Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan

 

Canada and the United States celebrate Black history month in February, the United Kingdom in October. The idea is to honor the Blacks’ priceless contributions through public service, music, spirituality, culture, sports, civil rights, education and other fields. The three countries have made considerable progress in race relations but racism still persists —especially in security agencies such as the police.



I witnessed racism in the US while working with the Flint (Michigan) Journal as a part of my studies at the University of Michigan. A social worker and I shared an apartment. One evening a black professor dropped in and we had a stimulating discussion. The next day the landlady, who lived downstairs, called: she wanted no blacks to visit our apartment. Shocked, my colleague told her he was vacating the apartment.



I was new to the city and knew mostly my colleagues at the paper. But when Thanksgiving came it was only a black family that I had met casually which invited me to the holiday feast. Their thoughtfulness moved me.



In Canada I received the Order of Canada from then Governor General Michaelle Jean. She came to Canada from Haiti at the age of 11 as a refugee in 1968. She excelled at university and in journalism. She became governor-general in 2005 and for five years served Canadians with warmth and elegance.



I received the Order of Ontario from then lieutenant-governor James Bartleman, who is partly Aboriginal. After a distinguished career in foreign service he became lieutenant-governor in 2002. No surprise. This is Canada.



In Black history, Canada is known for the Underground Railroad — not an actual railway —  through which American slaves escaped to Canada. United Empire Loyalists, fleeing the United States, also brought slaves with them to Canada. This was not new. Under the French rule of Louis X1V, slaves were brought to “New France” starting in 1628. They were treated brutally.

 

Before the British conquered Canada in 1760 nearly 60 percent of the slaves in New France, as Canada was known, were Aboriginal people. The British then brought slaves from Africa, the Caribbean and their 13 American colonies. Slavery persisted in Canada for 200 years. 



Upper Canada (now Ontario) became the first jurisdiction in the British Empire in 1793 to outlaw importing slaves. Along with the British empire, it abolished slavery in 1833, long before the US did.



More than 20,000 Blacks fled to Canada between 1834 and 1865. Josiah Henson, who moved to Canada after buying his freedom, taught ex-slaves how to farm. His life inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe to write the moving novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, about the horrors of slavery.



Though US Blacks fled to Canada they encountered severe discrimination and even violence. Some returned to the US after slavery was abolished. Today Canadian Blacks number some 665,000.



 One of the best known Canadians is Lincoln M. Alexander, the son of a maid and a railway porter. He pursued education and law, became Canada’s first Black member of Parliament in 1968 and the first Black lieutenant of a Canadian province, Ontario.



The first Black to win a seat in a provincial legislature was Leonard Braithwaite in 1963. He served till 1975. His efforts led to the abolition in Ontario of school segregation.



In 1926 the US Association for the Study of Negro Life and History sponsored a Negro History Week in February to coincide with the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln, who fought to abolish slavery, and Fredrick Douglass, to highlight the contributions of African Americans.  Douglass, a former slave, became a powerful orator and writer against the evils of slavery.



The first province in Canada to promote Black History Month was Ontario, which initiated the project in 1979 at the request of the Ontario Black History Society. Toronto was the first Canadian city to do so. Now it is observed in all provinces.



The Federal Parliament unanimously adopted a motion in 1995 naming February as Black History Month. The motion was moved by Jean Augustine, a domestic servant from the island of Grenada, who rose to become the first Black member of the Canadian Parliament.



Now, the month is celebrated with festivities, movies, discussions and other programs that spotlight the Blacks’ contribution to Canada. The theme for this year’s celebrations is Our Canadian Story: Making Our Voices Heard! Every year Canada Post issues commemorative stamps.



The two stamps Canada Post issued this year show Africville in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Hogan’s Alley in Vancouver, B.C. Both places had vibrant black communities. Africville thrived initially but later fell apart. In 1964 its 400 residents were relocated from the slum. Hogan’s Alley also had a small but flourishing Black community. But it fell prey to construction and disappeared.



Canada and its African Canadian citizens want to ensure that the contributions of Blacks become well known to all Canadians. It reminds me of the Islamic teaching that superiority does not stem from race or religion but a person’s own merit. Canada puts this principle in practise more than most countries.

 

— Mohammed Azhar Ali Khan is a retired Canadian journalist, civil servant and refugee judge.