Last modified: 2021-03-27 by rob raeside
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Rob Raeside, 15 February 2021See also:
From CBC online:
New official African Nova Scotian flag looking to
connect past, present and future
Mon., February 15, 2021, 1:58 p.m.
People living in Nova Scotia will now see the official African Nova Scotian
flag flying in the wind outside the Black Cultural Centre in Cherry Brook. The
flag, designed by Wendie Wilson, was revealed to the public Monday (15 February
2021) in a live stream on the cultural centre's YouTube page. The idea for an
African Nova Scotian flag has been many years in the making, Wilson said, but
the flag is being officially recognized for the first time this year. Wilson
came up with the idea when her daughter, now in her final year at university,
was researching Mi'kmaw, Acadian, and African Nova Scotian history for a
middle-school project. That's when Wilson, who is a visual artist, realized
there was no such thing as an African Nova Scotian flag. So she started
researching and designing a flag that could represent her heritage.
Wilson said each colour on the flag symbolizes something different; red for
blood and sacrifice, gold for cultural richness, green for fertility and growth,
and black for the people. The design in the middle of the flag is Wilson's
stylized adaptation of Sankofa, an ancient Adinkra symbol conceived in West
Africa, which signifies the importance of bringing past knowledge to the
present.
Wilson's version incorporates a wave, representing the ocean and her
ancestors' journey through the Middle Passage. There's also half of a heart with
a yin and yang symbol, representing "heartbreak balanced with awareness." "The
image is encompassed within an incomplete circle, representing those things
absent but yet to come," she said during the live-streamed event.
Wilson
said although the process of making the flag official – reaching out to numerous
African Nova Scotian organizations and working with the province's office of
African Nova Scotian Affairs – was "daunting," it was necessary. "I always feel
like this was a task that I had to do, for generations past, generations that
are still kicking around today, and as a contribution to our future – building
back all of our culture that was lost through our various experiences," Wilson
said in an interview with CBC.
Rob Raeside, 15 February 2021