Checking Out Me History

• Checking Out Me History in a nutshell

  Checking Out Me History is a modern poem published in 2007 by the poet John Agard, who was born in British Guiana, now called Guyana, in the Caribbean. The poem uses non-standard phonetic spelling and mixes Guyanese Creole with standard English to represent the voice of a black man who recounts all of the white historical figures he was taught as a child at school and is frustrated that important figures from black history were not mentioned. He, therefore, resolves to discover more about the history and heritage relevant to him. The title of the poem is thus ironic, as it is not “his” history he is “checking out”.
• Checking Out Me History breakdown

  Lines 1-5

  “Dem tell me

  Dem tell me

  Wha dem want to tell me

  Bandage up me eye with me own history

  Blind me to me own identity”

  Translation

  • The speaker repeats “Dem” meaning “them” or “they”
  • “Them” or “they” refers to his white teachers
  • He says that they teach him what they want to teach him, controlling what people learn
  • They cover up colonised people’s history from them, blinding people like the speaker to their true history and identity
• Agard’s intention

  • The narrator of this poem is introduced through their voice and the deliberate use of the Guyanese Creole dialect
  • The poet is referring to the English curriculum taught by British educators, which was written by white people and biased towards white history
  • The use of non-standard English is used to show his own culture and background, which he feels is not acknowledged by the English curriculum
  • It also reflects his pride in his own culture and background
• Lines 6-9

  “Dem tell me bout 1066 and all dat

  dem tell me bout Dick Whittington and he cat

  But Toussaint L’Ouverture

  no dem never tell me bout dat”

  Translation

  • The narrator then references the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and the childhood story of Dick Whittington and his cat
  • But he was never taught about black historical figures, such as Toussaint L’Ouverture

  Agard’s intention

  • The poet references white historical figures or events in each quatrain and contrasts this with a black historical figure who isn’t included in the curriculum
  • This is to show that these white historical references were irrelevant to him
  • Toussaint L’Ouverture was a slave and the leader of the Haitian Revolution
  • He beat back the (white) French emperor Napoleon, which is how Haiti gained independence from the French and became the first black democracy in the Americas
  • He transformed the lives of many slaves
• Lines 10-21

  “Toussaint

  a slave

  with vision

  lick back

  Napoleon

  battalion

  and first Black

  Republic born

  Toussaint de thorn

  to de French

  Toussaint de beacon

  of de Haitian Revolution”

  Translation

  • The speaker then “teaches” us about Toussaint L’Ouverture
  • He was a slave who rose up to beat back Napoleon’s battalions leading to Haiti’s independence
  • He was a thorn in the French’s side, meaning a constant pain, and a figure-head of the Haitian revolution
• Agard’s intention

  • The poet deliberately changes to italics here to contrast the difference between white and black history
  • Toussaint as a beacon implies he is illuminating the poet’s true historical identity
  • His history is important to him, as demonstrated by his knowledge of this historical figure more relevant to the speaker and the poet
• Lines 22-25

  “Dem tell me bout de man who discover de balloon

  and de cow who jump over de moon

  Dem tell me bout de dish run away with de spoon

  but dem never tell me bout Nanny de maroon”

  Translation

  • They are taught about trivial things such as the man who discovered the balloon and the nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle”
  • But they didn’t teach him about Nanny de Maroon, a Jamaican slave born to the Asante people in the late 17th century

  Agard’s intention

  • Even nursery rhymes and English inventors are prioritised over such important black historical figures
• Lines 26-31

  “Nanny

  see-far woman

  of mountain dream

  fire-woman struggle

  hopeful stream

  to freedom river”

  Translation

  • Nanny was a “see-far” woman, meaning a visionary
  • She founded her own town for other escaped slaves in the mountains of Jamaica
  • Today, she is a Jamaican national hero

  Agard’s intention

  • Again, Agard changes into italics to highlight the difference in historical narratives
  • Nanny de Maroon’s actions were a source of hope for other enslaved people, like a stream that flows into a deeper river of freedom
  • The reference to “fire” again suggests illuminating the speaker’s true history
  • The reference to struggle highlights that her journey and fight were not easy
• Lines 32-39

  “Dem tell me bout Lord Nelson and Waterloo

  but dem never tell me bout Shaka de great Zulu

  Dem tell me bout Columbus and 1492

  but what happen to de Caribs and de Arawaks too

  Dem tell be bout Florence Nightingale and she lamp

  and how Robin Hood used to camp

  Dem tell me bout ole King Cole was a merry ole soul

  but dem never tell me bout Mary Seacole”

  Translation

  • The narrator then goes on to list other important figures and events in white history
  • Admiral Lord Nelson defeated Napoleon in The Battle of Waterloo
  • Shaka was a Zulu king from Southern Africa, famous for bringing together different nations in order to grow the Zulu kingdom:
  • The speaker is not taught about him
  • He is also taught about Christopher Columbus, who came to America in 1492:
  • However, the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, the “Caribs” and the “Arawaks”, were mostly killed and displaced after Columbus’s arrival
• • The British taught the speaker about Florence Nightingale, who famously nursed injured soldiers by the light of her lamp during the Crimean War
  • They were even taught about mythological figures like Robin Hood, and another nursery rhyme, “Old King Cole”
  • But the British never taught the speaker about Mary Seacole

