A Black Canadian Bibliography. (Drama).

A Black Canadian Bibliography, by Flora(Blizzard) Francis with a foreword by Dr. Rita M. Cox. Ottawa, Ontario: Pan-African Publications , 2000, PP. 19.95$

The author claims that to date " there has not been a bibliography that combines the works of black authors + with information about the contributions made by black people living in Canadai, and that + this bibliography fills that gap. The purpose and scope of the work is intended to "made known the contributions oft black Canadians, that is, descendants of slaves, African and West Indians and their offspring now resident in Canada". + The works of Afro-Americans have only been included when relevant to the Canadian scene. We are told that the work is a "unique compilation of stories and documents about black + Canadians from the time of slavery to the present, West Indian and African immigrants, and of the literary works of all blacks."

The bibliography has two sections. The first part consists of books, journals, magazines, and newspaper articles, master's theses, and doctoral dissertations. The second part consists of audio and visual and video material. These are described as a sampling of musical contributions.

There is not a great amount of material on achievements of Blacks in Canada that is easily accessible to scholars. Moreover, it is difficult to know what material exists and where we can find it. Thus any informed bibliography is a clear contribution. My review of Flora Francis', A Black Canadian Bibliography supports the claim by Dr. Rita Cox that the work is a valuable "resource to students and professionals in various disciplines." But it is clearly not, as she claims, an "inclusive bibliography of African Canadians." In the introduction, Flora Francis states that to date "ithere has not been a bibliography that combines the work of Black authors with information about the contributions made by Black people living in Canada." A Black Canadian Bibliography is intended to fill that gap. The truth is that it is questionable whether such a gap exists in an absolute sense. In any case, this bibliography certainly has not achieved this admirable objective. I find the subject Indexes useful; but the bibliographi c content and coverage leaves much to be desired.

A careful scanning of this bibliography suggests that the work is in most part about Blacks in Ontario, more precisely Toronto. One glance at the bibliographic sources consulted on page 6 of the publication supports this observation. With very few exceptions the focus of these studies is Toronto and to a lesser extent Nova Scotia. Absent from these sources is the National Archives of Canada. There are no references to McGill and Concordia Archives; or the University of British Columbia which many Blacks Caribbean students attended during the fifties throughout to the seventies and eighties. On the Montreal scene there are little or no references to articles and stories from the Montreal Star (now defunct), The Gazette, The Black Voice, The Afro-Canadian, Community Contact. Other parts of the Country outside of Toronto are as poorly represented. As a result of this poor bibliographic search there are surprising gaps in the publication that raise questions about the seriousness of the work. Let me point out so me glaring cases.

The bibliography is supposed to make the connection between publications and the contributions of Blacks. There are thousands of Canadian Blacks (of all cultural origins) that have completed Mastersi Theses and Doctoral Dissertations for Canadian universities. I cannot imagine why contrary to the claims of this publication there are almost no references to this body of work. In the field of literature and the performing arts I canit understand how the author could have ignored the extensive body of literature by Haitian and French African writers, like Franck Fouche, Frantz Voltaire. Danny Laferriere is not representative of Black French Canadian Literature. With the exception of Lorris Elliott. the publication completely ignores Black writers in Montreal whose works have been advanced by Black Theatre Workshop: Dwight Bacquie (Marvin Dream of a Lifetime); Leon St Martin (Here Comes the Groom); C.S.Bayne (The Black Experience; Martin Luther King Who; Bonanza 70: an adaptation of a short story by Austin Clark e); Winston Sutton (Our Lost Heroes); David Edgecombe (Sunovavitch; Strong Current; and Coming Home to Roost). Jeff Henry (Africa in the Caribbean). Where is the work of Lorena Gale( Je me Souviens. and Marie Angelique)

