Learn More about Black Knowledges

 Black Canadian Frameworks

• The Black Prairie Archives: An Anthology (2020) Edited by Karina Vernon, Associate Professor in the Department of English at UTSC. This volume explores the 220-plus-year history of Black people living on the Prairies through writing. The birthdates of the 60-author collection range from 1840 through to 1990 and help in disrupting a "particular archive of writing" commonly associated with Canadian Prarie literature and the region (p.2). The authors in this collection, "reveal the key role race has played in shaping the prairies as a region, politically, culturally, and ideologically" and offer another set of perspectives and experiences "connected to and transformed by its relation to the black world..." (p.3).
• Schooling the System: A History of Black Women Teachers (2022) by Funké Aladejebi, Assistant Professor in the Department of History at UTSC "explores the professional lives of ... black female educators between the 1940s and 1980s, using their experiences to explore questions of Canadian citizenship, identity, and belonging" (p.6). The book is divided into five chapters examining the early history of Black women in teacher preparation programs, those entering the profession, their experiences being both visible and invisible as Black women, and the role of activism and resistance during the 1970s and 1980s in Canada.   
• Theorizing Empowerment: Canadian Perspectives on Black Feminist Thought (2007) edited by Notisha Massaquoi, Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Society, UTSC, and Njoki Wane, Professor and Chair of the Department of Social Justice Education at OISE. This publication brings together academics, artists, and activists to showcase the diversity of Black women's voices and experiences and the development of a "framework that enables one to articulate the complexities of the lives produced by interactions of race, nationalism, culture, identity, and sexuality" (p. 8). The book is organized into four sections:

1. Black Feminist Spiritualities: Where It All Begins

2. Black Canadian Feminist Histories and Frameworks: Reclaiming Our Place

3. Black Canadian Feminist Experiences and Struggles: Multiple Jeopardy

4. Black Canadian Feminist Discourses and Practices: Organizing for Change

• "Black Canadian Feminist Thought: Tensions and Possibilities"(2009), by Njoki Nathani Wane, Professor and Chair of the Department of Social Justice Education at OISE examine "on-going research on feminist theorizing among women of African ancestry in Canada" in Race Ethnicity and Education (p.65). Related Reading: "Black Canadian Feminist Thought: Perspectives on Equity and Diversity in the Academy"(2009), by Njoki Nathani Wane in Race Ethnicity and Education
• "Black People in Canada are not Settlers (2019)," written by Toronto-based lawyer Anthony Morgan considers how labeling Black people as settlers "mischaracterizes the true nature of the land-labour relationship that mediates Indigenous and African peoples' interconnected histories." Related Reading: "Indigenous Peoples and Black People in Canada: Settlers or Allies?" (2009) by Zainab Amadahy and Bonita Lawrence in Breaching the Colonial Contract (2009), edited by Arlo Kempf.
• The Black Governance & Leadership Project (BGLP) is dismantling systemic anti-Black racism embedded in board and leadership practices, which hinders Black Canadian participation at decision-making tables. BGLP has introduced an Afrocentric lens to governance and leadership, which is detailed in its curriculum and resource section.
• Black in Canada: 10 Stories represents a partnership between the BBC and photographer Jalani Morgan. It features a collection of conversations taking place in Halifax, Toronto, and Edmonton and the historical Black settlements of Amber Valley and Wildwood in the province of Alberta.
• Black on the Prairies is a visually stunning, CBC production placing "Blackness in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba at the centre of the country’s story" since the early settlement of African-Americans in the 1900s.
• Being Black in Canada (2020) is a CBC website inspired by 2013's Being Black in Canada* documentary, produced by  Journalist Asha Tomlinson and Senior Producer Xavine Bryan. *The original 2013 documentary is not available, but the 2014 version has been linked.