  Agard’s intention

  • Shaka is a historical figure who never made any contact with European people
  • He is a historic figure who revolutionised African communities alone, and not someone one would expect to learn about in an English school
  • Agard is indicating that the narrator is very knowledgeable about the type of history that matters to him
• Lines 40-49

  “From Jamaica

  she travel far

  to the Crimean War

  she volunteer to go

  and even when de British said no

  she still brave the Russian snow

  a healing star

  among the wounded

  a yellow sunrise

  to the dying”

  Translation

  • Mary Seacole was from Jamaica and had to travel far to get to the Crimean War
  • She volunteered to help but initially was denied by the British War Office
  • She then travelled independently to Russia to help heal the wounded
  • She gave hope, like a healing star and a bright sunrise, to sick and dying men
• Agard’s intention

  • Again, Agard deliberately changes the font to teach us about the history that matters more to him
  • He once again uses the image of illumination to highlight this aspect of history
• Lines 50-53

  “Dem tell me

  Dem tell me wha dem want to tell me

  But now I checking out me own history

  I carving out me identity”

  Translation

  • The speaker repeats the opening line of the poem, that the British only taught colonised students their version of history
  • However, the speaker is learning the history of his own people
  • By doing so, the speaker is creating his own identity

  Agard’s intention

  • This marks a turning point in the poem, from “dem” to “I”
  • This shows the speaker taking ownership of his own identity
  • The poem is now about him, rather than them
• Form

  The poem is written as a form of dramatic monologue, in which the speaker uses oral poetry to teach the reader his history, as opposed to the history imposed upon him

  
• Structure

  Agard deliberately structures the poem into two distinct styles through the use of italics. This shows the separation between the history he was taught and black history, which is more important to his own identity

  
• Structure: Checking out me history

  
• Structure: Checking out me history

  
• Language

  Agard uses his choice of techniques and language to contrast the importance and relevance of the British or white history taught in colonised schools with less prominent black history

  
• Language: Checking out me history

  
• Context

  • Cultural identity
  • Oppression and control
• Cultural identity

  • Guyana was a Dutch colony until 1966:
  • Agard was born there and received a British education
  • When Guyana became independent, he realised how much of his identity he had been deprived of
  • The title of the poem reflects the subject matter
  • The poem written from the perspective of someone from a Caribbean culture, as the title is written in a Creole dialect
  • The use of the words “Checking Out” implies a less formal way of learning about history, rather than studying it at school
  • The poem is filled with historic context:
  • On both “sides” of the British-colonial story are figures whose contributions to their home, culture or people are significant
  • Agard examines both sides to shed light on some of the most influential historical figures whose names are overshadowed over and over again
• • Much of colonial society was about being told what one’s place in the world was by someone else:
  • The poet is suggesting that colonial education cannot be trusted because it does not have the interests of colonised people in mind
  • The use of historical figures important to black and colonised peoples’ history shows the poet’s passion and pride towards his own history and identity:
  • These are people the poet can relate to and wants to learn about
  • They represent freedom from the oppression of the colonised education system
  • The poet may also be questioning why people don’t know about minority groups from the Caribbean, such as the Caribs and Arawaks
  • This suggests that people may be ignorant to his cultural identity
• • Oppression and control
  • The poem implies that denying people access to their history is a form of oppression:
  • It stops people from being inspired by history that is relevant to them and establishing a separate identity (to that of their colonisers)
  • It is possible that British and other colonised powers deliberately omitted Toussaint L’Ouverture from their teachings:
  • They might have feared that other oppressed peoples might learn from this example and rise up
  • In order to reclaim that identity, the speaker argues, colonised peoples must reclaim their history
  • The key to fighting back is for colonised people to investigate and learn about their own history:
  • If you control what people learn about the past, then you can control how people think and what they think about themselves
  • Whoever controls the past controls the present
  • The poet is therefore arguing that, without a history and a voice, we have no identity
• • The poem is therefore intended to apply to all people living under oppression and being denied their cultural identity
• Given that Checking Out Me History explores ideas of identity, oppression and control, the following comparisons would be a good place to start:

  • Checking Out Me History and London
  • Checking Out Me History and The Émigrée
• Checking Out Me History and London

  Comparison in a nutshell:

  This comparison provides the opportunity to compare the poets’ attitudes towards the misuse of power by those in authority. However, while Agard gives a solution, Blake does not, demonstrating their differing viewpoints on the potential for cultural and social change.

  Similarities: 

  
• Checking Out Me History and London

  
• Checking Out Me History and London

  
• Checking Out Me History and London, Differences:

  
• Checking Out Me History and The Émigrée

  Comparison in a nutshell:

  This would be an interesting comparison because the speaker’s reflections in The Émigrée are on her own sense of identity, in a similar way as Agard does in Checking Out Me History. Both speakers suffer a loss of identity as a result of circumstances, or what they have or have not been told.

  Similarities:

  
• Checking Out Me History and The Émigrée

  
• Checking Out Me History and The Émigrée, Differences:

  
• Checking Out Me History and The Émigrée, Differences: