HAPPY NEW YEAR! HERI ZA MWAKA MPYA! 2021

 Murphy Browne © January 1, 2021

HAPPY NEW YEAR! HERI ZA MWAKA MPYA! 2021

Happy New Year 2021! We survived 2020 and look forward with faith and hope to a 2021 that would be a vast improvement in many ways than 2020. We can live and learn to do better in 2021 than we did in 2020. This New Year is very different from any other we have experienced in our lifetime. While ordinarily many of us would be working on keeping New Year’s resolutions, this year we have more pressing issues. We still have to contend with conditions from 2020, including inadequate housing and poor health for many, exacerbated by COVID 19.Many of us did not enjoy 2020 and are looking forward to what this New Year will bring. Some of us could describe 2020 as an annus horribilis and are looking forward to what this New Year 2021 will bring, while trying to forget last year.

There were more lows than highs during 2020 with turmoil and sadness more than joy and happiness. Some of us said Kwaherini (goodbye) to worries from the old year and Karibuni (welcome) to opportunities in the New Year in various forms. We enter 2021 with faith and hope including the arrival of a vaccine to battle COVID 19. As we enter the year 2021 and the 7th year of the UN declared “International Decade for People of African Descent” (2015-2024) the issue of “Black Lives Matter” remains an issue. The year 2020 and the coronavirus exposed anti-black racism in the health system, the education system, justice system etc.,

This New Year, 2021 brings with it an opportunity for us to engage in dialogue and action to repair the damage to African lives. In 2015, the beginning of the of the UN declared “International Decade for People of African Descent,” I wrote with much optimism: “Here is an opportunity to educate people about “White skin privilege” as the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) tried to do in 2014 which caused a furor in several daily White newspapers.” Seven years later, with a new provincial government, not much has changed. Not surprising given the mind-set of the leader of the provincial government who said during the summer of 2020 that Canada does not have the "systemic, deep roots" of racism the United States does. He changed his tune the following day, declaring: “Of course there's systemic racism in Ontario. There's systemic racism across this country." There is no telling how sincerely the Premier of Ontario plans to address the “systemic racism in Ontario” in 2021 because in 2018 when his government took power they scrapped the cabinet post of minister responsible for anti-racism.

Even though it was brought to the attention of the government that African Canadians were overwhelmingly affected by the coronavirus, they have resisted collecting race-based data during the pandemic. Race-based data collected by several groups shows that African Canadians are far more likely to get sick and be hospitalized for COVID-19 than other ethnic groups. A study looking at antibodies in the blood of African Canadians to understand the reasons, in an effort to reduce the impact of the disease on African Canadian communities was conducted in 2020. The study was led by Dr. Upton Allen, chief of infectious diseases at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Data showed that African Canadian communities are disproportionately affected by the pandemic; according to data from cities like Toronto and Ottawa, and organizations such as the Edmonton-based African Canadian Civic Engagement Council and the Innovative Research Group. Data from May 20 to July 16 found that African Canadian patients in Toronto made up 21 per cent of COVID-19 cases, even though they were only nine per cent of the population. “Researchers suspect that a number of risk factors might play a role: The work that people in the communities do, including how many are front-line workers and how many work several different jobs at different locations to make ends meet. Living conditions, such as crowded, multigenerational homes. Pre-existing medical conditions that can increase risk, such as obesity and diabetes, which are often associated with poverty.” Kwame McKenzie, the CEO of the Wellesley Institute and a professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, said the pandemic magnified existing issues in marginalized communities. In Toronto, racialized people are more likely to live in poverty, have poor housing, more likely to be victims of discrimination, more likely to have precarious work and have problems getting enough nutritious food.

As we step into a New Year we must continue to have faith and hope for a better 2021 than we experienced in 2020. I look forward to being able to travel, to visiting New York and experiencing the Moynihan Train Hall that just had its grand opening at Penn Station. “It has an acre of glass that lets the sun pour down and permanent installations by celebrated artists.” Despite the anti-maskers, maybe we can be like the “Myrmecina graminicola” species of ants, when they encounter danger while on a slope, they tuck into a ball and roll away. Maybe we can “tuck into a ball and roll away” from the experiences of 2020 into a happier and healthier 2021. Happy New Year! Heri za mwaka mpya!

Murphy Browne © January 1, 2021