Checking Out Me History

Bandage up my eye

Blind me

system has deliberately blinded him and concealed black history from him

a bandage is normally used to heal but here it is not healing but instead blinding

version of history taught is damaging to him and preventing him from seeing the truth

‘me own’ - reinforces speaker’s personal loss of his history and identity and sense of self, it has been stolen from him, loss of cultural identity

colloquial language and phonetic spelling shows how he’s resisting the colonial language imposes upon him and he asserts his Caribbean identity

criticises systematic racism and cultural erasure, as welll as white washing and eurocentrism

black people have been taught an inferior view of their history and now they have an inferior view of themselves

Dem tell me

repeated throughout

defiant, confrontational tone

creates strong sense of division between the oppressors and the oppressed reinforces poem’s message about systematic control and cultural silencing

Agard builds a sense of injustice and frustration suggesting that history has been force-fed to him

echoes repetitive nature of colonial indoctrination, eurocentrism

cultural pride and resistance

criticism of how colonial powers rewrote history, erasing struggles and achievements of black people

history is used as a tool of oppression

Dem tell me about the man who discovered de balloon….

sarcastic and critical tone

mocking absurdity of what he was taught in school

juxtaposition of real historical facts with nursery rhymes shows how eurocentric education elevates trivial white achievements whilst completely ignoring major Black historical figures like Toussaint L’overture and Nanny de maroon

colonial education deliberately distracts and misleads while keeping the speaker ignorant of their own powerful heritage

naivety of children taken advantage of

rhyme and rhythm mimic tone of children stories reinforcing the idea that this kind of history is shallow, childish and patronising

Agard criticises a system that marginalises Black voices and presents history as harmless entertainment instead of a tool of empowerment

I carving out me identity

passive frustration to active resistance

‘but now’ awakening

speaker is no longer accepting the history he’s been given by colonial education system and is instead taking control and reclaiming his heritage

‘checking out’ exploration and discovery, actively seeking truth that education system won’t give

‘carving’ - implies struggle, effort and permanence, evokes true image of someone shaping a new identity based on forgotten, hidden or erased Black history

implores audience to do the same

‘me’ and not my, Caribbean voice and cultural pride

history is something you must fight for and actively construct rather than passively accept

his uses of colloquial language throughout is informal but shows the comfort he derives in speaking about his cultural identity and embracing it