CHECKING OUT ME HISTORY

• • “Dem tell me”
  • Dramatic monologue Agard speaking for ethnic minorities in the UK → he is taught only what the british seems appropriate
  • Anaphora and phonetic spelling establishes his Caribbean descent
  • This is his identity and he has no inclination to alter the pronunciation to “received English”.
  • repetition reinforces that the teaching of white history is due to indoctrination, as is the teaching of white nursery rhymes
  • 'dem' emphasises the chasm between white establishment and minority groups.
  • Is ‘Dem’ politicians or society as a whole.
• “Nanny see-far woman of mountain dream fire-woman struggle hopeful stream 30 to freedom river”

  • lexical field/lyrical metaphor for hope, natural imagery
  • “dream” refers to MLK’s speech at the Lincoln memorial in Washington 63’
  • Nanny de marron was a leader of ex slaves
• “Columbus and 1492 but what happen to de Caribs and de Arawaks too”

  • Columbus acts as distorted and misguided portrayal of history, which disregards the existence of native tribes and other explorers
  • “Caribs” were a dominant group in the Caribbean and the Araks migrated from Asia and South America.
  • Mentioned to so how Columbus’ arrival ,leading to such a loss in life , place in history overshadows the settling of two huge groups
• “a healing star among the wounded a yellow sunrise to the dying”

  • contrast between the dying soldiers and healing star
  • Extended metaphor of light → Agard symbollically shines a light on heroes of different ethnicities
  • also shows that he finds their achievements to be enlightening and warming
  • he is no longer “bandaged” or “blind”
  • Mary Seacole is portrayed to be more hands on rather than managerial
  • contrast to Florence Nightingale, whose romanticised lamp is part of her legend — but Seacole doesn’t need this weaker light to shine.
• • “I carving out me identity”
  • no full stop → history is not complete
  • end on rhyming couplet → happy ending
  • “Carving” takes time, effort and skill ; implying that it wouldn’t be straightforward to learn about his own cultural history
  • “carving” is in the present tense indicates that the process of re-educating himself has begun.
  • First time he uses the pronoun “I” → determined to know more to establish his own identity
• CONTEXT:

  • Agard was born in Guyana a former British colony that was in fact called British Guiana until its independence in 1966 (when Agard was 17)
  • indigenous people spoke Arawak but the British introduced English into their governments which soon took over