Checking Out Me History by John Agard

Question 1

Which themes are presented in checking out me history?

Answer 1

• power of institutions
• conflcit of identity
• conflict between people and institutions
• conflict of thought

Question 2

Context in checking out me history:

Answer 2

• His poetry challenges racism and prejudice
• represents the voice of a man who’s frustrated by the history curriculum he was taught at school as it lacked attention to black history

Question 3

Form and Structure in checking out me history:

Answer 3

• dramatic monolgue with a dual structure
• stanzas concerning eurocentric history are in normal font and stanzas on black history are in italics - represents the segregation
• black history sections arranged as serious lessons to be learnt; traditional history as nursery rhymes mocks the traditional history
• free verse and lack of punctuation and irregular rhyme scheme represents the narrator’s rejection of the rules
• repetition of “dem tell me” shows frustration

Question 4

“Dem tell me”

Answer 4

• The “Dem tell me” sections have an accusatory, rebellious tone to them and sets up an ‘me/us and them’ narrative

Question 5

“vision”, “see-far” and “star”

Answer 5

• examples of epic vocabulary and images of nature which Agard uses to emphasise the black historical figures

Question 6

“bandage up me eye with me own history”

Answer 6

• the image of the bandage connotes injury and the violence implicit in the word

Question 7

“Blind me to my own identity”

Answer 7

• a metaphor depicting someone being blinded to their own history, their own background
• the verb ‘blind’ suggests that the speaker in the poem has been forcibly restricted from accessing or understanding their own history which is why he or she is ‘blind to their own identity’

Question 8

Toussaint / a slave / with vision’, ‘Nanny de maroon’, ‘Mary Seacole’

Answer 8

• refers to powerful, successful and revolutionary historical black figures as sources of inspiration
• Toussaint L’Ouverture was the leader of a revolution on the island of Haiti led by slaves who eventually overcame their French colonisers and established Haitian independence
• Nanny of the Maroons was a Jamaican national hero who escaped from a life of slavery and formed the Jamaican Maroons
• Mary Seacole was a Jamaican nurse who saved the lives of countless wounded soldiers during the Crimean War

Question 9

“carving out me identity”

Answer 9

• the poem ends in a celebratory mood