About Us
"African Nova Scotians are a Distinct People
who descend from free and enslaved Black Planters, Black Loyalists, Black Refugees, Maroons, and other Black people who inhabited the original 52 land-based Black communities in that part of Mi’kma’ki known as Nova Scotia.
African Nova Scotians were “settled” in the province through enslavement or through fleeing enslavement elsewhere, and continue to experience all manner of structural, systemic and individual discrimination. Yet our experience is equally characterized by resistance, resilience, creativity, spirituality and hope that has profoundly shaped our families and communities — and this province and country. Indeed until 1961, more than half of all Black people in Canada were African Nova Scotian.”
Weymouth is a deeply rural village in Nova Scotia that has historically been home to Black settlers, Acadian settlers, and Mi’kmaq peoples. Weymouth Falls specifically is the Black Loyalist settlement, and African Nova Scotians from the region have made noteworthy contributions to the Canadian landscape. The community is the birthplace of the world renown boxer Sam Langford and many of the men who served on the Number 2 Construction Battalion, the only all-Black battalion in Canadian history. It is also home to one of the first seven churches established by the African United Baptist Association (AUBA) in the late 1800s. We believe the memories, stories, and contributions made in and by this community are worth preserving.
Preservation is transformation
The modern Community Land Trust model was first used by Black farmers who created a non-profit organization called New Communities Inc. in Albany, Georgia during the Civil Rights Movement in 1969. For decades, former residents and descendants of the historic African Nova Scotian community of Weymouth Falls have had a desire to return to the community we affectionately know as ‘down home’. Our communities are at risk of extinction and we refuse to let our history be erased.
The Weymouth Falls Community Land Trust has four key priorities:
- We seek to preserve our culture.
- We seek to develop and preserve deeply affordable housing.
- We seek to ensure our community is climate resilient.
- We seek to unpack the long standing relationship that exists between African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaq communities.
We are honoured to carry on the legacy of New Communities Inc. by stewarding land in perpetual trust for the permanent use of rural communities.
From the archives:
