Prince Kum’a Ndumbe III was received with honour by the government of Nova Scotia, Canada

Halifax, September 25, 2009. Prince Kum’a Ndumbe III’s personal trip to Canada in September 2009 turned into a series of meeting with different officials in order to create networks between communities of Canadians of African descent and communities in Cameroon. After visiting his daughter Alexia in Montreal, the Prince flew to Nova Scotia in eastern Canada, where we could find in the 19th century the largest community of free Black people outside Africa. It is from that part of Canada that free slaves left to found Sierra Leone.

Nova Scotia is the only province in Canada to own a department for Canadians of African descent, called African Nova Scotian Affairs. The province also owns a Black Cultural Centre, created in 1983.

During his visit, Prince Kum’a Numbe III was welcomed on September 23, 2009, by the provincial government which interrupted its session to respectfully greet the visiting monarch and thank him to honour the provincial capital city with his presence. The house Speaker asked Minister Percy Paris, who is responsible for three departments (Tourism, Culture and Heritage, Economic and Rural Development and African Nova Scotian Affairs), to introduce the Prince. Minister Paris is the first Black man in history to seat in the provincial New Democratic Party provincial Government. He pronounced words of warm greeting and the members of the government as well as the MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly) gave the Prince a standing ovation. Then, Prime Minister Darrel Dexter welcomed him personally and Minister Paris withdrew from the Chamber to grant the Prince a 30 minutes interview. There are now projects under way to attempt create exchange agreements. Michael Wyse, the minister’s executive assistant, granted a longer interview to the Prince to explore potential partnerships into details.

The same day, the Prince was received with all the honour by the president of the Black Cultural Centre, Leslie Oliver, and by the director of the centre, Dr.
Henry Bishop. The Black Cultural Centre was founded approximatively at the same time as AfricAvenir International Foundation in Bonabéri-Douala (Cameroon) (www.africavenir.org) and their objectives are similar. There again, collaboration projects were discussed.

The Prince had also a private interview with Wayne Hamilton, CEO of the department of African Nova Scotian Affairs on September 25, 2009. On September 24, 2009, Prince Kum’a Ndumbe III was invited by the French speaking community of the Annapolis Valley in the brand new community centre, Point de Mire in Greenwood. The Annapolis Valley became the cradle of the French language in North America when the first settlers arrived in 1604.nNowadays, the French speaking population in the province is approximately 5%. The Prince’s presentation was a dialogue with the author Martine Jacquot, who visited Cameroon last November and is particularly aware of the contribution of Africa to humanity as well as of the urgency of establishing a dialogue and exchanges between people of different nations.

Martine Jacquo