A Ghanaian food vendor in Atlantic Canada has been forced out of her market stall.
A native of Apam and Accra, Mary Nkrumah, who immigrated to Canada in 2008, currently sells prepared foods like jollof rice, red red, and groundnut soup at the Halifax Seaport Market in Nova Scotia.
Mrs. Nkrumah has many loyal customers, and her shop is located on a part of the market with several other popular food vendors from India, Turkey, Poland and the Caribbean.
But all of the international cuisine vendors have been told to pack their goods and move to a remote balcony in the market where their sales will dwindle to only a fraction of what they make today.
They have expressed their dissatisfaction with the move to the management, but were told that the ground floor of the market is being reserved for farmers only.
“Moving us is unfair because we have been here for years, and now they are putting new people in our spaces,” says Nkrumah, who has pointed out that saving the market for farmers basically means saving it for white people because there are no black or immigrant farmers in Nova Scotia.
Nkrumah states that Canada is not a racist country, but that sometimes decisions are made that exclude immigrants. Over the past year, two vendors, one from Egypt and one from India, were dismissed from the market, creating a climate of fear amongst the immigrant vendors.
Most are afraid to speak to reporters for fear they may lose their market stall.
“Management has to be sensitive to this. A place like Halifax will not be white forever because thousands of immigrants move here every year from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.”
The current administration of the Halifax Seaport Market has stated that it is not their intention to relocate any vendor based on ethnicity.
However, the result of the move will mean that one corner of the Balcony Floor will become an ethnic food court.
Nkrumah states that the immigrant vendors take fewer vacations than permanent vendors and always buy meats and vegetables from farmers in the market.
They also bring in new Canadians to the market, who may not otherwise feel comfortable in a place that tends to be dominated by white farmers and vendors.
“I love Halifax and Nova Scotia, but things have to change. In the old days in Nova Scotia, they made black people sit in the balcony at the movie theatre. I don’t want that sort of thing to happen again.”
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