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| Africville/Seaview Park. Image by Matthew Matheson. |
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A GREETING
May integrity and uprightness preserve me,
for I wait for you.
(Psalm 25:21)
A READING
For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that God has given you.
(Deuteronomy 8:7-10)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
(Isaiah 58:6-7a)
A POEM
Society Said: You are an inferior being,
born to be a hewer of wood
and a drawer of water
because you are Black....
My Mother Said: You are a person, separate
and apart from all other
persons on earth. The pathway
to your destiny is hidden...
you alone must find it...
- from a dedication written by Carrie Best, at the front of
her book: That Lonesome Road: The Autobiography of Carrie M. Best,
found on rabble.ca
VERSE OF THE DAY
Who may dwell on your holy hill?
Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right,
and speak the truth from their heart.
(Psalm 15:1b-2)
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| Seaview United Baptist Church, Africville. Image by Dennis Jarvis. |
There are almost 300 kilometres between Sable Island and its nearest mainland city, Halifax. The southerly flowing Labrador current and the upwardly flowing Gulf stream both pass through the area between the mainland and the island.
The occupation of the land belonging to others is one of the main threads of the Hebrew Bible. People move from one place to another, conquer its inhabitants, occupy the land and then move again. In the biblical story, God seems to be on the side of the occupiers, and even promises as in today's reading, an abundant life there. The description of a 'promised land' means the end of decades of enslavement and roaming for the Hebrew people. But in arriving on the land, they will displace the Canaanites who already live there.
Among the stories of Halifax’s history, is Africville, the first substantial black community in Canada. We in Canada have learned a history in which our country is cast as the place of freedom for those who had been enslaved. Today and tomorrow, we will explore how much slavery and racism were alive in Canada in the earliest days of settlement and into the 19th and 20th centuries.
Black Loyalists who had found freedom after the US Revolutionary War and then the War of 1812 came to Nova Scotia to search for a new life. But they were also present before these wars and historical markers. They came as European settlers were also arriving, but almost immediately they were forced to the margins. Some were enslaved again by city leaders as domestic servants. Despite this, places like Africville managed to thrive.
Although they were paying taxes, residents of Africville received no social services, like water and electricity. In 1962, the Halifax City Council decided that the community was a slum, and as such needed to be demolished. People watched as their homes were bulldozed, displacing 80 families and more than 400 people. The land was used to help build a bridge, and then was turned into a city park, before it finally was set aside to remember its history. In 2024, Africville became Canada’s first UNESCO Place of History and Memory site, because of its associations with the story of enslavement and racism in Canada. The designation protects the site forever.
When he moved around in his ministry, the human Jesus never laid claim to a particular piece of land. Although he is believed to have spent long periods in Capernaum and the Galilee, no one place was his home. And yet the divine Jesus was and is a part of every created thing.
How can we uphold the history of Africville?
What do we need to unlearn, in order to deepen our understanding?
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A STORY OF ENDURANCE
In this short video produced by CBC, Shauntay Grant reads from her children's book, Africville, and explains its significance. Grant has written five children's books about African Canadians living in the Maritimes.
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Resources in today's devotion:
Scripture passages are taken from The New Revised Standard Version.
The Nathaniel Dett Chorale, named after an Ontario black 19th century composer, has a commitment to song that reflects the historical black experience. Find out more about them here.
Explore the interactive website of the Africville museum, found here.
The Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg also has a strong profile of Africville and other Black communities of Nova Scotia. You can find it here. Carrie Best was an early twentieth-century black Nova Scotia activist who edited the first exclusively African newspaper called The Clarion. Read more about her here.
For more on Shauntay Grant and to see her other children's books, go here.
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LC† Streams of Living Justice is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work.
Thank you and peace be with you!