Afua Cooper
1. Biography
2. The poems, "Africa Wailin" and "Negro Cemeteries":http://www.afuacooper.com/home_page.html
3. Scholarly works
The Search for Truth in history
1.The need to explore the true history of the peoples of the Diaspora
2.The erasing of the slave past
3.The gendered slave experience
4.The cost of captivity
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33 comments:
Wow - thanks for posting Professor Cooper's poetry! These poems convey the sentiments expressed in her book about Canada's lack of acknowledgment about its involvement and perpetuation of the slave trade (not to mention ensuing historical and socially instituted racism). Parts of her book were stronger than others, but these poems (in particular "Negro Cemeteries") address white Canadian denial with insightful precision. As a white North Carolinian born to white Canadian parents, I found Professor Cooper's analysis of how Canada deals with racism (in that it doesn't) resonant. It seems to me that the denial of racism or the implications of slavery increase the further north one goes in the US - clearly the south is a racist landscape, but I have found that the north is equally as racist yet, unlike the south, holds to the notion that it ISN'T. There seems to be a lot of investment among white northerners to think of racism as a southern problem, and the same is true of Canada with regards to the U.S. My evidence isn't grounded in data, but I welcome others' thoughts and contributions to these observations.
The Hanging of Angelique
First, I would like to say that I absolutely loved this book. Afua Cooper is indeed an excellent researcher. The history that she provided about Canadian slavery was very informative, as I was unaware of the reverse Underground Railroad. Canada is often noted as being the place where Southern slaves fled to in an effort to avoid being recaptured by their former slave masters. However, Cooper's detailed analysis does a superb job dismantling the idea that Canada had no ties to slavery.
Although Cooper could only piece together the life of Angelique from court records, I do feel like got a pretty good understanding of Angelique. She was a slave woman that wanted to be free. Her sharp tongue and methods of resistance definitely dispel the myth of the “happy slave,” as slaves, even those the never ran away from their masters found other ways resist the slave institution everyday.
Did she start the fire? Well, Cooper's work leaves the reader room to make his or her own decision. Although, I have a feeling that her white boyfriend started the fire because of his strange disappearance and his refusal to help put the fire out (but that's just my opinion). Also, if she did start the fire, I believe that a woman as smart as her would have fled immediately, while the town was concerned with the flames.
The pseudo-trial, the Angelique was ridiculous. As far as I am concerned, the verdict was inevitable and the trial was only a put together because it was the Christian” thing to do. I mean, how in the world does a 5 year old get to be a star witness? Angelique was found guilty by everybody in that town before she even stepped in the courtroom.
Also, I am happy that Cooper provided the reader with an account of Angelique's slave journey. As many think of the Middle Passage as the removal of Africans from Africa to the Americas, Cooper’s work introduces the reader to story of Africans that provided free labor in Europe, and the slave institution in Europe.
Angelique's middle passage journey went from Africa, to Europe, to the New England states, and then to Canada. She also had several slave masters. The forced migration from three different countries, by the hands of other people, in a state of permanent servitude had to have taken stabs at her soul. However, the fact that Angelique was still able maintain a level of sassiness, engage in acts of resistance, and plan an escape confirms that slavery did not complete break enslaved Africans.
I loved the fact that this book was in the list because it opened my eyes about another area where slavery was. When i think of Canada, i would not think that slavery was there because in our school systems it is not mentioned much which is surprising since they speak of slavery everywhere else in the Americas. Cooper's poems were amazing. It was so vibrant in terms of the words that she used to paint a picture and i like the fact that she made sure to put words such as toronto or ontario because my initial thought would be to say she was speaking of america or because of the dialect west indian.
“Slavery is Canada’s best kept secret.”-Afua Cooper.
Personally, I loved Afua Cooper's interpretation of the disappearance of slavery from Canada's historical records. Her poems, “Negro Cemeteries”, and “Africa Wailing” are both artistic depictions of the forgotten conspiracy. Portions of her writings touched on the gendered nature of slavery. In my opinion, during slavery, women were separated from everything that defined them as a woman, and as a result, developed a perilous measure of self-hate. Women were at the bottom of the social status, viewed as inferior, irresponsible, they were marginalized and viewed as outcasts of society. Cooper stated that slave women lost control of their bodies in the Diaspora. Black women were portrayed as “seducers” in the many evidences of rape that occurred. The black woman and man were merely items of commerce. Many mulatto children were sired by the slave’s master, and the master would not claim the child as his own, as evidenced by the “father unknown” section on the birth certificate. However, the child belonged to the master, not to the slave mother. Enslaved Africans lost a sense of belonging and identity during the Diaspora.
The Hanging of Angelique was a refreshing read. So much history was told through Angelique’s story. We are finally seeing a clear perception of the intersections between race, gender and class. Cooper shows how Canada thrived off of these three dynamics and how they shaped the powerful verses the powerless society during enslavement.
I appreciate Cooper’s approach with writing this book; she admits that Angelique’s voice is sometimes silenced, so the remnants of Angelique’s history have to be found through the stories of white elites. She also admits that she does not know if Angelique set the fire. Cooper tells the facts as they are scattered through court trails, and eyewitness accounts and some of Angelique’s own words. Even with the scatter information on Angelique, Cooper attempts to give Angelique a voice.
One key theme in this book is the connection of Black Diasporas. Through this book we see how slavery in Canada had a lot in common with slavery in the United Stated and the West Indies. Cooper shows the commonality of struggle and gender and race dynamics.
I have read somewhere this sentence that Cadinians define themselves with two words: not Americans. However, Cooper's book reveals that they are on some levels similar. A strong voice attracted me when I turned on the radio at noon on Feb.23th. And it was the voice at first and then the phrase "Black Diaspora" that made me stop what I was doing to listen to the speaker. I did not catch his name or the title of the event because of my poor English listening... But I can tell that it was a big event since the NPR broadcast it for over two hours and there was a huge crowd under the stage crying loud and cheering. I tried to take note for what the speaker said but failed. But I remember one sentence, "You cannot find racism without capitalism", which struck me. I imagine Angelique's life in somewhere else in the world where there is no capitalism or sometime else in history when there was no capitalism. It goes without saying that the major reanson for slave trade is money, or more accurately capital. It is in the nature of capitalism that capital is the uppermost value. I am not claiming here that capital is the fountainhead of any evil things; acutually capitalism is inextricable. What I want to say is that maybe scholars should think beyond his or her own time limitation to think about historical subjects, for example, private ownership.
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