Group strategizes how to find, foster and encourage black Hamilton leaders

Matthew Green, Hamilton's first black city councillor, kicked off a gathering Saturday by listing several of Hamilton's other "firsts" accomplished by African Canadians. 

First black recipient of Hamilton's Citizen of the Year: John Holland. First black Canadian Olympic medallist: Ray G. Lewis. First black MP: Lincoln M. Alexander.

Although we can be proud of our firsts, I would like to get to a place where we can be proud of our 'many's.- Matthew Green, Ward 3 Councillor

The intent of Saturday's gathering was both to honour those firsts and to figure out how to go beyond them. The meeting at an Afro-Canadian Caribbean Association building on Barton Street focused on black history, African heritage and shaping future leaders.

"Although we can be proud of our firsts, I would like to get to a place where we can be proud of our 'many's,'" Green said. "Our many's are contained in the youth that are here in our city, [they're] contained in the dreams of our parents and our ancestors."

• Matthew Green: What it means to be Hamilton's 1st black city councillor
• While family fights Ebola, Hamilton community leader again feels torn

Green and community organizer Leo Johnson convened a black leadership summit that featured motivational messages and storytelling from community members and guests from the U.S. and Ghana.

It was crucial the event include both young people and older generations, Johnson said.

"Young people do not live in isolation of the people around them," he said.

The setting is apt, Green said. He invoked the local legacy of Harriet Tubman, sometimes referred to as "Black Moses."

"Harriet Tubman made multiple trips from St. Catherine's, which is literally just down the street, back into the plantations to free her people and bring them back," Green said. "This whole area, this whole region is rich, and steeped, in the Canadian-African diaspora contributions, legacies that go back way beyond the beginning of this country."

'Our history goes far beyond that'

The presence of elected and community leaders from Ghana lent a prestigious and global feeling to the conversation. Ghanaian MP Seth Kwame Acheampong cheered the event's focus on storytelling as a means to "nudge you and shape you as a human being" in regards to your neighbour.

Seth Oteng, director of the Youth Bridge Foundation in Ghana, said the youth of Africa and the diaspora need to lead the "next step of Black History Month."  

Green and Johnson emphasized the need of the Afro-Canadian community to connect with their "brothers and sisters" in Africa.

But that value goes both ways, said Cornell University professor N'Dri Assie-Lumumba. 

"Africa will never be able to take off if it does not connect to the diaspora," Lamumba said.

The event served a dual purpose: To foster new discussion on cultivating the black community in Hamilton, and to officially kick off the African Youth Governance Conference to be held in South Africa later this year.

When the gathering of about 25 people split up for discussion, they focused on three main themes: Addressing divisions while celebrating diversity, connecting younger generations with elders and their roots in Africa, and holding education and media institutions accountable to reflect the range of perspectives in Hamilton.

Attendees with roots in the Caribbean admitted they don't always feel comfortable or confident asserting their place among Afro-Canadians. Others said the divisions between different national or cultural groups in older generations could threaten the chances for unity in younger ones.

Dora Anie, Hamilton-based founder of the Ghana School of Dreams, said she emphasizes with her children that they belong in both Ghana and Canada.

Green bemoaned the tendency for black history to extend back only to slavery, and said schools and media should broaden their historical scope. 

"It stops and starts at a time when we were at probably our lowest and most marginalized and most depressed point," he said. "I know that you know that our history goes far beyond that."

Two Grade 10 students at Westdale Secondary were in the group discussing the education piece. 

Gachi Issa said the admonition to connect to her ancestors' roots resonated with her. Her father, she said, walked from Chad to Libya to get to the airport to come to Canada, where she was born. 

It's important to tell stories like these, she said, for the sake of "knowing your past, knowing how strong your people are." 

Tyra-Jade McKenzie-Baxter, her classmate, said the older generations disparage social media like Twitter and Instagram, but she and her peers are tapping those resources, she said. 

"We are going to be on our computers, but we're also going to be leaders," she said. "We feel like a lost generation, but we use that. We use Instagram, Twitter."

The discussion subgroup that Issa and McKenzie-Baxter were in elected them to share their perspective with the larger group.

Watch a short clip of McKenzie-Baxter urging older generations not to belittle her peers' use of tools like Twitter: 

As the time approached for a "Kente" cultural gathering with food, music and dancing, Johnson said the results of the discussion and ideas for where it will go from here will be distributed in the community. The guests from Ghana will be in Hamilton until Tuesday, meeting with other groups to continue the conversation, Johnson said.