1. Checking Out Me History John Agard
Objectives:
To explore the ideas of the poem and analyse how ideas are shown through the language and structure

2. Listen and watch the poem being presented
Think about what he is saying and how he is saying it.

3. John Agard’s reading of ‘Checking Out Me History
Why does he sing some parts and speak others?
What effect does this have?
He sings the parts about being taught White history and culture to show that it was something he learned in a childish, rote type of way
But he speaks about the black heroes to add to his feeling that they are important and should be taught about in schools.
He sings the parts about being taught White history and culture to show that it was something he learned in a childish, rote type of way but he speaks about the black heroes to add to his feeling that they are important and should be taught about in schools.

4. The Title: Checking Out Me History
Now you have heard Agard reading his poem aloud re-look at the title of the poem.
Why has he written it ungrammatically according to Standard English?
What is the effect?
Agard uses the personal pronoun ‘me’ instead of the possessive ‘my’ in the title.
He does this deliberately to subvert Standard English because his argument in the poem is that the English have taught him a lot about their history and culture – he refers to stories and nursery rhymes he has learned- but he is angry that the English have not taught him about history which is relevant to him as a black man.
He feels the English language has not covered black history and has been hidden from him. Using patois English means he is stating clearly that he is different and thus requires a different teaching of history.
Agard uses the personal pronoun ‘me’ instead of the possessive ‘my’ in the title. He does this deliberately to subvert Standard English because his argument in the poem is that the English have taught him a lot about their history and culture – he refers to stories and nursery rhymes he has learned- but he is angry that the English have not taught him about history which is relevant to him as a black man. He feels the English language has not covered black history and has been hidden from him. Using patois English means he is stating clearly that he is different and thus requires a different teaching of history.
He sings the parts about being taught White history and culture to show that it was something he learned in a childish, rote type of way but he speaks about the black heroes to add to his feeling that they are important and should be taught about in schools.

5. Dem tell me Dem tell me Wha dem want to tell me
Look at the word ‘Dem’ who do you think ‘dem’ (them) are?
Why do you think Agard uses repetition at the beginning of the poem? What is he trying to emphasise?
‘Dem’ seems to indicate all the white people who have taught Agard about history and culture. He is accusatory as he feels he has been let down as they have only told him what they want to tell him – about British history and culture.
Does Agard want you to have an emotional response to what he writes? If so what is it? Is the response more powerful if you are white or black? Or is it just different?
Agard uses repetition to really hammer home that he has been forcibly taught what to believe and what to think and the knowledge he has acquired has been biased and only part of the story; what the British wanted him to know rather than what he would have liked to learn about.

6. Personal response Is there a message in this poem?
Is Agard trying to create an emotive response from you?
Is the response more powerful if you are black or white? Or is it a different emotional response?
Why?

7. Culture or history? White historical events/figures White culture
Black
1066
Dick Whittington
Toussaint L’Ouverture
Agard makes references throughout the poem to historical events and figures he has been taught about and also aspects of culture, e.g. stories, nursery rhymes, and also refers to some black historical events and figures that he feels he would like to have learned about.
Students to copy the table in to their books and add in relevant information from the poem in the columns.

8. ‘no dem never tell me bout dat’
What is the effect of adding two negatives in this sentence?
The use of a double negative in a sentence emphasises that the history the narrator was taught in school did not contain information about black history, culture or heroes.
It might be useful to look at the history ‘dem’ didn’t tell the narrator about in school…
The use of a double negative in a sentence emphasises that the history the narrator was taught in school did not contain information about black history, culture or heroes.
It might be useful to look at the history ‘dem’ didn’t tell the narrator about in school...

