Checking out me history

• The speaker is recounting all of the historical figures he was taught as a child, he then lists all of the figures from black history who were not mentioned. He resolves to discover more about his own heritage.
• Poem structure


  • Division between stanzas through use of italics shows separation between history the speaker was taught and black history
  • Repetition of "Dem tell me" mirrors rote learning and creates oppressive tone
  • Rhyme scheme ties together sections concerning white and black history
  • Black history given separated, dedicated stanzas which could symbolise it finally receiving respect and significance
  • Enjambment connects black and white history, showing they cannot be separated
  • Volta "but now" marks turning point as speaker takes ownership of identity
• Motif of light


  References to black historical figures as "beacon", "fire-woman", "healing star", "yellow sunrise" associate them with light and guidance
• Metaphors


  • Violent metaphors like "blind me to me own identity" emphasise cruelty of colonialism
  • "I carving out me identity" has painful connotations, shows ongoing process of changing worldview
• Non-standard phonetic spelling


  Use of "dem", "de", "bout" shows resistance to traditions of English language and restrictions of colonial rule
• Lack of punctuation


  Allows poem to be interpreted in different ways, shows resistance to oppression
• Checking Out Me History

  • Similarities to Ozymandias: both use lexis from semantic field of injury to show pain of oppression of identity
  • Differences: Agard's speaker resolves to change, Shelley's Ozymandias implies corruption is permanent
• Checking Out Me History

  • Similarities to The Emigree: both show conflict between speaker's culture and one being inflicted, both attach great emotional significance to cultural identity, both emphasise importance of language
  • Differences: Agard demonises childhood, Rumens presents idealised childhood
• John Agard was a little boy sitting in the classroom in Guyana and he opened up a textbook and it said West Indian history began when Columbus a white man discovered it
• John Agard questioned


  Why does White History dominate the curriculum? Why do we only learn about white stories in school?
• The poem is about the British education system and particularly that system's Erasure of important figures from African and Caribbean history
• At the end of the poem The Speaker decides to take control of his own education and seek to understand his own identity
• Dem


  Spelling of 'them' to mimic West Indian dialect
• Use of 'Dem' and 'me'


  • Shows separation between black people and white people, speaker feels outnumbered and like a victim
• Bandage


  Metaphor for being physically hurt by how his people are being treated, forced to cover up his true identity
• Blind


  Hyperbolic metaphor for being physically oppressed, his history is deliberately being hidden from him
• Alliteration of 'b' in 'blind' and 'bandage'

  Creates an aggressive tone, shows the violent lengths they will go to in order to sustain their control and power
• Agard introduces important black historical figures like Toussaint Louverture, Nanny the Maroon, and Mary Seacole
• Structural changes when discussing black historical figures

  • Longer stanzas, shorter lines, italic font - emphasizes Agard's passion, shows how black history has been cut short, and how black people are being treated differently
• Agard questions what happened to the Caribs and the Arawaks, the original inhabitants of the West Indies
• Comparison of Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole

  Contrast between artificial light of Nightingale's lamp and natural light imagery of Seacole, shows how Nightingale was glorified while Seacole was overlooked
• Cyclical structure of poem


  Symbolizes an ongoing pattern of oppression that will keep repeating itself, but speaker is now taking a stand to carve out his own identity
• John Agard published the poem in a collection called 'Half-Caste' after living in Britain for 30 years, the poems were intended to be universal to apply to all people living under oppression and being denied their cultural identity