Checking Out Me History Poem Analysis

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Checking out me history poem analysis The poem is written in dialectical non-standard English, where the poet has tried to capture the natural sounds and phrases of a unspecified Caribbean dialect. This is important because one of the major themes of the poem is that of personal identity, of which language and dialect is an important component. Every community on earth has words, phrases, accents and dialects which help to attach people to a particular place. For Agard this is particularly important since his poem ‘checking out me history’ relates how the speaker has been taught all about English and European history, but not his own African history and his use of a Caribbean dialect is another way of expressing his individuality and cultural heritage (background). The poet quickly establishes an ‘us’ and ‘them’ narrative structure which he uses to criticise his European education and the lack of black history in his schooling. He explains how he has been taught about such iconic British historical events as the Battle of Hastings (1066) and major fictional characters like Dick Wittington, but not Toussaint L’Ouverture, leader of a revolution on the island of Haiti led by slaves who eventually overcame their French colonisers and established Haitian independence. He goes on in a similar manner explaining how he has learnt about ‘de man who discovered the balloon’ and ‘de cow who jump over de moon’ but not about Nanny of the Maroons, a Jamaican national hero who escaped from a life of slavery and formed the Jamaican Maroons, a community of runaway slaves who became a guerrilla army freeing other slaves and destroying plantations. ‍Similarly, the speaker explains that while he has been taught about Lord Nelson, Columbus, Florence Nightingale, and Old King Cole, he has not heard a word said about Shaka or Mary Seacole, a Jamaican nurse who saved the lives of
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