The publication makes no mention of the work and publications of cultural leaders and scholars like Dorothy Wills, Clarence Bayne, Eisenhower Etienne, Claude Moise, Franz Voltaire, Jean-Marie Bourjolly, Owen Rowe, Alphonso Theodore Roberts (deceased), Leroy Butcher, Roosevelt (Rosie) Douglas (deceased), Carl Whittaker, Leo Kalinda, Egbert Gaye, etc. This only scratches the surface of the Montreal scene. And we have not even looked at the huge gaps in the representation of the other provinces and other places in Ontario, outside of Toronto. For example, there is only one reference for Howard McCurdy of Windsor. The man was a scholar and well published before he became a parliamentarian. He, Bayne, Wills, Joe Drummond, Wilson Harris, Stan Grizzle, are among the principal engineers of the social integrators of the Black community across Canada. No citations of Dudley Dawes (UNIA, Toronto). This just does not make sense. The Black poets of Quebec are ignored: no mention of Nigel Thomas, Hopeton Anderson, Debby Y oung, Clarence Bayne; and the dub poetry of Michael T. Pintard! No reference to the recognized storytellers: Patricia Dillon, and Joujou Terenne.

In Part II, Audio and Visual Material, I can't imagine that the bibliography does not include Ranee Lee, Charlie Biddle, Charles Ellison, Lorraine Klaasen, Sylvia Sweeny, Michelle Sweeny and Daisy Sweeny. I canit imagine a Canadian bibliography that has references on boxers and it does not include Otis Grant, and Lenox Lewis. This one does. I cannot imagine a Canadian bibliography that has references to Black actors and writers that does not include Walter Borden of Nova Scotia. This one does.

A Black canadian Bibliography offers too little for what it promises. No doubt it took a great deal of work to organize and get ready for printing. But the actual preparation of the content does not seem to have been given much serious attention. It's a pity. Call it a Brief Bibliography of Black Canadians in Toronto and its environments.

RELATED ARTICLE: Flora's Response to C. Bayne

Good morning Clarence

This is a response to your direct critical review of A BLACK CANADIAN BIBLIOGRAPHY. It is always important to get different points of view. However, there is need for clarification and correction of some of your statements.

A BLACK CANADIAN BIBLIOGRAPHY is an off shoot of a revised and enlarged edition of my first bibliography WEST INDIANS IN CANADA now out of print. The revision is still a work in progress. It was suggested that I do something about blacks in Canada rather than West Indians, as it would cover a broader group of people. There are always limitations when publishing a work. For me it was availability of material, cut off date of information, funding, time, and size of the finished product. The citations by and about black Canadians were included for their Canadian content, consequently, works by black writers living in Canada that did not meet this criteria were excluded. Most of the citations were located in one of the recognized abstracts or indexes listed in the introduction or were found in a library collection. Each citation was checked for accuracy. I particularly chose sources of reference such as the Canadian Encyclopedia, Canadian Who's Who, Canadian Parliamentary Guide (for politicians and government off icials) as they can be found in both public and university libraries, and are easily accessible to everyone.

The Webster's dictionary defines inclusive as comprising, encompassing, including a great deal, and covering specific limits therefore I think that Dr. Rita Cox used the word in the correct context.

Since WEST INDIANS IN CANADA was published in 1970 I have only recently seen one other bibliography written by George Elliott Clarke called AFRICANA CANADIANA (short title) which deals with black writers and there have been very few current biographical sources for black Canadians. This is the gap to which I referred. I am very much aware that there is more coverage for Ontario than other provinces.

This is the result of what was found in the Canadian indexes and electronic databases. I mentioned the National Library of Canada of which the National Archives is a part. I have spent time searching for information at the National Archives and what I found is included in the bibliography. I happen to know that archives have limited accessibility and do not lend out their material, therefore without funding traveling outside of Ontario to seek material was out of the question. The Canadian indexes limit the coverage of newspapers and journal titles that are indexed so there are limited resources in which to seek information.

I am very much aware of the black Caribbean students at the University of British Columbia (U.B.C.) as both my brother and sister were students there in the 1950s--1960s. The activities of West Indian students at U.B.C., McGill University, and in Montreal are cited in WEST INDIANS IN CANADA. There is also an article by Lloyd Best on Jeff Henry's AFRICA IN THE CARIBBEAN. I also know that there are numerous mastersi theses and doctoral dissertations written by West Indians and black students and that there are many books, articles, and other publications written by brilliant academics. However, those publications whose subject matter were scientific, technical, political, or otherwise and would be better suited in those subject bibliographies were excluded from my book.

