Checking Out Me History

Who was “Checking Out Me History” written by?

John Agard

What is the context of Checking Out Me History?

• Agard’s poems covers issues around being black and challenging racist attitudes - he is particularly interested in highlighting unconscious racist attitudes

• Agard was born in Guyana and received a British education due to the country being colonised. He was therefore given a eurocentric view of history whilst being denied his own cultural identity. Agard’s formative years were lived under British rule, however, eventually, he saw his country become independent and realised how much of his identity he was deprived of

• The poem was inspired by reading a school textbook which claimed that West Indian history began with Colombous. It was published in the collection “Half castle and other poems” which was focused on both culture and racial identity

What is the structure of Checking Out Me History?

• Mixture of stanza forms, suggesting Agard is breaking the confining language rules he’s been taught

• The British stanzas have lots of simple rhymes, making them sound childish, suggesting it has a lack of personal relevance to him

• The rhyme scheme ties together the sections concerning white and black history, showing Agard is attempting to end segregation through literary unification

• Each stanza ends with a reference to a black historical figure which shows Agard’s reverance. Alternatively, this could be interpreted to symbolise how these figures are given less prominence

• Enjambment shows how much Agard cares about the subject matter which has impacted him as a person. Volta shows that he is taking ownership of his identity

• Repetition of “Dem tell me” shows how colonial control has dominated his life in the same way it dominates the poem. It could also be interpreted to allude to Agard’s emphatic desire to have his message heard

What other poems can you compare “Checking Out Me History” to?

• London + War Photographer (Anger)

• The Emigree + Kamikaze (Identity)

“Dem tell me / Dem tell me”

• Anaphora creates an accusatory tone, showing Agard’s anger. The phonetic spelling indicates his Caribbean accent. This is his identity and he has no inclination to alter the pronunciation to what is known as “standard English”. Furthermore, the repetition alludes to a process of indoctrination, symbolising he was only taught what the British education system deemed to be appropriate to teach

• “Dem” may refer to politicians, as education is a political issue, but it also refers to society as a whole, which hasn’t yet grasped and absorbed the complexity and richness of its diverse population.

• By using non-standard English his accent is represented, showing who he really is, and by the education system leaving out his history it shows how he is not ashamed but frustrated.

“Bandage up me eye / Blind to me own identity”

• Image of bandage is ironic - bandages should aid healing, instead they’ve caused blindness. It has injury-like connotations which imply the speaker feels he has been hurt by his sheltered upbringing

• Bandages peel over time. After some time the bandage falls off to reveal the scars of the wound that was below. This could highlight that the Agard feels enough is enough, too much time has passed where the bandage has covered the wound of colonialism. Now the bandage has peeled off to reveal the injustices of the past

• The plosive ‘b’ consonants create an underlying tone of aggression

“Dem tell me bout de dish ran away with the spoon but dem never tell me bout Nanny de maroon…of mountain dream”

• This is from an English nursery rhyme ‘Hey diddle diddle’. The juxtaposition of a childish song with the bravery and leadership of Nanny de Maroon indicates the imbalanced focus of the education system.

• The dish having possession over the spoon metaphorically represents his identity and past as the British education system had control over what British schools taught their children

• Agard contrasts the trivia of English nursery rhymes with Nanny de maroon - the leader of a group of ex-slaves who fled slavery to create their own communities.

• The “mountain dream” is a direct reference to Martin Luther King and his I have a dream speech addressed to a huge audience at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington in 1963. It evokes the aspirations of oppressed people.

“healing star…yellow sunrise”

• This quote is in reference to Mary Seacole - a Jamaican nurse who helped the sick in the Crimean War. The metaphor associates Mary with hope, light, positivity and warmth in a time of war and darkness; she could heal spiritually as well as physically.

• There is an implied contrast to Florence Nightingale: the imagery of Seacole BEING a star and the sun when Nightingale only has a lamp shows how she is much more important. Additionally, Nightingale’s lamp was part of her legacy, but Seacole doesn’t need a light to shine

• “yellow sunrise” shows Agard is symbolically shining ‘light’ on his own heroes of different ethnicities. This links neatly with the second stanza, where Agard refers to his eyes being ‘bandaged’ and ‘blinded’. The historical figures he mentions are to the poet icons, people to follow, their stories serving to ‘un-blind’ him from the limitations of his English education. They act as a guide to his own identity, and he perceives their achievements as enlightening and warming.

“I carving out me identity”

• This is the first use of the first person singular “I”. He is at last asserting himself rather than passively accepting what he is taught, taking control of his life and learning about his own culture.

• The fact that “carving” is in the present tense indicates that the process of re-educating himself has begun. Connotations of “carving” - trying to create something that won't fade or be forgotten”

• Finally, it is a poem without punctuation; not even at the end. This could suggest that finding his identity is ongoing and will continue long into the future and also suggests his story/history isn’t complete

• The poem ends with the significant, emphatic final word ‘identity’ which sums up the main theme. This is what the poet feels he has been denied - but he is going to use his own history to “carve” himself free from a false identity

• However, the poem ends on a rhyming couplet, Agard’s way of signalling that this is his happy ending. Readers like him, living in a country where the education system disregards the breadth and complexity of its racial and cultural mix, can find meaning in their lives by seeking their own identity