Checking out me history

• Context: John Agard

  • Agard was born in Guyana and received a British education due to the country being a colony until 1966
  • He was given a very eurocentric view of history and denied his own cultural idenity
  • When his country became independent he realised how much of his identity he was deprived of
  • When Guyana was a Dutch colony Africans were sold as slaves to the Caribbean
• Context: Checking out me history

  • Inspired by a school textbook which claimed that West Indian history began with Columbus
  • Published in the collection "Half caste and other poems" which focused on culture and racial identity
  • The poems were intended to be universal and apply to all people living under oppression and being denied their cultural identity
• "Dem tell me Dem tell me"

  • Repetition creates an accusatory tone, showing the speaker's anger
• "Bandage up me eye with me own history"

  • Injury connotations
  • Implies the speaker feels as if his sheltered upbringing has hurt him
• "Blind me to me own idenity"

  • Violent metaphors to show the cruelty of colonialism
  • Shows the deliberate nature of the abuse inflicted by colonial control
  • Implies his education has permanently altered the way he views the world
• "Dem" "de" "bout"

  • Non-standard phonetic spelling
  • The speaker is resisting the traditions of the English language
  • Emphasises this poem is a form of oral poetry
• Contrasting italics with normal text

  • highlights the two accounts of history being very separate
• "de cow who jump over de moon"

  • semantic field of childhood
  • implies that he feels he lost his childhood and is stuck in the past
• "I checking out me own history I carving out my identity"

  • Taking back control
  • No mention of "dem", they have lost control over him
  • "carving" has connotations of hard work, showing his is willing to rectify this wrong and do whatever it takes to learn about his own idenitity
• "dem tell me"

  • repeated throughout the poem
  • oppressive tone
  • each stanza begins with "dem tell me" showing how colonial control has dominated his life
• Rhyme

  • The rhyme scheme ties together black and white history showing how Agard is trying to end segregation through literary unification
• Dual structure

  • Division between stanzas through Agrad's use of italics shows the separation between the history he was taught and black history
• Stanza organisation

  • Each ends with a reference to a black historical figure
  • Shows their significance to Agard
  • Black history is given separated dedicated stanzas which could symbolise it finally receiving the respect and significance it deserves
  • The rich imagery in these stanzas juxtaposes the almost childish lexis in the other stanzas to show the beautiful and complex nature of black history