Not "Africville all over again"… not yet

Rev. Rhonda Britten may have been guilty of hyperbole when she compared last week’s city council decision to sell the former St. Patrick’s-Alexandra School to a local developer to “the rape… of a community… Africville all over again!” But she is not entirely canary-in-the-coal-mine wrong. In 2009, Halifax Regional School Board—over the ongoing objections of […]

Africville: The lesson still unlearned

No one asked them. Again. The real lesson of the original Africville relocation—which should be seared into our collective consciousness after 50 years of hard-learned lesson-living—is that outsiders, even well intentioned ones, cannot make decisions for a community without at least asking the people of that community what they really want. Back in the 1960s, […]

Africville apology an historic moment

Wednesday’s historic agreement between the City of Halifax and the former residents of Africville, which was intended to turn the page on their bitter 40-year dispute, did not please everyone. How could it? The old wounds run too deep; the new hurts remain too raw. Make no mistake. There are legitimate questions to ask about […]

Africville… a look back at the struggle for redress

Today’s announcement (February 24, 2010) of an agreement between the Africville Genealogy Society and various governments will mark the culmination of a decades-long, sometimes seemingly endless and too often hopeless struggle. The deal—like almost anything to do with Africville—will be controversial. But as we consider what it means, it is worth looking back at how […]

Africville

There was a real community called Africville, and much of the awful tale of its destruction happened as I described it in Reparations. Former residents — in fact as well as in fiction — have filed a civil suit seeking compensation for the loss of their community. And a recent United Nations’ report really did […]

Seaview Park church replica will honor memory of Africville

This Halifax Daily News column originally appeared on December 18, 1991. It is worth noting that by June 2006, the church had still not been built.

Still no school for Africville (July 26, 2007)

Another legacy of Africville I had called Tom McInnis, Nova Scotia’s deputy premier during the last days of the Buchanan era, to ask him a question. In December 1991, McInnis had announced — to great fanfare and applause — that the province would rebuild Seaview United Baptist Church on the site of the former Africville. […]

Africville Update, July 27, 2006

A dream deferred Will former Africville residents finally get their church rebuilt? An apology would be nice too. Stephen Kimber reports. by Stephen Kimber Irvine Carvery has reason to be cautious. And he is. But he could be cynical too. And he isn’t. Since 1976, when the birth of his first son taught him the […]

Alexa

As the first female leader of a mainstream Canadian political party, she helped transform Nova Scotia and Canadian politics. In the process, she transcended party affiliation and gender to become simply “Alexa” to Canadians across the country.

“It’s everything I hoped for — a portrait of one of our great political leaders, written by one of our best writers.”

[custom_menu_wizard menu="Books-Alexa"]

Filmmaker Floyd Kane talks life in East Preston, making Diggstown and opening doors for Black Nova Scotians

By Stephen Kimber Floyd Kane was frustrated, restless, anxious. On one level, he knew he shouldn’t have to carry the burden of all those angst-anchoring emotions. He should be basking in the glow of everything he’d accomplished and all he was yet to accomplish, thank you very much. He’d grown up in East Preston, a […]