English

• What are the themes in elmina’s kitchen?

  Guns , crime , drugs , single parenthood , gangs , young men rejecting education
• Kwei Armah takes us behind the headlines of Hackney‘s murder mile, uncovers London‘s gang violence and shows how easy it is to make the wrong choice when struggling to survive.
• Kwei Armah and his presentation of the 3 different generations of black men:

  • Clifton- abandons his wife Elmina and his sons before they were teenagers.
  • Deli(Clifton’s youngest son)- manages a West Indian restaurant.
  • Ashley (deli‘s son)- A nineteen year old boy with an ambition to get a BMW.
• Kwei Armah exposes the domino effect that can be created when a father fails to be responsible for his children such as:

  • teaching a son about respect, protect him when in trouble or allowing him to improve his life when the opportunity comes.
  • Deli might have learnt his lesson in prison to leave gang culture but never emphasized this to his son Ashley. Instead Ashley is seduced by Digger being a ruthless criminal.
• Ashley: “I was wondering if mans could run wid you? Give you little back-up and dat?

  -Ashley’s approach to Digger is an attempt to move into what he thinks is the ‘elevated’ gang culture that Digger operates.

  • Ashley, like many of his black peers is determined to join gang culture believing it will give him dominance, financial gain and ultimately respect and identity in his community that he feels Deli lost