Fire on the Water: An Anthology of Black Nova Scotian Writing, Vol. 1

Boyd Holmes is an editor with Dundurn Press.

This is an anthology of memoirs and poems, all written by black Nova
Scotian authors born before 1946. The selections are divided into three
sections: “Genesis,” which consists of writing from the 18th and
19th centuries; “Psalms and Proverbs,” a collection of oral
literature, including spirituals; and “Acts,” which is devoted to
the work of authors born between 1901 and 1945. (A fourth part, entitled
“Revelation” and composed of writings by black Nova Scotians born
since 1936, constitutes the second volume, which was published
concurrently with this one.) Editor George Elliott Clarke prefaces the
collection with what are, in effect, three introductions. Here, his
prose is pedestrian, and sometimes florid (“Oh, you, who reads these
words in ages hence, say you add to this book further songs of the
nation it honours. This work yearns, signals, calls, for you!”).
Clarke’s purpose, he informs us, is “to ensure that Africadians will
never again be barred from anthologies of African-Canadian, Atlantic,
and Canadian writing in general.” Of course, he misses the point: the
grounds for inclusion in anthologies of Atlantic and Canadian literature
should be the quality of the writing, not the skin color of the writer.

Given the near-total absence of good black authors in Canada, much less
in Nova Scotia, it is not surprising that the writings chosen lurch in
quality from mediocre to terrible. To make matters worse, Clarke
attaches to most selections several pedantic footnotes, believing
apparently that it is necessary to define, for the reader, the Koran,
the Talmud, the goals of the Ku Klux Klan, and the identity of John
Milton. Some might argue that this anthology could be of interest to
specialists in Maritime or black history. However, such researchers are
probably already aware of these writings, and a good deal of other
relevant materials besides. This is particularly the case with the
selected spirituals. What specialist in black history doesn’t know the
lyrics to “Go Tell It on the Mountain”?

Given the current climate vis-а-vis cultural politics, I suspect that
those reading this review are nonetheless considering buying this volume
in order to appear politically correct. It would be a poor purchase. The
book will give pleasure to no one.