Social Sciences

"A Daughter of Promise – Diary of a Female African-Canadian Teacher in Rondeau, 1907" in The Promised Land: History and Historiography of the Black Experience in Chatham-Kent's Settlements and Beyond, Nina Reid-Maroney, Handel K. Wright, Boulou Ebanda de b'Béri, eds. (University of Toronto Press, 2014), 90-105.

Eschewing the often romanticized Underground Railroad narrative that portrays southern Ontario as the welcoming destination of Blacks fleeing from slavery, The Promised Land reveals the Chatham-Kent area as a crucial settlement site for an early Black presence in Canada. The contributors present the everyday lives and professional activities of individuals and families in these communities […]

"'Likely to become a Public Charge': Examining Black Migration to Eastern Canada, 1900-1930" in Unsettling the Great White North: African Canadian History

Many Canadians tend to imagine themselves as part of the "Great White North," typified by images of snow and wilderness, tropes which reinforce ideologies based on Canadian innocence, "freedom," and a nation founded on British and French European-ness. The presence of enslaved, freed, and migratory persons of African descent in Canada has always presented a […]

Where Race Does Not Matter: The New Spirit of Modernity

Originally intended to be a white man's country, Canada helped develop the prototype for the nation-state that privileged the descendants of Western Europe and marginalized all others, including those who were aboriginal to the land. This is the prototype that also characterized apartheid South Africa. Now, thanks to the policies of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Canada […]

Distorted Mirror: Canada's Racist Face

Caribana

The African-Canadian community is definitely evident in Caribana, which is less a gift book than a souvenir album. Cecil Foster and Chris Schwarz have collaborated to produce a big, splashy, colourful book that explores the origins and events of the Caribana festival that is held every August in Toronto. In early years the festival occurred […]

Blackness and Modernity: The Colour of Humanity and the Quest for Freedom

Foster presents an interdisciplinary analysis of blackness by challenging existing notions of blackness and arguing for the viability of a multicultural world. He traces the philosophical, anthropological, sociological, and mythological arguments that support views of modernity as a failed quest for whiteness.

A Place Called Heaven: The Meaning of Being Black in Canada

Hard-hitting, controversial and well researched, A PLACE CALLED HEAVEN lifts the thin veil of racism against blacks in Canada. Cecil Foster maintains that what Canada's mainstream delivers to the black community is skewed justice, fear as a first response, fair-weather political representation, and a sensationalist media. Exploring how crime, violence, immigration and women's issues all […]

The Black Social Economy in the Americas: Exploring Diverse Community-Based Markets

This pioneering book explores the meaning of the term “Black social economy,” a self-help sector that remains autonomous from the state and business sectors. With the Western Hemisphere’s ignoble history of enslavement and violence towards African peoples, and the strong anti-black racism that still pervades society, the African diaspora in the Americas has turned to […]

Politicized Microfinance: Money, power and violence in the Black Americas

When Grameen Bank was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, microfinance was lauded as an important contributor to the economic development of the Global South. However, political scandals, mission-drift, and excessive commercialization have tarnished this example of responsible or inclusive financial development. Politicized Microfinance insightfully discusses exclusion while providing a path towards redemption.

Community economies in the Global South: Case Studies of Rotating Savings, Credit Associations, and Economic Cooperation

People across the globe engage in social and solidarity economics to help themselves, their community, and society on their own terms. Community Economies in the Global South examines how people who conscientiously organize rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) bring positive changes to their own lives as well as others. ROSCAs are a long-established and […]