TAN – The Afro News

By michelle-lee The Afro News Ontario

Nanaimo resident Mairuth Sarsfield, and Toronto residents, Leonard Brathwaite and Arthur Downes were honored recently with Wazee Awards in recognition of their long standing commitment to Canada and their communities. (Wazee is the Swahili word for wise old persons). Sarsfield, who was born in Montreal, is the author of several books including the novel “No Crystal Stair” which chronicled life in the “Little Burgundy” district of Montreal in the 1940s. She is currently working on a new book “Who is Sylvia” which will shed light on the early Black settlers on Salt Spring Island. “Canada would not have been Canada from sea to sea to shining sea if it weren’t for our people” she said. She also worked as a journalist, research writer and TV host and with the UN’s Environment program in Nairobi, Kenya.

 Braithwaite grew up in Toronto at the height of the Depression era. He graduated from Harbord Collegiate and served with the RCAF during WWII. After the war he attended the University of Toronto obtaining a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1950. He continued his education at Harvard University from where he graduated with a MBA and at Osgoode Law School in Toronto. In 1963 he entered politics winning the Provincial seat in Etobicoke and became the first Black person elected to a Canadian parliament. He won two more elections before being defeated in 1979. He made history in 1999 by becoming the first Black to be elected to the Law Society of Upper Canada’s governing council.

Downes, born and raised in Toronto is the holder of a Doctor of Letters from Mary Holmes College in Mississippi. He served as Chair of the Board of Governors of Doctors Hospital, the Director of the Ontario Hospital Association, Most Worshipful Grandmaster of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge Free Accepted Masons and Warden and Lay Delegate of the Anglican Synod. He was also appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1978 and acted as Senegal’s Honorary Counsel General for 16 years until 2009.

The awards presentations took place at a reception that was part of the Northern Lights: African-Canadian Stories” – a three-week exhibition curated by Dr. Sheldon Taylor at the Ontario Science Centre (OSC). OSC and TorontoTourism collaborated to stage the exhibition.

Susan McClelland Journalist

Helena Kaufman The Afro News Vancouver  small to carry the weight of her experience and the story that results from it. Unlike many of the child victims of war, the horrors Kamara saw, the assaults on her spirit and the brutality she experienced from age 12, are now being read and discussed by young people the world over. Her book, The Bite of the Mango, was begun before she even spoke English and not long after her arrival in Canada, still in her teens. With the support and story telling skill of journalist Susan McClelland, the engaging book offers well crafted characters and plot. The twist of course, is that Mariatu Kamara is very real – as are all the details of her story. On a recent stop on a North America wide tour to promote the book, she and Susan brought the reality to her generation. The duo, now more than writer and source, and more like family than friends, spoke to three schools in the Lower Mainland. Kamara contrasts life before the war, “Things were nice before, we lived in the village. We respected and helped each other. She muses on the difference between the earthy calm of her early years and the culture she now lives in. “All we value is life. The ability to live each day. Here people take little things very seriously and it causes them anxiety. At home we learned to respect everyone and take them for who they are.”

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