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 […]
- 12/19/2011
- StephenKimber
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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, […]
- 09/26/2011
- StephenKimber
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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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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. […]
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 […]
Bill Mont, who died on October 28, 2025, at the age of 96, was one of Halifax’s legendary characters. He would become best known as Nova Scotia’s “Flea Market King” during the 1970s and 1980s. But he was also one of the “characters” who helped me bring to life everyday life in Halifax during World […]
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.”
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- 12/07/2021
- StephenKimber
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STEPHEN KIMBER, a Professor of Journalism at the University of King's College in Halifax and co-founder of its MFA in Creative Nonfiction Program, is an award-winning writer, editor and broadcaster. He is the author of two novels and eight non-fiction books. Buy his books
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