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A new student-led group at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), named TMU Ujima, is focused on creating lasting social change on campus and beyond, according to its organizers.
“With what’s happening in Palestine and the [U.S.] election, it’s such a politically turbulent time…I want to be able to be like, ‘during this time, this is what I was trying to do,’” said founder Akili Bernard. Bernard is a third-year arts and contemporary studies student who says the group will be built around the principle of collective liberation — the recognition that social justice is interconnected across various struggles. “Don’t stare at the problem. You look at the solution, you look at where you want to go… and you move towards it.”
At the heart of their goals is their effort to challenge the caste system, an imposed hierarchy of human value that is reflected in racism, ableism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination in many faith communities, including Hindu, Bhuddist, Muslim, Sikh and Christian.
“We believe in our club that that type of social hierarchy is not religious, necessarily… The formulation of ranking humans based on their perceived value is found everywhere,” said Bernard.
The group’s name, Ujima, is the Swahili translation for ‘collective work and responsibility’ and is one of the seven principles of Kwanzaa. “We chose it because it relates to our club in a lot of ways and what we want to do…the idea that everybody’s problems are our problems and our problems are everybody’s problems — like a mutual liberation and mutual struggle that we all are oppressed under the same caste system and that we all have to work together to defy it,” said Bernard.
Despite being a new initiative, TMU Ujima already boasts over 20 active members and a five-person executive team. The group is currently awaiting official recognition from the Toronto Metropolitan Students’ Union and the $600-per-semester funding that comes with it, but they are determined to make an impact regardless. “We dedicate a lot of personal time… it’s like its own class,” Bernard said.
In the academic classroom, Bernard says a course on Black political thought has been particularly helpful for them this semester. “It really just touches on all of the people who came before us and what they did and different theories of how people are actually trying to address injustice,” said Bernard.
Kwesi Thomas, a philosophy PhD student at the University of Toronto, is teaching PHL 570: Black Political Thought at TMU this fall and allowed Bernard to speak about TMU Ujima to his full class. Thomas says Bernard is in an “interesting position” from a theoretical standpoint. “They want to undermine racial injustice but they don’t want to do it by saying, ‘let’s get together as Black people and solve this.’ They want something that’s broader than that and not going to be exclusive,” he said.
Thomas says the class looks at different writers and their strategies for dealing with racism — some say Black people need to stay united within their community to change the world, while other writers argue that that idea can be limiting. “[This] tension is something that I think Akili is trying to wrestle with in their activism, which is difficult. I have trouble just sitting down and thinking about it in various books, so I can’t imagine talking to others and trying to make a community around things like this.”
Deirdre McCorkindale, an expert on Black activism in North America and professor of history at the University of Guelph, says the subtlety of Canadian racism compared to the U.S. is “very sinister” and makes it more difficult for marginalized groups to pinpoint and work against. “You have to convince the public that what you’re talking about even exists,” she said.
“Don’t let people split you up because historically that has been a tactic used by the people you’re up against… It’s a long history, you stand on the shoulders of giants but you have to do it because change doesn’t happen overnight,” said McCorkindale.
TMU Ujima hosted its first event, a zine-making workshop focused on identity and self-expression, last month. Balthazar Alfred, a third-year photography student who attended the event, says the experience was “quite fun” and that he’s glad to be around like-minded people on campus. “I would like to see more of people actually practicing what they preach,” he said.
Emily Cole, a fourth-year photography student and communications and outreach facilitator at TMU Ujima, ran the workshop and says she hopes to see the group expand beyond just TMU. “We’ve been getting lots of people (not just from the school) who are interested in our principles and want to learn more about it. I’m hoping that continues over the next couple of years and that way we can start…radicalizing our community,” she said.
Cole says many of the existing social justice-oriented student groups are specific to one marginalized community and can be “more individualistic” — she says TMU Ujima aims to fill that gap.
The group is set to hold their second event, a 2SLGBTQIA+ and BIPOC-focused open mic night in collaboration with Lumenus Community Services, at the Sheldon and Tracy Levy Student Learning Centre next week. Bernard says that to support other communities, the group first needs to build its own, through public outreach and events.
The group also plans to engage in mutual aid efforts, such as food drives and workshops, while also supporting other social justice-focused groups on campus, like Students for Justice in Palestine. “I see us doing just so much mutual aid, I feel like that’s the type of action we want to take to help support our community,” said Bernard.
“What I really want this club to be is a realization that all of our resistances are tied together and all of our liberty is tied together.”
Kinza Zafar (she/her) is a reporter for On the Record News, Fall 2024, with an interest in politics and arts and culture.
