Toronto city council voted unanimously on Thursday to change the name of Toronto’s world famous Yonge-Dundas Square to “Sankofa Square” to distance it from Henry Dundas’ purported connection to the transatlantic slave trade.
The word used by the City of Toronto, True North has learned, originated from a tribe known for its role in the slave trade.
While Dundas was, in fact, an abolitionist, the Akan people of Ghana, from whom the word “sankofa” comes, were active participants in the slave trade and imported slaves to develop their own economy.
As scholar A. Norman Klein, reviewing the work of renowned Ghana historian Ivor Wilks, wrote, the Akan “exchanged their gold for these slaves, who rewarded their Akan masters by creating an ‘agricultural revolution’ during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The Akan people imported slaves to help clear their forests, where they searched for gold, and also sold slaves to Europeans, fuelling the transatlantic slave trade.
In 2006, Ghana apologized to descendents of slaves for its role in the slave trade.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said the name change is part of the city’s commitment to “confronting anti-Black racism, advancing truth, reconciliation and justice, and building a more inclusive and equitable City.”
“The City of Toronto is committed to acknowledging the impact of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery, while focusing on mitigating costs and impacts on residents and businesses,” Chow said. “Adopting the name Sankofa Square recognizes the need to reflect on and reclaim teachings from the past, and enables us to move forward together.”
A primer on the “sankofa” concept by NC State University’s African American Cultural Center says it originates from “King Adinkera of the Akan people of West Africa” and translates to, “it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot.”
Historians, even those on the political left, tend to agree that Dundas was a supporter of the abolition of slavery. Controversy around him stems from an amendment he proposed to an abolition motion from William Wilberforce to make it more “gradual,” but he said in doing so it was because he thought that was the most effective way to end slavery. Given it took more than 50 years from that point for the transatlantic slave trade to end, he was likely right.
Dundas also called on African leaders to stop their complicity in the slave trade, which they didn’t do at the time.
Despite the city’s historic revisionism of Henry Dundas and his legacy, it said in a statement that the “Sankofa” word was inspired by a reverence for history.
“The concept of Sankofa, originating in Ghana, refers to the act of reflecting on and reclaiming teachings from the past, which enables people to move forward together,” the city’s announcement said.
Toronto will also be stripping Dundas’ name from two subway stations and a library next year.
