Toronto’s city council approved a motion last week to change the name of the city’s landmark Yonge-Dundas square to “Sankofa Square.” The renaming is part of a $700,000 taxpayer-funded initiative to scrub the name of late 18-Century Scottish politician Henry Dundas from city-owned assets, due to his minor association to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and despite the fact he was an abolitionist. Interestingly, the square’s new moniker, Sankofa, was first used by those who were active in the very same slave trade that Dundas opposed.
