By Kianna Mahmoud, Dalhousie Medical student
The following piece was submitted to the 2023 Student Writing Competition that our office hosts each year. While it did not receive a specific award the judges felt it deserved honourable mention and so we share it with you today. The theme of the Student Writing Competition is community engagement and is a celebration of student voice and experiences. Please enjoy these reflections from Kianna.
A Brief History
African Nova Scotian (ANS) history is largely missing from many high-school Curricula around the country. As a result, Canadians are not aware of the historical and carefully planned policies that were targeted at maintaining African Nova Scotians to a subordinate status in Nova Scotia. I encourage anyone unaware of the rich Black Canadian history in the Atlantic to do a deep dive in their own time. Briefly, following the arrival of Mathieu DaCosta, a Black Afro-French explorer in 1604, there were at least four significant waves of migration. The Freed Black Loyalists were the first to arrive in NS in the 17th century, followed by exiled Jamaican Marrons who built Citadel Hill under conditions of starvation (1796), then freed enslaved Africans during the war of 1812 (Saney, 1999), and the late arrivals domestic workers from the Caribbean (Calliste, 1994). Many of these Black folks, along with others throughout history have settled in 52 Black communities in Nova Scotia and others throughout the Atlantic. Provinces. There were several racist policies and practices aimed at destabilizing the Black home leading to forced migration, harsh living conditions, and inequitable access to education. For example, funding for public education in the Black community was largely non-existent and schools remained segregated until the 1960s; Black people were forced from their generational homes in Africville in the 1960s and placed in densely populated public housing without compensation (although before the demolition of this close-knit community the city refused to provide it with adequate drinking water and garbage disposal). In addition to these racist systemic efforts, ANS represents 2.4% of the province’s population but represents 11% of admissions in provincial correctional facilities.
Inequitable Education
The Government of Canada’s 4th Sustainable Development Goal is Quality Education. It is well known among the ANS community that students experience an opportunity gap compared to non-ANS students because of historically racist policies and ongoing inequitable practices. However, the experience of Black students in Nova Scotia is not well-known among non-Black people, which perpetuates dominant cultural narratives about Black people, leading to further bias and discrimination. Similar to practices in Ontario (link), Black students in Nova Scotia are inequitably streamlined into non-academic courses, which serve as a large barrier to enrolling into university programs. In addition to streamlining, the lack of cultural safety in the school services, minimal staff representation, and continued stereotyping increase the stress burden on Black students and families. All these practices contribute to a large opportunity gap compared to non-Black students (Hamilton-Hinch, 2021), which limits students’ ability to mobilize upwards in society, escape poverty, reduce inequity and occupy professional spaces.
Resistance, Perseverance and Allies
Despite the continued marginalization and inequitable education experienced by ANS students, numerous community leaders, students, and other key partners continue to unapologetically advocate for better health and wellbeing, as well as dismantle systemic barriers to education. Community organizations advocating for better health outcomes include the Health Association of African Canadians (HAAC and African Nova Scotian Decade for people of African Descent. Academic organizations advocating for better outcomes include Promoting Leadership in Health for African Nova Scotians (PLANS), IMHOTEP Legacy Academy, and the Black Medical Students Association. In addition, the education department has made some changes in the right direction with respect to reducing barriers for Black students and improving cultural safety within schools, like revising the curriculum for Black Canadian students, hiring more student-support workers, providing grants to schools to create culturally safe spaces, requiring all schools to examine data when it comes to achievement, etc. With the determination and hard, yet exhausting, work of community members, Black and other allied groups in Nova Scotia can work towards true equitable education for ANS students, thus increasing the opportunities available for students to increase average family income, mobilize upwards in society, and occupy important positions of power to create real sustainable change.
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