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Black History Month: Valour’s Jean-Baptiste on Miriam Makeba & Marsha P. Johnson

Story updated January 2023.


Valour FC’s Andrew Jean-Baptiste is adamant to acknowledge those who deserve a bigger platform.

The Haitian international centre-back has nominated South African-born singer and civil rights activist Miriam Makeba and LGBTQ icon Marsha P. Johnson as two of his heroes for Black History Month.

“Miriam had a platform and spoke, but Marsha didn’t have one, in a way,” Jean-Baptiste told CanPL.ca.

Makeba rose to prominence in the 1960s as a global music superstar, singing about her time growing up in South Africa. Under Apartheid, the Black people in South Africa were under numerous social and political apparatuses that caused racial segregation and disenfranchisement. Makeba was exiled from South Africa and saw her citizenship revoked as her music grew in popularity, and she began to sing and speak openly against Apartheid.

“For anyone with a platform to take a position and really speak out about anything like that traumatic time in history it requires a lot of courage,” Jean-Baptiste offered. “Maybe more people can find more research on what she talked about, maybe relate to the music or the things that she talked about using her platform.”

Johnson was a key member of New York City’s gay liberation movement in the 1960s and 1970s. He was also a prominent face of the Stonewall riots which were a series of protests responding to a police raid of a prominent LGBTQ establishment. Jean-Baptiste, who also calls New York City home, encourages others to read up about Johnson’s activism.

“Her work reminds me of my favourite verse by [rapper] Nas: Fear what they don’t understand, hate what they can’t concur,” Jean-Baptiste said.

“The P in her name was something like ‘Pay Them No Mind.’ I love that. Pay them no mind just move on because those people that they don’t know, they can’t understand, and they can’t accept and those are the people that we don’t need in our lives.”

“She was just that revolutionary, that it brought things to attention. she took the first step in making this world a little bit more comfortable with accepting other people for who they are – just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean you should hate it, you know, or fear it.”

“Marsha had a whole lot more for us that got left undone and that’s worth highlighting in and of itself.”