Slavery, Reparations and Education: African Nova Scotia, Canada and Beyond
Together, Dalhousie University and the University of King’s College, in partnership with the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia, hosted the Universities Studying Slavery (USS) conference in the fall of 2023 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
As a major international conference on slavery’s role in higher education and its legacies, which include the international movement for reparations and redress, this was the first USS conference held outside of the United States. It was also the first USS conference to foreground the history of slavery in Nova Scotia and Canada and the experience of African Nova Scotians particularly.
The 2023 conference featured keynote speeches by individuals active on the international, national and local levels:
- Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and Chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission
- Dr. George Elliott Clarke, renowned poet and E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto
- H.E. David Comissiong, Barbadian lawyer, former senator and founder of the Clement Payne Movement
- Dr. Afua Cooper, distinguished historian and poet, and Killam Research Chair in Black and African Diaspora Studies at Dalhousie University
- Dr. Sylvia D. Hamilton, renowned filmmaker, writer, journalist and artist, and University of King’s College Inglis Professor
- H.E. John Mahama, former president of Ghana
- Dr. Harvey Amani Whitfield, leading historian of Black history and slavery in Colonial Canada and a Professor in Black North American History at the University of Calgary
On October 20, 2023, the Honourable Twila Grosse, the Minister for African Nova Scotian Affairs rose in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly to acknowledge the organizers of the USS Conference.