The voice we do not always hear
As I sit to write this week's blog, it would seem Mother Nature has found here voice in the wind that whips the snow across the fields and through the streets of Port Hawkesbury and Port Hastings.
The people of Egypt have found their voice. As events have been unfolding in Egypt, I have been thinking about the struggle that took place centuries ago between Pharaoh and Hebrew people in the book of Exodus. God said to Moses: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry…I know their suffering…I have come to deliver them. …I send you to Pharaoh and I will be with you. (Exodus 3:7-11)
I wonder, is the invisible and mysterious hand of God at work, once again, in the countless numbers of men and women who have taken to the street in protest and a call for a regime change?
It is worth noting that Moses, Aaron, Miriam and the Hebrew slaves suffered many setbacks before they were able to get out from under their harsh taskmasters. Those who are in power never let go of their positions or their privileges without a struggle. “But Pharaoh, “Who is the Lord, that I should heed him and let Israel go?” (Exodus 5:2) Maybe, just maybe, during these past two weeks we have been witness to a “parting of the sea” once again in Egypt (Ex. 14). We pray for the people of Egypt as they journey to a good and broad place where everyone and not just the few are able to enjoy “milk and honey”.
Closer to home, February is Black History month in Canada. Black History Month was established to give voice to the experience of Black people in their long historic and continuing struggle to be recognized as valued partners in the building of this country.
As a student in high school and university, I loved reading Canadian History. I now realized how selective, narrow and limited my reading was. For example, I learned that Champlain is credited as being the first European to explore this country. But what I failed to learn was that Mathieu Da Costa, a free black man acted as an interpreter between the Mik’maq and the French. Which raises the question, did Da Costa explore this region and learn the local language before the French arrived? Why do we remember and honour Champlain and not Da Costa?
I failed to learn that slavery was a legal institution in Canada from 1628-1793 when The Abolition Act made a safe haven for blacks in Upper Canada. Or that Oliver Le Jeune was brought from Africa and given the name of his owner a priest in 1628. Or that between 1800 and 1865 approximately 20,000 blacks escaped to Canada from the United States via the underground railway. Or that the land allocated for black settlers in Nova Scotia was by design swampy, barren and unproductive thus forcing blacks to become a source of cheap labor in the Province. Why were these events left out in my texts books or why did I fail to remember them if they were included?
While I may have learned that Grace Annie Lockhart was the first women in the British Empire to receive a university degree in 1875 from Mt Allison, I did not learn that Rev. William White was first black person to receive a B.A. from Acadia in 1903 and went on to serve as the first and the only black chaplain in the entire British Army during World War I.
“Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint.” (Psalm 61:1) I wonder what other voices, do we fail as a church to hear?
( Bridglal Pachai, “The Nova Scotia Black Experience through the Centuries”, Nimbus Publishing 2007, (29.95) is an excellent introduction to Black History in Nova Scotia. Or simply type in Black History and follow the various links on your computer.)
