Wide-eyed and with boundless energy, the students of Selkirk Elementary School welcomed a troupe of musicians on Feb. 11 to celebrate Black History Month.
Ndidi Cascade, one of the hip-hop artists who performed, said she found it very fulfilling to be singing for the youth and helping them to discover African culture.
“When I’m able to share the gift of hip-hop with the next generation, I feel like it’s my destiny in life,” she said.
The Teenage Life and Young Adults International Society (TELIYA) was showcasing African culture during a series of events around Whitehorse last week.
The organization held music performances in schools, an evening at the Association Franco-Yukonnaise, convened the International Diversity and Inclusion Conferences and closed with the annual Yukon African Music Festival over the weekend at the Sternwheeler Hotel & Conference Centre.
Born in Vancouver, Cascade has Nigerian, Italian and Irish ancestry. For her, the Yukon African Music Festival is essential — especially given the current state of the world.
“Moving away from the fear of others, learning more about other people, other cultures, other forms of music … It connects human hearts and that’s how we form healthy communities and societies,” she said.
Bringing community for minorities
The Association Franco-Yukonnaise held activities and talks from the Yukon International Conference on Diversity and Inclusion while enjoying traditional meals on Feb 11.
Tables were set up with a number of traditional dishes.
Mikhael Missakabo, a Yukon University social economics professor, said these events allow Francophone individuals to connect and get to know each other.
“We’re a double minority, Afro-descendants and Francophones. Which means that there are a lot of Francophones of African origin here who don’t know each other or perhaps don’t think they are Francophones,” he said.
Missakabo arrived in Yukon two years ago after living for 20 years in Toronto. He said that in Toronto, he faced the same challenges to connect with Afro-descendant Francophones.
“At least here, there’s a certain closeness,” Missakabo said.
Leonard Boniface, the founder of TELIYA, said it’s important that Black History Month not only speaks of the community’s past in Canadian history, but also of its current vitality and what it has to offer.
“Culture is a key element to so many things because we all have different cultures but we come together on a common ground, in a common goal as humans and that’s what it’s supposed to be,” he said.
He said that it’s important for kids to discover new traditions through music but also organizing this series of activities to attract a multitude of individuals.
“The crowd is unbelievable, they come to our event and then they get some of the music that we don’t hear as much, African music,” Boniface said.
Missakabo said he is pleased with this month’s activities at the Association Franco-Yukonnaise, but he wishes there were other similar initiatives and gatherings that didn’t just take place during Black History Month in February.
“We’re not living only during the February month,” he said. “What can we do to have activities and have similar meeting events during the rest of the year?”
For Cascade, these events are a way to foster kindness.
“If we can learn how to have empathy for one another as a human race, then we can actually have that growth through music, cultures and connection,” she said.
