Summary
Highlights
John Agard, born in Guyana in 1949 and moved to Britain in 1977, is a renowned poet whose work often addresses identity and ethnicity with social observation and humor. The poem 'Checking Out Me History' stems from Agard's experience with a Eurocentric history textbook in Guyana, stating that West Indian history began with Columbus's arrival. This sparked his realization that history is shaped by those in power. Guyana was a British colony until 1966, thus enforcing a European style of education, making the poem relevant to Agard's school experience despite being outside Britain.
The poem was published in the 2007 collection 'Half-Caste and Other Poems,' focusing on race and cultural identity. By this time, Agard had lived in the UK for 30 years, extending the poem's themes to a broader search for identity under oppressive powers, not just within a colonized country. The presenter encourages viewers to watch Agard read the poem due to its lack of punctuation, which significantly influences its rhythm and meaning.
Agard uses a deliberate rhyme scheme to force white and black historical figures together, countering the historical segregation of narratives. An interesting example highlighted is the rhyming of 'balloon,' 'moon,' 'spoon,' and 'maroon,' where 'maroon' is the climax, emphasizing Nanny de Maroon's importance. This build-up, common in hip-hop, along with stanzas ending on black historical figures like Toussaint L'Ouverture, Nanny de Maroon, and Mary Seacole, makes the reader pause and reflect on their significance.
Enjambment is extensively used, continuing sentences beyond line breaks. This can suggest anger or an unrestrained emotion. It also structurally forces the reader to link white figures like Lord Nelson with black figures like Shaka the Zulu in the same sentence, challenging the separation taught historically. The repetition of 'Dem tell me' further emphasizes the speaker's anger and frustration at the 'miseducation' of history.
The poem contrasts the trivialization of white history (often linked to nursery rhymes and childish rhymes) with the significant portrayal of black historical figures. Verses about black figures are italicized, in free verse, and lack regular rhythm, symbolizing their uncontrolled spirit. They feature positive natural imagery, representing their positive influence. This stylistic difference underlines the speaker's rightful anger at not being taught about these essential historical personages.
The poem adopts characteristics of oral poetry, using repetition, phonetic spelling, and strong rhythm to emphasize the importance of oral history and the inclusion of non-white historical figures. The opening metaphor 'Bandage up me eye with me own history / blind me to me own identity' highlights the deliberate concealment of history. The concluding lines, 'Now I checking out me own history / I carving out me identity,' use 'carving' to convey the active, even strenuous, process of reclaiming one's history and validating identity. The final stanza ending with the speaker himself reinforces his empowered sense of identity.
Agard's use of Creole language and phonetic spelling (e.g., 'Dem' for 'them') and the absence of punctuation represent his refusal to conform to the rules of Standard English, symbolizing a rebellion against Eurocentric control. This choice forces the reader to acknowledge and engage with Agard's distinct cultural identity, promoting the idea that history should not segregate white and black narratives. The deliberate lack of punctuation forces the reader into a position of not fully understanding, mirroring the speaker's experience of incomplete historical education.
The poem uses intertextual and contextual references across three categories: famous historical events/figures (1066, Lord Nelson, Florence Nightingale), black historical characters (Toussaint L'Ouverture, Nanny de Maroon, Shaka, Caribs, Arawaks), and characters from fables/nursery rhymes (Dick Whittington, cow jumped over the moon, Robin Hood, Old King Cole). The inclusion of nursery rhyme characters can suggest that the Western historical narrative presented to Agard is as fictional and simplistic as these tales, or that 'white' historical figures are as unimportant to him as fictional characters.
The absence of punctuation, especially in verses about black historical figures, creates ambiguity in how the poem should be read. Agard's own reading of lines like 'Nanny See-far woman of mountain dream / Fire-woman struggle / hopeful stream to Freedom River' demonstrates significant pauses. This intentional lack of guidance puts the reader in a position of not fully understanding, parallel to how the omission of black historical figures prevents a complete understanding of history. By withholding punctuation, Agard implies that a partial history leads to an incomplete comprehension of the past.