Books & More
One Book
One Book, One Community
Announcing the 2009 One Book One Community selection ...
The Book of Negroes
by Lawrence Hill
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Library Programs
About The Book
“The Book of Negroes”
History as memoir, fiction as truth. This is the powerful story of a young African woman’s struggle through slavery to a life of dignity and hope is the book to read in Waterloo Region.
Abducted as an 11-year-old child from her village in West Africa and forced to walk for months to the sea in a coffle—a string of slaves— Aminata Diallo is sent to live as a slave in South Carolina. But years later, she forges her way to freedom, serving the British in the Revolutionary War and registering her name in the historic “Book of Negroes.”
This book, an actual document, provides a short but immensely revealing record of freed Loyalist slaves who requested permission to leave the US for resettlement in Nova Scotia, only to find that the haven they sought was steeped in an oppression all of its own. Aminata’s eventual return to Sierra Leone—passing ships carrying thousands of slaves bound for America—is an engrossing account of an obscure but important chapter in history that saw 1,200 former slaves embark on a harrowing back-to-Africa odyssey.
A sweeping story that transports the reader from a tribal African village to a plantation in the southern United States, from the teeming Halifax docks to the manor houses of London, The Book of Negroes introduces one of the strongest female characters in recent Canadian fiction, one who cuts a swath through a world hostile to her colour and her sex.
– HarperCollins Canada, http://www.harpercollins.ca/
Awards
2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize
2009 Canada Reads
About the Author
Lawrence Hill is the son of American immigrants — a black father and a white mother — who came to Canada the day after they married in 1953 in Washington, D.C.
On his father’s side, Hill’s grandfather and great grandfather were university-educated, ordained ministers of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. His mother came from a Republican family in Oak Park, Illinois, graduated from Oberlin College and went on to become a civil rights activist in D.C.
Growing up in the predominantly white suburb of Don Mills, Ontario in the sixties, Hill was greatly influenced by his parents’ work in the human rights movement. Much of Hill’s writing touches on issues of identity and belonging.
Formerly a reporter with The Globe and Mail and parliamentary correspondent for The Winnipeg Free Press, Hill also speaks French and Spanish. He has a B.A. in economics from Laval University in Quebec City and an M.A. in writing from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Other books by Lawrence Hill include:
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Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada
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The Deserter’s Tale: the Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq
For more information about Lawrence Hill, visit the author's website at
Library Programs
Community Drum Circle
with Nii Addico, Creation Africa
Enjoy the intuitive language of the drum and celebrate the rhythms of life. Nii started drumming as a young child with his grandfather, and has been sharing the beat ever since. Observe or participate – the circle is open to all. Each person will express their own personal rhythm while listening and interacting with others. Not sure what to do? Follow your own heartbeat! Bring your own instrument or try one of the traditional drums supplied.
Saturday, September 12 at 11 am
Main Library
Meet The Author:
Lawrence Hill In Conversation With James St. G. Walker
Don’t miss your chance to meet the Region’s 2009 selected author! Lawrence Hill will participate in an armchair discussion with James St. G. Walker, professor of history at the University of Waterloo and author of The Black Loyalists – the inspiration behind Hill’s The Book of Negroes.
Tuesday, September 15
Main Library
6:30 pm Opening performance by Nii Addico, African Drummer
7:00 pm Lawrence Hill with James Walker
Doors open at 6:30pm. Seating is first come, first served.
Copies of The Book of Negroes and The Black Loyalists will be available for purchase courtesy of Chapters.
The Kitchener Public Library gratefully acknowledges the support of the Walper Terrace Hotel for accommodations.
Other Readings by Lawrence Hill
Lawrence Hill will be also peforming author readings throughout the Region on the dates listed below:
Wednesday, September 16 at 1:30 pm
Oxford District Secondary School
Wednesday, September 16 at 7 pm
Waterloo Public Library
Thursday, September 17 at 7 pm
Cambridge Libraries and Galleries
Black Culture Rejoice!
with the Kitchener Church of God Gospel Choir
Raise your hands and tap your feet to traditional gospel and negro spirituals with Choir Director Junior Riggan and the local Church of God Gospel Choir. The evening’s program will include King Jesus Is A-Listening, and I Will Never Forget/He’s Done So Much for Me. During slavery, spirituals were sung to uplift and inspire hope. Lyrics like Wade in the Water and The Gospel Train provided clues to the Underground Railroad. The Black Renaissance in the 1920’s re-interpreted negro spirituals, and gospel music was born.
Monday, Sept. 21 at 7 pm (Auditorium)
Main Library
Black and Canadian: Finding Our Literary Voice
with Donna Bailey Nurse, literary critic, journalist
With regrets, this program has been CANCELLED
Donna Bailey Nurse referred to The Book of Negroes on CBC’s Canada Reads as “THE best black Canadian novel.” Donna is well known for her profiles and reviews of contemporary Black writers, including Toni Morrison and Austin Clarke. Earlier this year, she interviewed Lawrence Hill for The Globe and Mail, where she described his propensity for tall tales. Tonight Donna will discuss her friendship with Hill, the importance of his work and the future direction of Black Canadian literature.
Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 7 pm
Main Library
Please call the library at 519-743-0271 ext 255 to register.
Donna Bailey Nurse is a literary journalist and a critic for CBC.CA and CBC Radio. She specializes in black Canadian literature and is the author of What's A Black Critic To Do: Interviews, Profiles and Reviews of Black Writers and the editor of Revival: An Anthology of Black Canadian Writing. Her articles on race and culture appear regularly in The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, The Ottawa Citizen and the Montreal Gazette. She has also contributed to The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Publishers Weekly and Maclean's.
