Unsettling the Great White North: Black Canadian History

Review "How did Canada become white? Dispossession, erasure, and a sham multiculturalism. This extraordinary volume of essays exposes settler violence and fraudulent claims of ‘inclusion’ and offers instead a long, deep, and often hidden history of Black struggles for freedom, power, and self-determination. It should be required reading, not only for Canadians but for all of us on occupied Turtle Island and around the world." -- Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical "This timely collection challenges any remaining conception of the Great White North as a refuge from anti-Black violence and exclusion. Documenting the long and varied histories of endurance, negotiation, and resistance against racism among persons of African descent, this volume not only challenges any conception of the Black Canadian experience as ‘linear, unchanging, homogenous, and recent,’ it also offers a vital corrective to the erasure of Black Canadians from the national myths about who ‘we’ are, and who ‘we’ can become. Truly a must read!" -- Beverley Mullings, Professor of Geography and Planning, Queen’s University"This collection, by locating the past as a force shadowing the present and informing Black people’s ongoing search for freedom, overwrites narratives of a redemptive Canadian multicultural citizenship to narrate the possibilities by which Black people have survived, and continue to survive, conquest and subjugation. This comprehensive cartography of Black life in Canada is a stunning achievement and essential reading in Black Canadian history and thought." -- Andrea A. Davis, Associate Professor of Humanities, York University, and co-editor of The Journal of Canadian Studies"Unsettling the Great White North is a vital collection of historical scholarship featuring bold and accomplished voices in the field of Black Canadian Studies, and illuminating a striking diversity of periods, regions, communities, institutions, art forms, and emergent frames of inquiry. Expertly curated, it offers precious knowledge and critical insight to scholars and general readers alike." -- David Chariandy, Professor of English, Simon Fraser University, and author of Brother"Unsettling the Great White North is a major contribution. Encompassing essays on topics ranging from slavery to community studies about African immigrants, this indispensable book should be read by all students of Canadian history." -- Harvey Amani Whitfield, Professor of Black North American History, University of Calgary"Unsettling the Great White North, the first volume of its kind,is an impressive collection in depth, scope, and quality. Twenty-one authors centre and make visible the experiences of African Canadians, including recent migrants (Rwandans and other continental Africans). Collectively, albeit with different emphases, these authors bear witness to histories of exclusion and marginalization while simultaneously underscoring African Canadians as agents of their own lives. Unsettling the Great White North clears up any misconception regarding African Canadians’ contributions to Canada’s nation-building enterprise. An authoritative text that is accessible to and suitable for both academic and general audiences interested in Black Canadian Studies and history." -- Karen Flynn, Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and author of Moving beyond Borders: A History of Black Canadian and Caribbean Women in the Diaspora"This is an important and comprehensive contribution to the Black Canadian historical studies. It offers critical analyses regarding the diversity, complexity, and creativity of Black Canadian lives and new understandings about the racialized history of African Canadians as well as the ways in which Black communities have overcome systemic barriers. Unsettling the Great White North indeed unsettles dominant historical practices and centres the very people who have been left out of history." --