In the field of literature and arts, very few of the black writers in Montreal that you mentioned were found. Since your email I have checked the main library catalogues electronically of York University, University of Toronto, McGill, Concordia, and the universities of Guelph, Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier with little success.

Just a few authors were seen in the library collections. The one library that held the Black Theatre Workshop publication received it after my bibliography was published.

A BLACK CANADIAN BIBLIOGRAPHY not only included the works of Dany Laferriere, it also included the works of Serge Chain, Paul de Jean, Gerard Etienne, Horace Goddard, Wilfred Israel, Anthony Joyette, Brenda Kelly, Emile Ollivier, Anthony Phelps, Nathan Phillips, Sonia Pascale, Hopeton Anthony, Dorothy Williams, and Roderick Walcott. Stanley Grizzle's, MY NAME'S not GEORGE is included as well as at least one article on the sleeping car porters. Howard McCurdy's reference identifies his as a parliamentarian. His biography details his accomplishments as a scholar.

The biographies cited were included to show that there are Canadians in different fields of whom all Canadians can be proud. I know very well the contributions of Dudley Laws in the black community in Toronto, but was unable to find a biographical profile that would do him justice. While researching black people and people of African heritage in Canada it became very obvious to me that many black authors, artists, and entertainers have neglected to deposit their work in the National Library of Canada which is the legal depository for all Canadian material, i.e., books, audio visual material, etc., published in Canada. I cant imagine why they do not take advantage of this free service which will make their work known nationally and internationally rather than only locally and regionally.

I have spent countless hours researching material about the black people of Canada over the past thirty year and helping students find material so I find it amusing that my bibliographic searching techniques are being questioned. Over the years the truth that I have discovered is that there is not much material indexed about Canada's black people having combed many library shelves seeking out material. This is substantiated by Clarke's, AFRICANA CANADIANA, a work of 102 pages, which I found by chance hidden in a scholarly social science journal while I was looking for another article. Despite the size of the article, it does not include many of the Montreal writers that you have mentioned. Information about black music and musicians was even harder to find.

To summarize, A BLACK CANADIAN BIBLIOGRAPHY is a selective bibliography (see page 152) which is an off shoot of a revised and enlarged bibliography about West Indians. (The revision is still a work in progress). Its subject content is Canadian. The citations checked before inclusion are about black Canadians or are written by black Canadians. The information was found in Canadian indexes and in libraries and most of them should be available in academic libraries or large public libraries.

There were limitations imposed in publishing the work, knowing this, the Appendix (see page 152) clearly states that it is a selective bibliography, omissions are acknowledged, and users of the bibliography are invited to notify me of publications. This bibliography was not funded, many hours were spent working on it, and I paid to have it published myself knowing that the information however, brief, Ontarian, and Canadian in content, will be useful to students, scholars, and everyone interested in the black ethnic group in Canada.

I suggest that you take another look at the bibliography and you should discover more than you saw the first time and so might appreciate more fully the body of work that I have done.

At this stage I have thrown down the gauntlet with A BLACK CANADIAN BIBLIOGRAPHY for others to pick up and carry on where I have left off with making known the works of authors, artists, and entertainers of black and African heritage living in Canada.

Clarence Bayne is an associate professor in the Department of Management, Information and Decision-Making Sciences, at Concordia University. He is Director of the Entrepreneur Institute for "Minority Communities" and "Director of the DIA/DSA, The Molson School of Business." He is also a founding member of the Black Theatre Workshop, member of the Board of Directors, Quebec Board of Black Educators. He is a prolific writer in drama and poetry and is for the first time presenting his writing for public scrutiny.

Florence Francis was born and raised in Port of Spain Trinidad and Tobago. She immigrated to Canada in 1959. She holds a BA from Waterloo Lutheran University and a B. L .S. and M. L. S. from the University of Toronto. Her career as a Reference Librarian at the University extended from 1959-1994. She is the author of West Indians In Canada: A selected Annotated Bibliography, 1970