Checking out me History

• “Dem tell me”

  • repetition mirroring learning
  • agard had to rote learn the history he was taught despite the lack of its relevance to him, colonial control has dominated life the same way it dominates the poem, repetition links to awards empathetic desire to have his message heard
• “bandage up me eye with my own history“

  • metaphor
  • bandages are white, covering with white history
• Italics


  Showing seperation
• Punctuation 


  Lack of punctuation resisting opression
• Touissant L'Ouveture


  led revolution by black slaves against the French colony

  • symbol of rebellion and resistance
  • inspired Agard to resist the oppression he is subjected to
• childish tone through simple rhyme scheme and couplets
• Nanny de maroon


  Female leader of the jamaica maroons who escaped from slavery

  • agard is continuing her knowledge from oral tradition by including her
• motif of light

  • “healing star”
  • ”a yellow sunrise”
  • source of guidance
• “blind me to me own identity”

  • violent metaphor
  • emphasise abuse inflicted by colonial control
• elision/patois

  ”dem” “de” “bout”

  • resisting traditions of English language
• phonetic spelling

  form of oral poetry
• rich imagery of black icons juxtaposes with childish lexis in other stanzas
• Shaka de Zulu


  One of the most influential military leaders in the sulu kingdom in south africa
• Caribs 


  Forced out of home by British and French
• Arawaks


  Mostly wiped out by world diseases
• Mary seacole

  Fought against oppression, arguably did more than nightingale but not mentioned in curriculum, groundbreaking work

  • example of causal, everyday racism
• dual structure

  • written in italics
  • shows separation between the history he was taught and black history
• Rhyme

  Ties together sections concerning white and black history
• stanza organisation

  • each stanza ends with the reference to a black historical figure
• enjambment

  • connective “but” ties together white and black history
• “I carving out me identity”

  • Active verb “carving“ - connotations of wood, no plasticity as a child so changing worldview is long and difficult
  • ongoing process
• Volta

  • switches from “dem” to “I” concludes sentiment that colonialism had a large affection on
• Checkin Out Me History - John Agard


  A deeply thought-provoking, cutting and sarcastic criticism of the ethnocentric curriculum in England
• John Agard

  • Postcolonial poet, writing from the perspective of those countries taken over by colonial powers
• Colonial


  Areas controlled completely by powerful countries, often thousands of miles away
• The colonies were all controlled by European countries (mainly the UK)
• Coloniser


  Those in charge of the countries that took over and controlled others
• John Agard is a postcolonial poet
• Postcolonial


  Writing in the context of the perspective of those countries that were taken over by colonial powers such as the UK, after it had happened
• Poem structure

  • 10 irregular stanzas
  • Written in Patois, a deliberate choice to give voice to those whose voice has been lost
  • Uses anaphora (repetition) of "dem tell me" to refer to the colonisers in power
• Famous black historical figures in the poem

  • Toussaint L'Ouverture
  • Nanny of the Maroons
  • Shaka Zulu
  • Mary Seacole
• Toussaint L'Ouverture

  Leader of the Haitian Revolution (1799) where he led freed slaves to fight against Napoleon's French army and defeated them, leading to the formation of the country of Haiti
• Nanny of the Maroons


  Leader of the Maroons, an ethnic group originally from Africa who enslaved in Jamaica, who freed themselves from slavery by fighting back against the slave masters. She was even considered a Queen based on African traditions.
• Shaka Zulu


  A powerful king of the Zulu tribe in South Africa, who died in 1828
• Mary Seacole


  A Jamaican nurse who travelled to the Crimea in 1856 to tend to soldiers
• Postcolonial poem


  Explores the impact of being colonised (taken over) by a coloniser (someone who takes over your land), in the context of immigration back into the coloniser's land. The immigrant looks into the white education system and does not see themselves represented, until they understand black history and find their identity.