Africville

“Africville” by Maxine Tynes
1:
Examples of personification include “We are Africville” and “I am Africville”. This is personification because they cannot really be “Africville”; this is because Africville is not a person, or an adjective usually appropriate to be paired with humans. However in this case the author does it quite well. For example comparing “I am tired” to “I am Africville” one can quickly tell that this is a personification on Africville, in the sense of making Africville an adjective describing who they/she are/is respectively. To be Africville, in this case would be someone conveying their sense of pride and attachment to their beloved former town, to carry with them the unforgettable, unforgivable past that was eviction of their town.
An example of a metaphor would be:
“No house is Africville. No road, no tree, no well. Africville is man/women/child in the street and heart of Black Halifax, the Prestons, Toronto.”
No house, no tree, or no well can be Africville because there are these things everywhere. The trees aren’t what makes Africville special, it is the people in it and their stories and history. The section goes further to explain how even post-dispossession the people of Africville are still together in black Halifax and Toronto. This implies that this town was so unified that even widespread eviction cannot break their bonds. However, the concrete metaphor in this passage is