En Route: Socially Responsible Safaris - Traveling with a Purpose
with Ryan Snider, Ph.D. Candidate, Safari Guide
Ryan was raised in Kenya, where he fell in love with the culture and geography of East Africa. He has been involved in a number of development projects and is currently working on his Ph.D., exploring the relationship between ecotourism and sustainable development amongst the Maasai tribe. Ryan and his wife also lead socially responsible safaris to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
Thursday, Sept. 24 at 7 pm
Main Library
Free Flicks: Racism
Saturdays at 1:30 pm
Main Library Auditorium
September 5: Gran Torino (14A)
September 12: Crash (14A)
September 19: Do The Right Thing (R)
September 26: Australia (PG)
Click here for more details about Free Flicks.
Reviews of “The Book of Negroes”
“The Book of Negroes is a masterpiece, daring and impressive in its geographic, historical and human reach, convincing in its narrative art and detail, necessary for imagining the real beyond the traces left by history.”
-- The Globe and Mail
“Aminata is a heroic figure, a little larger than life, residing within and outside of history. You can never forget this character. She embeds herself in your heart.”
-- The Toronto Star
“Somewhere around page 389 of Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes, I realized I had become so completely engrossed in his masterful telling of the hard life and crueller times of Aminata Diallo that I had forgotten I was reading a novel. But I was. And it is a brilliant one...Aminata is an amazing literary creation.”
-- Literary Review of Canada
"Hill’s third novel, a Canadian best-seller, is a masterful example of historical storytelling, one both heartbreaking and hopeful. When slavers wrest 11-year-old Aminata Diallo from her West African village in 1745, she vows to remember everything.
After enduring the harrowing Middle Passage, she becomes the property of a South Carolina indigo farmer whose overseer notes her intelligence and secretly teaches her to read. Whether keeping books for a Jewish businessman in Revolutionary-era Manhattan, documenting her fellow Black Loyalists before their transport to Nova Scotia (reflecting Hill’s original title, The Book of Negroes), or joining the British colony of Freetown, Sierra Leone, Aminata retains her self-respect.
Throughout her life, she holds tightly to the idea of freedom for everyone forced into slavery, and to her love for the African husband from whom she’s constantly separated. By the time Aminata journeys to London in 1802 as a symbol of the abolitionist movement, readers will have witnessed the dehumanizing slave trade from inside and out. An unforgettable epic, seen through the eyes of a sharply realized, indomitable heroine."
– Booklist
"Around 1745, young Aminata Diallo is abducted from her West African home and sold into slavery in South Carolina. An observant and highly intelligent child, she quickly learns not only how to speak English but also how to read and write.
On a trip to New York City with her master, Aminata escapes during chaotic anti-British demonstrations. She helps the embattled British compile The Book of Negroes, a list of thousands of black Loyalists, and these slaves are transported to Nova Scotia and granted their freedom. Later some of them are sent to Sierra Leone as part of an abolitionist social experiment, and Aminata finally realizes her long-held dream of returning home.
By setting the book early in the Revolutionary period, Canadian novelist Hill (Any Known Blood ) finds something new in the familiar slave narrative. Unfortunately, his didactic purpose gets the upper hand and overwhelms the story. Aminata is simply too noble to be believable and other major characters are mainly symbolic. Nevertheless, Hill’s fascinating source material makes this a good choice for book clubs and discussion groups."
-- Library Journal
Recommended Links
Reading Guides
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The Book Of Negroes (CBC)
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Someone Knows My Name (W.W. Norton & Co.)
Author Podcast
Book Excerpt
Black History
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“Freedom Bound” by Lawrence Hill. The Beaver: Canada’s History Magazine
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The Blacks, Anti-Slavery and the Underground Railway - Library and Archives Canada
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Africville: Expropriating Nova Scotia’s Blacks - CBC Archives
More Information
About the One Book One Community Program
One Book, One Community was created to promote reading by adults, and to build new connections in the community through the shared experience of reading.
In 2002, when One Book, One Community was launched, organizers expected that 1% of the Region’s population would read Alistair McLeod’s “No Great Mischief”. Instead of the expected 4000 readers, more than 6800 readers were counted and an additional 3000 people attended author events.
By tracking sales, library circulations, web hits and event attendance, the committee has recorded that more than 85,000 people in Waterloo Region have participated in the program. Interest in the reading program has continued over the past 6 years with selections continuing to generate interest in libraries, bookstores, workplaces and book club gatherings.
Organized by library staff, booksellers, city staff and volunteers, the program requires a year round commitment. After the book title is announced, individuals, book clubs, organizations, employers -–everyone – is invited to take up the challenge of the One Book, One Community initiative and organize their own way of “getting on the same page.”
Author events will take place around the region from September 15th - September 17th, with Lawrence Hill visiting at KPL on Tuesday, September 15th. Watch the library’s web site or The Record for notices of community events as they develop, or check out the One Book, One Community website at www.oboc.ca.
And don’t forget the OBOC Blog – check it out at http://obocwaterlooregion.blogspot.com.
Readers and event participants will be counted again this year, so be sure to participate, and let the community know how you got involved.
Previous Reading Selections
2008 – Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon's The 100-Mile Diet
2007 – Elizabeth Ruth’s Smoke
2006 – Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road
2005 – Robert J. Sawyer’s Hominids
2004 – Nino Ricci’s Lives of the Saints
2003 – Jane Urquhart’s The Stone Carvers
2002 – Alistair Macleod’s No Great Mischief
Book Club Participation Form
Local book clubs are highly encouraged to read the One Book selection, discuss it at their meetings and take part in a variety of region-wide programs.
The OBOC committee asks that local book clubs register their participation via this form: