Black Nova Scotians choose Africa over Canadian racism
HALIFAX—“I’m a black man from a hostile environment,” says David Horne.
Horne is an international facilitator with the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC), and was in Halifax in the summer to address a town hall meeting at Africville Park. Along with the other organizers of the event, Horne was hoping to gauge the interest of the African Nova Scotian community in becoming part of the SRDC—and, indeed, becoming leading members of it. Around 150 people attended the town hall, trekking through a major downpour to discuss their collective future under the ceiling of an event-sized tent. As Horne explained, the SRDC is a new initiative of the African Union, an organization that links together 55 of 56 countries on the African continent and is intended to create a common voice for African people in international affairs. Until recently, representation in the Union was limited to African people living on the continent. The estimated 350 million Africa-descended people living in the worldwide diaspora were excluded. But the African Union now wants to reach further. In addition to the five regions of the continent, the Union aims to create a “sixth region”: the worldwide diaspora.
For Horne, the creation of the sixth region is an acknowledgment of the affinities and commonalities that have endured among African people, wherever they happen to live in the present.
“You aren’t an African because you were born in Africa,” he tells the town hall audience. “You’re African because Africa was born in you.”
The sixth region initiative, in offering the diaspora an official role in the African Union, finally promises to create a venue large and inclusive enough for African people to come together and plan a better, collective future. It's a vision that Rocky Jones, a presenter at the town hall and longtime Halifax-based activist, summarized as “African people pulling together.”
At this point, the sixth region is only an invitation. It remains to be accepted,* Horne explains, and that means “organizing ourselves to present ourselves and represent ourselves.” Canada is one of many countries with a significant African diaspora, and the sixth region initiative calls for African Canadians to decide if they want to be included in the African Union and, if so, to elect a set of representatives. Each recognized community within Canada is to elect a “community council of elders,” while the overall African Canadian population is to elect a single representative to send to the African Union.
Horne hopes that the African Nova Scotian community will play a leading role amid the Canadian-based diaspora. The province is home to 47 black settlements with a history that predates the founding of Canada, and North Preston is recognized as the largest black community anywhere in the country.
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Internet site reference: http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/4185
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