Intersectional Frameworks

• The Modern-Day Griot Project (MDGP) 2.0 was developed by community partner, Sweet Lime Communications, in partnership with the Office of Student Experience and Wellbeing, The Department of Arts, Culture & Media, The Department of Health and Society and the Community Partnership and Engagement Office (CPE). Designed to support the thriving of Black Students at UTSC and within the Durham District School Board, the project is guided through an Afrocentric lens, based on the principles of Nguzo Saba. Translated from Swahili, Nguzo Saba refers to the Seven Principles guiding the program, rooted in the communitarian African philosophy of Kawaida, developed by Maulana Karenga. As a framework, Nguzo Saba contributes to the expressions of Black knowledge presented on the hub. Related Viewing: Watch the Modern-Day Griot Project’s video on the Nguzo Saba principles.
• The Imani Academic Mentorship Program is affiliated with the Office of Student Experience & Wellbeing at the University of Toronto Scarborough and is an example of experiential learning at UTSC. The program "aims to meet the needs of the community with a goal of increasing representation of [B]lack students in post-secondary environments, including universities." 
• The Africana Development & Feminist Political Economy portal was developed by Canada Research Chair, Caroline Shenaz Hossein, Associate Professor of Global Development Studies, and cross-appointed to the graduate program of Political Science at the University of Toronto. She is a member of the University of Toronto's Black Research Network and the founder of the Diverse Solidarity Economies (DiSE) Collective, "a space for scholars and activists to support one another's work, ranging from political-economic studies to education, health and human rights." Related Viewing: Watch "The Banker Ladies" documentary, based on Hossein's research into Toronto's Black social economy. 
• In Black Writers Matter (2019), editor Whitney French has amassed a "rich potpourri... [and] jambalaya of Black Canadian voices," as Dr. Afua Cooper describes in the book's Foreward. The stories are intimately crafted, "showing our experiences in its multitudes and smashing the monolith.... [displaying]... a sacredness and an everydayness that offers Black people dignity" (xvi). Related Viewing: Watch a moderated discussion on Black Writers Matter hosted by the Toronto Reference Library.
• The African Diaspora in Canada: Negotiating Identity and Belonging (2005) edited by Wisdom Tettey and Ali Abdi, this collection of essays complicate the idea that there is any singular notion of what it means to be Black in Canada and part of the African diaspora. Often, ideas around what it means to be Black in Canada have ignored the diverse experiences of continental Africans and the "homogenizing tendencies exemplified by writings about the Black community" (p.6). Related Reading: Report of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent on its Mission to Canada from the United Nations exploring the area of human rights, racial discrimination, and recommendations. 
• Black Muslim Initiative is a grass-roots advocacy and social support organization dedicated to understanding and addressing issues pertaining to both anti-Black racism/prejudice and Islamophobia.
• ASE Community Foundation for Black Canadians with Disability is an organization to support Black people with disabilities to "disrupt disparities at the intersection of Blackness, disability, and gender."

• Youth Alliance for Intersectional Justice (YAIJ) is a Black youth-led collective of racialized youth, adults, and allies amplifying the voices of Black and Indigenous youth at the intersections of race and “ability.” Related Readings: "Work in the Intersections: A Black Feminist Disability Framework" (2019) by Moya Bailey and Izetta Autumn Mobley in Gender & Society & Black Disability Politics (2022) by Sami Schalk.

• "Indigenous African Philosophies as a Critical Thinking Pedagogical Tool for Schooling and Education" (2020), by Isaac Nortey et al. in Africanizing the School Curriculum: Promoting and Inclusive, Decolonial Education in African Contexts (edited by A. Afful-Broni et al.) "seeks to ask the extent to which Indigenous knowledge systems... provide an alternative discourse to the quest of ensuring knowledge production." More specifically, the chapter examines "the structure, use, and purpose of African proverbs, riddles, music, games, and folk stories among the Akans of Ghana and their pedagogic, instructional, and communicative values for critical thinking in postsecondary education" (p.94).