I learnt that the first people to settle on the land that H.I.M Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia set aside for Africans in the diaspora, in particular, those from the Caribbean, was a couple from Montserrat.
..they were called the Pipers.
It was part of an agreement made with the Ethiopian Government, and a Rastafarian delegation from England, and Jamaica. Initiated also in part by the Jamaican government, after a commissioned report by the University of the West Indies.
Big shout out to the Pipers.. Pioneers
Almost every time I read your posts, I'm googling furiously, Dawna! I had never heard the term African diaspora or of Marcus Garvey before. At least I've heard of Ethiopia!
ReplyDeleteJoking aside, I really appreciate your blog because it is opening my eyes up to so many things! And I love to learn and to see things through other eyes and hearts.
You may have heard of the Nova Scotian Black Loyalists who emigrated to Sierria Leone to establish Freetown in the 1790s. A lot of Black Americans who were loyal to Britain fled to Nova Scotia during the American Revolution. The Black Loyalists had a more difficult time than the White Loyalists in Nova Scotia, and some of them chose to go to Sierra Leone with the help of the Sierra Leone Company. It was an experiment that didn't work too well, because the company was unhappy with the democratic ideas and American ideals the Black immigrants brought with them; so no more large groups of American Blacks were allowed to go to Sierra Leone.
Nova Scotia has a large Black population today, many of whom are the descendants of the Black Loyalists. So I was familiar with Black people growing up, and there wasn't the racial hatred like in the southern USA. There was certainly discrimination and less economic opportunity for Black people in Canada and Nova Scotia, but it was better than in the US.
Another group of Black people arrived in Nova Scotia via the Underground Railroad and joined the established Black Loyalist communities in Nova Scotia. I had heard about the Underground Railroad from my staunch Baptist formidable grandmother MacDonald because she thought I should understand that Canada abolished slavery before America did and that Canada had accepted slave fugitives. Many of Canada's slaves were Indian/Aboriginals, but sadly, there were Black slaves too. For sure my grandmother wanted me to understand the evils of slavery.
I am enjoying learning more and more about my native province's Black history. I hope I am not offending anyone by using the term "Black." What's acceptable always seems to be changing.
Thank you for teaching me so many things!
Both you Dawna and Fundy, thank you for educating me! I've known about Marcus Garvey and term African diaspora, and also about black people in Nova Scotia, but I didn't know the details you both presented in the posting and your responses. I learned something new today!
DeleteFundy! you've got me Google-ing too :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing that .. as although I'm familiar with Sierra Leone, I wasn't familiar with Nova Scotia, or that they were black loyalists.
So that's very interesting . Both Sierra Leone and Liberia fascinate me.. and i would like to visit both places some day
It;s nice to join the dots, show how we're all connected. Locate myself and others amidst it all
Plus I love learning new things too.. and I think some amazing people have walked this earth.. and continue to do so
Marcus Garvey.. was an amazing man, yet he died here in London, never having visited the place which he held dear in his heart. I'm told he was to go to Liberia set up there, but was given a poor reference by WEB Dubois, who then went to Liberia himself.
Thanks again Fundy, I can look into that even more now..
Hope you're having a great day :)
Both you Dawna and Fundy, thank you for educating me! I've known about Marcus Garvey and term African diaspora, and also about black people in Nova Scotia, but I didn't know the details you both presented in the posting and your responses. I learned something new today!
ReplyDelete