What We Talk About When We Talk About Africville

Scholarly and literary interest in African Canadians in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has centered on Africville, a segregated community eventually destroyed by urban renewal. But this emphasis on Africville obscures the normative experience of Black Haligonians, who historically lived in greater numbers in an integrated neighborhood. Using the stories of three Haligonians after the Halifax explosion of 1917, this article explores themes of the historical Black Haligonian experience lost when authors focus on Africville: transnational migration within North America, a politics embedded in the British Empire, and continual racist discrimination even while living in integrated neighborhoods.