This is the story of three generations of the Seabolt family, descendants former slaves who settles in Wind Bluff, Nova Scotia. Legend has it that some of the first settlers back in the 18th century were American slaves who had been put on a ship headed back to Africa that was lost at sea, and these souls made their way back to shore.

By the time the story begins, it's the 1930s, and many newer residents have moved north to look for work and escape from the Jim Crow South. Kath Ella Seabolt has secured a scholarship to a Montreal college when she finds herself pregnant. She believes her life plan is ruined and that she has no choice but to settle down in her home town with her child's father, Omar. Until fate, both tragic and fortuitous, steps in. The first of three parts focuses mainly on Kath Ella, who finds a way to continue her education and marries a white French-Canadian that she meets in Montreal. It seems unlikely that she will ever return to her home town. In addition to Kath's story, this section develops a portrait of Wind Bluff and the nearby towns, also primarily black, and the conflicts among the various groups in the community: people descended from Jamaicans, Haitians, and American slaves who hold differing opinions of one another's culture.

The second part of Africaville follows Kath's son Omar. Raised by his grandmother for the first few years of his life, he's smart enough to secure a spot in a good school but finds himself often challenged by the other boys. The black students, including his cousin, bait him for not being black enough, and the white boys bully him for being black. Talk about identity issues! When Kath marries, Omar is adopted by his stepfather, who insists that he change his name to Etienne. As he attends college and moves out into the world, he accepts that it's easier for him to just accept what people think they see: a white man. His wife, who is white, knows his history, and she is the one who questions why there are no photographs of his mother in the house. While Etienne loves his mother and stepfather dearly and maintains as close a relationship with them as time and distance allows, his life is clearly compartmentalized.

It's Etienne's son Warner, the focal character in Part Three, who longs to connect with his familial past, even taking a job in Alabama near the town where his grandfather Omar's parents lived before they got in trouble with the law and sent him up to Canada to be raised by his paternal grandparents. Like his father, Warner is usually taken for a white man, and for the most part, living in the Deep South, he doesn't object. But he is disturbed by the bigotry surrounding him, and he wants to know more about his great grandmother, who is serving a life sentence for murder, and about his grandmother Kath Ella and rest of the the family in Nova Scotia.

While Africaville is a family saga, in many ways it is also the story of race in North American culture. I really never thought much about what life might have been like for the freed and escaped slaves who ended up n Canada. I found it an interesting book, but the pace is a bit uneven, and the author's use of several repeated motifs to connect the three parts and to show that some things change but others never do may be a bit heavy-handed. ( )

Set in a Halifax, Nova Scotia neighborhood populated by former leaders of rebellions against plantation owners in Jamaica, Haiti, and Trinidad, and formerly enslaved people from the American South, this novel encompasses four generations. Originally brought to Canada to mine coal, the workers and their descendants struggle to rise above racism and benign neglect. During the Flu Epidemic of 1918, survivors Kath Ella and her best friend Kiendra are fifteen year old best friends. One studies hard for a scholarship to teacher's college and the other - whew – Kiendra, constantly devises methods for getting both girls into big trouble with police, with disastrous results. After Omar, the father of her son Etienne, dies, Kath Ella marries a white man, and Etienne and his son Warner move unhappily back and forth between racial identities. Meanwhile, back in Alabama, Omar's mother Zera, jailed for decades for a murder she did not commit, joins Warner in their return to the dying Halifax community to bring the tale full circle in 1992. There is a strong sense of buried history revealed here, but only Kath Ella and Kiendra's saga catches fire. ( )

On the bluffs of Halifax, Nova Scotia a group of freed slaves made a settlement for themselves in the late 1800's, eventually dubbed Africaville. Since then, the community grew; although they remained on the outskirts of town. In 1933, Kath Ella Sebolt is looking for a way out. A scholarship to a a college in Montreal is her ticket, however trouble with her best friend Kiendra and a pregnancy with Omar Platt's child could complicate matters. Kath Ella wants more for her son, Etienne than she had. Etienne does well for himself, but often struggles with the fact that he is what people would consider 'colored.' Etienne's son Warner, now in Alabama is surprised to learn who his grandparents were and finds himself tied back to the small community in Nova Scotia.
Africaville is a family saga that captures to trials of four generations of a family in North America. I was very interested in the community and it's foundations in Canada. Picking up in the 1930's with Kath Ella, the story was able to depict the many different ways that racism was able to encroach on the residents of Africaville, from limited opportunities for education and jobs to violent retaliation. For Kath Ella's son and grandson, the focus turns more on identity. Colvin was able to capture the complex emotional turmoil of two men coming to terms with who they are. One of the most interesting characters in the story for me was Zera, Omar's mother. Zera was jailed for a protest and made the difficult decision to send her son to relatives in Africaville. In a way, it is her legacy that pulls the other three generations together. I would have loved to know more of her story and the events that led up to her arrest. I would have also appreciated more information on the families that founded the town on the bluffs and how they came to settle there. Overall, a sweeping family story of a group of people that history has forgotten.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review. ( )

I enjoyed the story of Kath Ella, her struggles, diappointments, and strength that she would always find when life became difficult. She was motivated and determined to make the most out of the life she had been given. I did enjoy the history, but sometimes found it too distracting in the flow of the story. Jeffrey Colvin knows how to bring a story to life and make the drama vivid and unforgettable. ( )