In the final week of Black History Month 2026, Dr. Alexie Tcheuyap, Dean of Arts, shares some of his unique experiences as well as his broader and scholarly perspectives on the meaning of Black History Month in Canada.
What does Black History Month mean to you?
As a Canadian born and raised in Cameroon, my first encounters with Black History Month were marked by both surprise and reflection. Coming to Canada made me intriguingly aware of my Blackness in a society where I am categorized as a “visible minority”—and often an audible one, given my noticeable accent. This experience is not unique. For many Black Canadians, identity is shaped not only by heritage, but by how one is perceived, questioned, and situated within the national narrative.
Black History Month creates space to acknowledge this lived reality—one shaped by migration, displacement, resilience, and contribution. This experience made Blackness not just a personal identity but also a social and political condition that influences how someone navigates the world. For many Black Canadians, that history is rooted in enslavement and its aftermath; for others, it is shaped by more recent global movements and diasporic journeys. Yet across these differences lies a shared experience of being asked to explain one’s belonging—of being asked where one is “really” from.
This month is therefore not only about remembrance, but about recognition. It asks Canada to pause and reflect on the fact that Black experiences are not peripheral, but central to the country’s past, present, and future. In a world marked by instability and division, Black History Month invites all communities to engage seriously with histories of exclusion and resistance, and to consider how a more inclusive national story can be collectively built.
How do insights from your research field of African postcolonial literature, cinema and media enrich Black History Month learning here in Canada?
Black History Month, by its very nature, is limited to a moment in the calendar—but Black history and Black thought cannot, and should not, be confined to a single month. My scholarship in African postcolonial literature, cinema, and media insists on this very point: that Black experiences, intellectual traditions, and cultural productions are foundational to understanding the modern world, not supplemental to it.
Postcolonial African thinkers, writers, and filmmakers interrogate questions that remain deeply relevant in Canada today: identity, power, memory, language, and belonging. Their work challenges dominant narratives and exposes how histories of colonialism continue to shape institutions, knowledge systems, and cultural hierarchies. Engaging with these perspectives during Black History Month—and hopefully beyond—allows students and citizens alike to see Black history not as marginal, but as intellectually and culturally generative.
Canada has meaningful resources that point in this direction, such as CBC’s Being Black in Canada documentary series, which captures the complexity of Black life in this country. Yet the question remains: how deeply are these stories embedded in our educational and cultural frameworks? How many students are meaningfully introduced to figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Cheikh Anta Diop, V. Y. Mudimbe, Rosa Parks, Chinua Achebe, Lawrence Hill, or Jean Augustine—not as symbolic names, but as thinkers, writers, and actors who shaped global and Canadian histories? Ultimately, integrating Black intellectual, literary, and cultural traditions more thoroughly into our curricula and public life enhances not only Black communities but also Canadian society. These voices do not just contribute to diversity; they deepen our collective understanding of humanity, justice, and belonging.
Black History Month should serve as an entry point rather than a conclusion: a moment that encourages institutions to integrate Black intellectual and cultural traditions into the center of our collective experience. Doing so not only honours Black histories but also enriches Canada’s national imagination.