Context/Abt the Poet

• Written by John Agard in 1996
• Agard was born in 1949 in Guyana. Guyana is country that is on mainland South America but is considered part of the Caribbean. Until 1966, Guyana was under British rule. Agard moved to the UK in the 1970s with his partner Grace Nichols (who is also a poet)
• Agard is mixed-race, with a Caribbean father and a Portuguese mother.
• When he moved to Britain, he found he was referred to as “half-caste”, which angered him
• Agard has been writing poetry since he was 16
• He uses Creole, which is a mix of English and a more Caribbean way of speaking. He does this intentionally in many of his poems