healing properties that connect the heart and musical rhythms, in his 1997 published book The Heart's Code: Tapping the Wisdom and Power of Our Heart Energy, white American Psychologist Dr. Paul Pearsall, wrote:
“There is no more obvious evidence of connection between our heart and energy outside the body than our heart's response to musical rhythms. Our heart is the metronome of our body's biorhythm, and health happens when we are in rhythm within ourselves, synchronized with other living systems and moving to our preset beat rather than trying to respond to the driving beat of the stressful outside world. Healing, then, becomes the ability of our heart to improvise and develop its own new rhythms to the chaotic rhythms that continually emerge in our daily life."

African American author and member of the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy, American Folklore Society and the Herb Research Foundation Stephanie Rose Bird has written about the healing properties of the drumbeat in her 2010 published book: The Big Book of Soul: The Ultimate Guide to the African American Spirit Legend & Lore, Music & Mysticism, Recipes & Rituals.

Drumming has been an integral part of the lives of Africans from the continent and the Diaspora. Even the centuries of enslavement and colonization did not destroy our connection to the healing of the drumbeat and the rhythm of our ancestors. On Saturday June 5th at the Drumming Festival I watched as Ras Leon Saul, a man who was educated at Queens College, (a school that was once Guyana’s most prestigious colonial bastion of education) playing the djembe drum as if he was communicating with our ancestors. The powerful rhythms of the African drums played at ceremonies (kwe-kwe, kumfa, naming and transitioning) throughout Berbice may also have had much influence. I have to acknowledge some bias since Ras Leon and I both hail from Berbice, Guyana and acknowledge our connection to Kofi who led the Berbice Revolution in 1763 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KTHLBpN7SM).

Kofi was an Akan man born in Ghana a place from where many of the enslaved Africans in Guyana were taken. The djembe is the most popular of the African drums in the Diaspora probably because the majority of Diasporan Africans are descended from people who were taken out of West African countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, Senegal and the Gambia. West African rhythms gave birth to Caribbean and North and South American rhythms and even dance steps. The so called Latin dances like the Cha-cha-cha, Bolero, Mambo, Samba etc all owe their existence to African rhythms. Although in many of the Latin American countries an African presence is not acknowledged, enslaved Africans worked and died throughout the region and their descendants continue to survive mostly on the fringes.

In the Caribbean countries where the descendants of enslaved Africans have fared a bit better than their counterparts in the Latin American countries the influence of their African ancestors has not been completely ignored. The African influence on calypso and reggae is acknowledged by most Caribbean people. In the USA the influence of Africa on popular contemporary American music is also acknowledged. Several books including children’s books tell of the history of African contribution to the music of America. To be a drum written by Evelyn Coleman illustrated by Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson and published in 1998 begins “Long before time, before hours and minutes and seconds, on the continent of Africa, the rhythm of the earth beat for the first people.” African American actor James Earl Jones reads the book here: http://www.storylineonline.net/ This children's book tells the story of how the Africans who were enslaved even after being prevented from playing the drum did not lose their ability to hear the drum and benifit from its healing properties.

Buy the book To be a drum, or borrow it from the library but share this beautiful and educational story of the African drum with the children in your life (your children, grandchildren, neighbours’ children, children in your community etc.,) Be a drum!