Beyond borders: The powerful American influence on Nova Scotia's African Heritage Month

The official Pan-African flag was raised at Halifax City Hall on Tuesday, kicking off the beginning of African Heritage Month.

The honour of raising the flag went to the city's Community Outreach Co-ordinator for African Nova Scotian Affairs.

It's a position AJ Simmonds has held for a couple of years.

"I'm excited to see another Black History Month, and to be a part of another celebration," says Simmonds.

"It takes me back, thinking about my ancestors, my family and all those who came before me and paved the way."

Although it is known as African Heritage Month in Nova Scotia, the event is known as Black History Month in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, as well as the United States.

According to the Government of Canada's website, the event began modestly in America in the 1920s but wasn't formally recognized by the Canadian government until 1995.

"I look at Black History Month as our past, our present and our future," said Nova Scotia's former lieutenant-governor, Mayann Francis.

As one of the most accomplished and celebrated Black woman in the country, Francis says the murder of American George Floyd finally drove home a message that was needed for a long time.

"Our lives always mattered and that just opened up so many people's minds, and trying to understand why what happened to George Floyd, happened to him," she said.

"It happened to him because he was Black."

Always a balancing act with the civil-rights movement down south, local activists like Augy Jones, the son of the legendary Rocky Jones, says his work was sometimes overshadowed by others.

"He was also doing some of the work that Malcolm X was doing and Martin Luther King was doing, but yet he wasn't really seen on that level because those guys are American," said Jones, in an interview posted on Twitter by Central Nova MP Sean Fraser, who's also the minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship in Canada.

"So, it is something to your point, what do we have as African Nova Scotians we can champion that's local and regional and home grown? And It's African Nova Scotia culture," said Jones.

Jones says it's another reason to proudly fly the flag, not just in February, but all year round.

The 2022 virtual flag raising ceremony is available for viewing on YouTube courtesy of the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia.