Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey, Associate Professor and William Dawson Scholar in the Department of History and Classical Studies, has won the 2024 Governor General’s History Award for Scholarly Research for his 2023 book, Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: The Making of a Pan-African North America.
Governor General Mary Simon presented the award, administered by Canada’s National History Society, at a ceremony Nov. 20.
“My parents have a seventh- and sixth-grade education, so this award means much to them and to me,” Adjetey said. “It’s also a great honour that I share with my African Canadian elders and their forebears who came of age in a Canada virulently opposed to Black people, despite all that Black communities had sacrificed for Crown and country.”
Cross-Border Cosmopolitans is a deeply researched book that draws upon extensive archival records in Canada and the United States to show how Black North Americans of American, Caribbean and Canadian descent transcended borders in the 20th century to create Pan-Africanism, a movement aimed at liberating Black people across the Americas and Africa. It is an account of solidarity and resistance in the face of discrimination, repression and hostility.
“Collective action is one of the purest and most effective forms of democratic expression,” Adjetey said.
“That members of Black communities in Canada, the United States, the Caribbean and Africa leaned on one another across borders illustrates the extent to which ‘people power’ is integral to social change, democracy and liberation from systems of domination and exploitation,” he said.
Professor Nicholas Dew, Chair of the Department of History and Classical Studies, lauded Cross-Border Cosmopolitans, describing it as “an important book, which redraws the map of modern Canadian history in several ways.”
“We very much hope it reaches as wide an audience as possible,” Dew said, adding that his department is “absolutely delighted to see our esteemed colleague and friend Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey honoured in this way.”
To learn more about Cross-Border Cosmopolitans, watch Adjetey’s interview on Canada’s History YouTube channel, or:
- Listen to the Faculty of Arts in Conversation with Professor Wendell Adjetey podcast (2024)