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African Descent Advisory Committee holds first meeting, talks plans for Africville and policing

Group of 10 people stand in front of a staircase with lamps lit up on either side.
The African Descent Advisory Board held their first meeting on Sept. 11. Photo courtesy of the Halifax Regional Municipality.
Haeley DiRisio - CKDU - Halifax • NS | 13-09-2023
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The African Descent Advisory Committee met for the first meeting at Alderney Landing on Monday night.

During the meeting, committee members voted to appoint Chioma Ogbanufe as the chair of the committee and Andrew Howe as vice chair. The committee discussed issues in Halifax Regional Municipality they are looking to tackle first. 

In October 2022, Halifax Regional Council approved the creation of the African Descent Advisory Committee as part of the municipality's work in addressing Anti-Black racism. 

Member Jerry Taylor raised his concerns about a possible future for the land where Africville once stood. Taylor said he would like to see the city build homes for those who were displaced when the north-end community was destroyed by the city in the 1960s to make room for the MacKay Bridge.

“I saw people leaving my community in dump trucks,” Taylor said. 

The committee agreed this was an important issue to tackle and asked that the city provide an update on the progress made in the 2010 Africville agreement. In 2010, the city apologized for the loss of Africville in the 1960s along with a cumulative $5 million from different levels of government for the African Nova Scotian community. A hectare of land was also included in the agreement and plans to rebuild the Seaview United Baptist Church on the site, which will be used as a museum.

In January, the Africville Heritage Trust received $150,000 to support long term growth. This was the first funding received for the museum since the 2010 agreement. 

“The city should support the members of Africville in building homes on their own land,” Taylor said. 

Member Darryl Johnson added that the committee should focus on the issue of racism within the Halifax Regional Police (HRP) and over-policing of Black residents. Johnson said that while on a previous committee in the early 1990s, they looked into racism which led to HRP creating an all-Black cadet class in 1991. 

“Unfortunately, since then, to my knowledge, there hasn’t been another class such as [this one],” Johnson said.

No official recommendations were made during the meeting but the committee agreed these issues were major focuses for the upcoming meetings. 

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