Diverse Perspectives
Kagnew's Calling in Korea: Ethiopian Soldiers and U.S. Military Integration in a Global Context
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Robert Findlay
In 1951, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia sent his personal battalion of bodyguards to the front lines of the Korean War as part of a collective United Nations (U.N.) effort to prevent the southern government from falling to communist forces. The multinational intervention in Korea assuaged the fears of leaders from the “third world” who worried that the U.N. would be as ineffective as the previous League of Nations. The participation of nineteen member countries not only demonstrated the power behind U.N. resolutions, but also allowed smaller nation-states outside the Western world a voice on the international stage. As an independent African nation, Ethiopia’s participation in the Korean War was particularly important. Motivated by anti-colonial and anti-racist sentiment, Ethiopians fought to demonstrate the sovereignty of Ethiopia and challenge worldwide notions of African inferiority. Fighting side-by-side with American troops, black Ethiopian soldiers helped abolish the rational for racial segregation and discrimination in military units. The dismantling of systemic racism in the United States and elsewhere must be interpreted in an international context. This paper explores the role of Ethiopian soldiers in challenging systemic racism on the international stage and in the United States. Ethiopia’s commitment to collective security and challenge to the international system of racism during the Korea War can only be clearly understood within a wider globalized framework. Examining the interaction between high-ranking U.S. generals, who spearheaded the U.N. effort in Korea, and the fighting men of Ethiopia sheds light on the broader legacy of the Kagnew forces.
African Canadian Communities and Some Policies of Canadian Multiculturalism
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Bernard Delpeche
The African presence in Canada extends back over four hundred years of history. Some African groups already lived in the Atlantic regions before the formation of the Canadian Confederation. The dilemma of African communities of Canada lies beyond their historical sites in the complexity of their integration to the current policies of Canadian Multiculturalism. Historical facts prove that the cultural disparity between different African groups was the fundamental obstacle to all anti racist movements in Canada. For instance, Africville remains a online place of resistance for Black communities in Canada. In an epistemological perspective, it seems to have a lack of ideology in Africville in comparison with Harlem Renaissance, which attempted to demonstrate scientifically the uniqueness of the Black soul. At this point, the struggles of the African Canadians become a dichotomy of being Canadian and being African. George Elliott Clarke’s literary works seem to be a metaphor of this cultural dilemma: African Canadians have an eternal status of immigrants. This paper analyzes some cultural and social policies that should be adopted by Canadian scholars and local politicians to enhance the cultural dynamic and the social development of African Canadian communities. In the last decade, the Cultural Centers of Nova Scotia that promote and coordinate various activities among African communities in the province have been involved in these efforts and minimally assisted by the provincial universities as well by the national politicians.
