Afua Cooper

Dr. Afua Ava Pamela Cooper (born 8 November 1957) is a Jamaican-born Canadian historian.

As a historian, "she has taught Caribbean cultural studies, history, women's studies and Black studies at Ryerson and York universities, at the University of Toronto and at Dalhousie University."

Cooper was born 8 November 1957 in Westmoreland, Jamaica to Edward and Ruth Campbell Cooper and had eight siblings—five sisters and three brothers.

She is a descendant of Alison Parkinson, who was sold into West Indian slavery.

Descendants on her father's side of the family worked as slaves on William Cooper's Whithorn sugar plantation.

Between ages three and eight, Cooper moved in with her aunt, Elfleda Campbell, in Kingston, Jamaica, where she studied at St. Michael’s All-Age School and Camperdown High School.

By the time she graduated in 1975, Cooper had founded an African Studies Club at her school and had become a Rastafarian.

After graduation, she moved in with Mutabaruka and his wife, Yvonne Peters for a year.

In 1976, she received a teaching certificate from Excelsior Community College.

In 1980, Cooper migrated to Toronto due to civil unrest in Jamaica.

Her first son, Akil, was born the following year.

In 1983, Cooper enrolled at the University of Toronto, where she majored in African studies.

Breaking Chains, Cooper's first book of poetry, was published in 1983.

Cooper's marriage dissolved in 1986.

In 1988, Cooper became a Muslim.

Before moving to Canada, Cooper taught at Vauxhall Secondary School for a year.

Upon arrival in Toronto, she taught at Bickford Park High School.

In 1988, Cooper became a residency fellow at the Banff School of Fine Arts and wrote two books of poetry, The Red Caterpillar on College Street, which was published in 1989, and Memories Have Tongue, which was published in 1992.

Both books were published by Sister Vision Press.

In 1990, she returned to complete a Master of Arts degree, studying Black Canadian history.

In 1990, Cooper opened the festivities in Queen's Park, Toronto celebrating the release of Nelson Mandela from prison; the crowd for her performance is estimated to have included 25,000 people.

Later in the year, she toured Senegal and Gambia.

Memories Have Tongue went on to become a finalist for the 1992 Casa de las Américas Prize.

She is the co-author of We're Rooted Here and They Can't Pull Us Up: Essays in African Canadian Women's History (1994).

She has also released two albums of her poetry.

As a historian and educator, she has also received the following awards: Marta Danylewycz Award for Historical Research (1995), Commonwealth of Kentucky Award for Contribution to Kentucky history (2002), Canadian Federal Government Award for Contribution to Black History, Academic Leadership Award from University of Toronto Black Alumni (2004), and the Harry Jerome Award for Professional Excellence (2005).

Cooper has several numerous scholarships, grants, and fellows, including the following: Margaret S. McCullough Graduate Scholarship from the University of Toronto (1997-1998), Federal Ministry of Heritage grant for historical research, University of Toronto Exceptional Student Award (1998-1999), the John Nicholas Brown Center Fellowship from Brown University (2001), Canada Council Research Grant (2001), and a Canada Council Writing Grant (2003).

In 2000, she earned a PhD in African-Canadian history with specialties in slavery and abolition.

In 2002, Cooper helped found the Dub Poets' Collective, " the only grassroots poetry organization in Canada".

Beginning in 2004, Cooper began teaching African Canadian history and women's history at University of Toronto.

Published in 2006, The Hanging of Angelique tells the story of an enslaved African Marie-Joseph Angelique who was executed in Montreal at a time when Quebec was under French colonial rule.

It was shortlisted for the 2006 Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction.

In 2009, she helped establish the Black Canadian Studies Association.

In 2009, Cooper published two historical novels for children about real historical figures, both published by Kids Can Press: My name is Henry Bibb: a story of slavery and freedom; and My name is Phillis Wheatley: a story of slavery and freedom, both published in 2009 by Kids Can Press.

In 2011, Cooper was named to the James Robinson Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies at Dalhousie University.

In 2016, she led the creation of a minor program in black and African diaspora studies at Dalhousie.

She is also an author and dub poet who as of 2018, has published five volumes of poetry.

In 2018, she was named poet laureate for the city of Halifax, holding the role until 2020.

Her dissertation, "Doing Battle in Freedom's Cause", is a biographical study of Henry Bibb, a 19th-century African-American abolitionist who lived and worked in Ontario.

Her dissertation served as inspiration for the Canadian government "to designate Bibb a person of national historic significance."