SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — Black History Month
February 29, 2024
Honourable senators, today, I’m wrapping up my series of statements for Black History Month 2024 with a profile of an individual whose journey and community involvement have been remarkable: Henriette Mvondo.
Henriette held a degree in mechanical engineering and taught electronics in her country of origin, Cameroon. She worked up the courage to leave it all behind and come to our country with her husband to give her children a better future.
When Henriette arrived in Montreal in 2004, her credentials weren’t recognized. She had to start from square one and work in factories to survive. Despite numerous challenges, she never gave up. She worked at many different jobs before going back to school and eventually getting hired as a financial planner at Royal Bank of Canada.
Her position gives her the opportunity to help immigrants navigate the Canadian banking system, and she does so with passion.
In 2017, building on her experience and driven by her desire to help others, Henriette founded Bienvenue à l’immigrant, BAI, an organization that provides services to newcomers ranging from settlement to professional training and psychosocial support. BAI’s very innovative approach involves personalized support based on immigrants’ needs and cultural origins.
Henriette is a deeply involved, well-known and recognized resident of LaSalle. She works not only with the African-Canadian community in all its diversity, but also with the Greek, Italian and Chinese communities. Henriette is considered a valuable bridge between all cultures. For that very reason, LaSalle named her its intercultural harmony week ambassador in 2022. In 2023, the Royal Bank of Canada bestowed upon her its 2023 RBC Global Citizen Award. Congratulations, Henriette.
Colleagues, the various presentations delivered in this chamber in February have undoubtedly convinced you that Black excellence is a heritage that we need to acknowledge and celebrate not only in February, but every day.
Thank you.
Honourable senators, on this, the last day of Black History Month, it is appropriate to turn our attention to Nova Scotia. After all, the oldest Black communities in Canada are in Nova Scotia, most of which were established in the late 18th century.
When the great British novelist Rudyard Kipling wrote his famous novel Captains Courageous, two of the notable characters on the ship in his book were the cook and a deckhand, two Black men who always conversed with each other in Scottish Gaelic. Critics at this time scoffed at such a scenario, deeming it unrealistic and contrived.
But nobody in Cape Breton questioned it because Kipling based these characters on two Cape Bretoners who were legends in their own time and are still remembered with great fondness today.
They were the Maxwell twins, George and John, from the beautiful community of Marble Mountain on the southwest corner of the Bras d’Or Lakes in Inverness County.
Their father, George Maxwell Sr., was a 10-year-old orphan on the Halifax waterfront in the decades before Confederation. A Cape Breton sea captain, becoming aware of George’s circumstances, offered to give him a home, and George sailed to Cape Breton to start a new life. After becoming of age, George Sr. ventured to Guysborough County to the Black community there, met a girl, fell in love and returned to Marble Mountain to raise his family.
When the twins were born in 1864, Cape Breton was over 90% rural and over 80% Gaelic speaking, and Marble Mountain was 150% Gaelic speaking. The twins grew up as Gaelic-speaking Highland Scots. They were great singers and composers of Gaelic songs. John was also an accomplished player of the Cape Breton violin and also became quite a scholar in the Gaelic language. They both had large families, and their descendants are numerous and can be found in Cape Breton and across the continent. Interviews in the 1970s with their grandchildren tell us that they were both devout Presbyterians who frowned upon card playing, attended church regularly and always prepared Sunday meals on the Saturday.
As reported by the BBC this year, their story was highlighted at this year’s Scotland film awards. The Maxwell Twins were the subject of a documentary called Na Gàidheal Dubha, or “The Black Gaels,” a feature film that made the short list of 4 out of over 160 submissions. As a Cape Bretoner, it is so gratifying to see these two fine gentlemen both remembered and recognized after all these years.
As we come to the end of Black History Month, take the time to raise a glass and toast the memory of George and John Maxwell, Na Gàidheal Dubha of Cape Breton — although the twins might prefer that you toast them with water.
Thank you.
