Power & Conflict - Checking Out Me History Flashcards
Checking Out Me History was written by which poet?
John Agard
Where was John Agard born?
John Agard was born in Guyana in 1949.
When did Guyana leave the British Empire?
Guyana left the British Empire and became independent in 1966.
What sort of education was Agard given in his childhood?
Agard was given a “eurocentric” education due to the fact that Guyana was a British colony - he was taught traditional British history.
“Checking Out Me History” is part of a collection of poems by Agard called….
“Half Caste and Other Poems”, focusing on culture and racial identity. Agard published the collection after having lived in Britain for 30 years.
The leader of the Haitian revolution in the 18th century was called
Touissant L’Ouverture
Haiti was the first…
country to free itself from slavery.
Nanny de Maroon
was the female leader of a Jamaican rebellion in the 18th century. Most knowledge of her comes from an oral tradition that Agard is continuing in the poem.
Shaka de Zulu
was a powerful military leader in what is now called South Africa.
The Caribs
are an indigenous people from the lesser Antilles in the Caribbean forced out by the colonising French and British.
Arawaks
were the indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles wiped out by old world diseases brought over by colonising Europeans.
Mary Seacole
was a black woman who has become famous for her entrepreneurial role during the Crimean War.
The authorial intent of Checking Out Me History
is that Agard is angry about being forced to learn “white” British colonial history and having the identity of people of his culture actively suppressed. By finding out this new history, he is “carving out a new identity”.
Italics are used to
separate the distinct stanzas regarding European history and Black historical figures
Agard uses Creole language to
create a sense of identity
