Remember Africville Essay

What distinguishes the Africville urban renewal project from similar projects in the second half of the 20th century was its transformation “from a symbol of civic and humanitarian progress to a symbol of Black consciousness and white racism.” Although other similar relocation projects during this era might have exceeded the Africville relocation project in sheer scope, the negative associations concerning the Africville project, even in contemporary Canada, are still not forgotten. Drawing upon the relevant readings and the documentary Remember Africville by Shelagh Mackenzie, the clash between governmental interests on the one hand and the interests of the Africville inhabitants on the other hand will be analyzed in this essay. Although

Tina Loo argues that “the solutions liberals offered were aimed at meeting Africvillers’ needs,” suggesting that the razing of Africville must be seen in broader terms than just racist attitudes from the government of Halifax, I, while not necessarily disagreeing with Loo, will argue that meeting the Africvillers’ needs was only extended so far as to legitimize the razing and to reflect positively on the government of Halifax and Nova Scotia. Moreover, modernist notions of racial integration and the Haligonian’s shame of slum-type areas in their community justified the Halifax government’s paternalistic attitudes towards the removal project; nevertheless, it is hard to deny that a racist discourse fuels this notion of paternalism, a discourse where Black Canadians are, unrightfully so, seen as in need of guidance.
Indeed it is probably too simplistic to argue that only racist assumptions and economic interests on the side of the Halifax and Nova Scotia government fueled the Africville removal project; the human character of the removal was not entirely lost to the authorities. The Dalhousie University report, “The Condition of the Negroes of Halifax City, Nova Scotia,” states that “physical slum clearance and reconstruction, without attention to the problems of adjustment and the long-term interests of the people to be relocated, may not solve the housing problem in anything like a satisfactory fashion for the Negroes.” Thus, at least the expert concerned with mapping the problems concerning Africville did indeed see it as important to come up with resolutions that involve being conscious of the needs of the Africvillers. Moreover, according to Loo, the appointment of a single individual, Peter MacDonald, to deal with the Africville relocation was not “simply a matter of economy, but also of humanity; relying on one individual to be the face of the relocation program reflected a belief held by city officials that ‘personal contact’ was a key part of the planned social change.” The appointment of Peter MacDonald can thus be seen as the Halifax government trying to cater to the need of the Africville residents.
Nevertheless, the reality of the situation, as opposed to what has been described in the former paragraph, was quite different. Although the city might have tried to implement certain policies that would meet the need of the Africvillers, promising to implement such policies might have simply been out of necessity to legitimize the relocation. In the documentary, Terry Dixon, a former Africville resident, really does prove my point; according to Dixon, the city government to justify the razing used the “living conditions” argument. However, according to Dixon these living conditions could have simply been upgraded, something that a lot of Africville people preferred over moving out of that community, with plumbing and paved roads. If the government really wanted to cater to the need of the Africville people then it simply could have provided this community with basic needs such as plumbing and clean drinking water. The city government did in fact on several occasions promise the Africville citizens that they would get water and sewage services. However, “the matter became lost in the City bureaucracy and Africville residents, when they were relocated in the 1960s, were still without the water sewerage services made obligatory by City ordinance.” Such important matters getting lost in bureaucracy can be seen as neglect from the city government; a government that as reverend Donald Skeir, in the documentary, describe as going through an “exercise of having meetings with the people [in Africville] but behind it all decisions had already been made.” These decisions according to reverend Skeir were based on Africville being prime land, a kind of land that was not for the black people. Thus, whether consulting the Africville residents was in fact a legitimate goal of the Halifax and Nova Scotia government or whether this was simply a way to legitimize the relocation project is difficult to answer. However, one thing is certain: the needs of the community were never really take into consideration.
While the needs of the Africville residents were obscured in the bureaucratic machinery, modernist notions concerning racial integration and urban renewal fueled the paternalistic attitudes of the Halifax government.

One of the first orders of business in order to justify paternalistic encroachment of the state was to frame Africville as a slum. Post World War II “Africville became regarded by outsiders as harbouring a risky deviance service centre and being a model of social disorganization.” This stigmatization of Africville as harboring vice and illegal activity helped to perpetuate the slum imagery. In reality, however, white and other non-Africville black Haligonians, often visited Africville to participate in these underground activities; however, economic distress and the subsequent neglect of Africville by the city government made the deviant aspect of Africville less tolerable. Moreover, issues regarding deeds and landownership resulted in “Africville [being] almost completely illegible to the state.” This illegibility had some very practical issues in the relocation processes; for example, it was very hard to figure out who actually had claim to certain properties. For the Halifax government the illegible status of Africville accompanied with their obliviousness concerning the informal land conveyance in Africville “created a situation that stigmatized virtually all residents and in effect legitimated the City's neglect of Africville.” Ultimately this

legitimized neglect translated in Africville’s stagnation, which in turn made it relatively easy for the city government to label Africville as a slum.
Moreover, the cities presumptions about the nature of Africville and its inhabitants were fueled by racist assumptions.

One of these assumptions was that Black Africville residents were naturally a homogenous unit. However, even in a relatively small and perhaps seemingly homogenous community great differences existed internally. The city government of Halifax at best did very little to acknowledge these differences and at worst blatantly ignored them. Daniel McNeil identifies how within the black communities “Black Caribbean residents in Nova Scotia can be viewed as competitors for jobs.” Thus, the black communities in Nova Scotia at large were all but homogenous units with their own internal rivalries. Furthermore, as Donald Clairmont identifies, differences in how Africville was perceived existed internally in the Africville community and varied greatly according to social grouping; some Africvillers agreed that it was a slum while others vehemently opposed such framing. Even the Dalhousie report fails to even mention in-group differences that might exist in the Black population in Halifax. This report groups Halifax’s black population, for example in Table 1, in two classes: “Mid-city Negroes” and “Africville Negroes.” It is hard to imagine that an extensive survey into the living habits of white Haligonians would warrant similar categories. Surely the ethnicity of the white population would be taken into consideration and categories such as Irish, Scottish, etc.,

would have been used.
Although this essay has at times simplified the Africville removal project by labeling the Halifax and Nova Scotia government as using paternalistic and racist discourse to justify their actions, the lived experiences of the Africville residents as displayed in the film Remembering Africville do warrant this conclusion. Coercive tactics by the majority group can oftentimes be so subtle that even the marginalized groups might buy in to some of these ideas; in the documentary, Gus Wedderburn, albeit not a former resident of Africville but definitely a marginalized Black Haligonian, really embodies this notion of buying in to the framing of Africville as a slum. However, Mr. Wedderburn throughout the documentary states: “I did not see the flowers.” Clearly before visiting Africville, Mr. Wedderburn was in a real sense indoctrinated by a consensus in Halifax that Africville was a slum; however, after visiting Africville and experiencing the life of the people there he saw another side of Africville, a place with its own distinct beauty, a place that many proudly called home.