9. Looking at Black history

10. Toussaint L’Ouverture
The Slave who defeated Napoleon in Haiti.
Napoleon was one of the greatest generals who ever lived. But at the end of the 18th century a self-educated slave with no military training drove Napoleon out of Haiti and led his country to independence. By 1793, the revolution in France was in the hands of the Jacobins, the most radical of the revolutionary groups. This group, led by Maximilian Robespierre, was responsible for the Reign of Terror, a campaign to rid France of “enemies of the revolution.” Though the Jacobins brought indiscriminate death to France, they were also idealists who wanted to take the revolution as far as it could go. So they again considered the issue of “equality” and voted to end slavery in the French colonies, including what was now known as Haiti.
There was jubilation among the blacks in Haiti, and Toussaint agreed to help the French army eject the British and Spanish. Toussaint proved to be a brilliant general, winning 7 battles in 7 days. He became a defacto governor of the colony.
In France the Jacobins lost power. People finally tired of blood flowing in the streets and sent Maximilian Robespierre, the leader of the Jacobins, to the guillotine, ending the Reign of Terror. A reaction set in. The French people wanted to get back to business. More moderate leaders came and went, eventually replaced by Napoleon, who ruled France with dictatorial powers. He responded to the pleas of the plantation owners by reinstating slavery in the French colonies, once again plunging Haiti into war.
By 1803 Napoleon was ready to get Haiti off his back: he and Toussaint agreed to terms of peace. Napoleon agreed to recognize Haitian independence and Toussaint agreed to retire from public life. A few months later, the French invited Toussaint to come to a negotiating meeting will full safe conduct. When he arrived, the French (at Napoleon's orders) betrayed the safe conduct and arrested him, putting him on a ship headed for France. Napoleon ordered that Toussaint be placed in a prison dungeon in the mountains, and murdered by means of cold, starvation, and neglect. Toussaint died in prison, but others carried on the fight for freedom.
Six months later, Napoleon decided to give up his possessions in the New World. He was busy in Europe and these far-away possessions were more trouble than they were worth. He abandoned Haiti to independence and sold the French territory in North America to the United States (the Louisiana purchase).
Years later, in exile at St. Helena, when asked about his dishonorable treatment of Toussaint, Napoleon merely remarked, "What could the death of one wretched Negro mean to me?"
Toussaint L'Ouverture
The remarkable leader of this slave revolt was Toussaint Breda (later called Toussaint L'Ouverture, and sometimes the “black Napoleon”). Slave revolts from this time normally ended in executions and failure – this story is the exception.
It began in 1791 in the French colony of Saint Dominique (later Haiti). Though born a slave in Saint Dominique, Toussaint learned of Africa from his father, who had been born a free man there. He learned that he was more than a slave, that he was a man with brains and dignity. He was fortunate in having a liberal master who had him trained as a house servant and allowed him to learn to read and write. Toussaint took full advantage of this, reading every book he could get his hands on. He particularly admired the writings of the French Enlightenment philosophers, who spoke of individual rights and equality.
In 1789 the French Revolution rocked France. The sugar plantations of Saint Dominique, though far away, would never be the same. Spurred on by such Enlightenment thinkers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the early moderate revolutionaries considered seriously the question of slavery. Those moderate revolutionaries were not willing to end slavery but they did apply the "Rights of Man" to all Frenchmen, including free blacks and mulattoes (those of mixed race). Plantation owners in the colonies were furious and fought the measure. Finally the revolutionaries gave in and retracted the measure in 1791.
The news of this betrayal triggered mass slave revolts in Saint Dominique, and Toussaint became the leader of the slave rebellion. He became known as Toussaint L'Ouverture (the one who finds an opening) and brilliantly led his rag-tag slave army. He successfully fought the French (who helped by succumbing to yellow fever in large numbers) as well as invading Spanish and British.

11. Nanny de Maroon
Nanny de Maroon (or of the Maroons) stands out in history as the only female among Jamaica’s national heroes. She possessed a fierce fighting spirit. She is described as a fearless Asante warrior who used military tactics to fool and beguile the English. Nanny was a leader of the Maroons at the beginning of the C18th. She was known by both Maroons and the British settlers as an outstanding military leader who became in her lifetime and after a symbol of unity and strength for her people in times of crisis.
She was particularly important to the Maroons in the fight against the British during the First Maroon War from 1720 to 1739.
Nanny de Maroon has been immortalised in songs and legends but certain facts about her have been documented:
She had exceptional leadership qualities;
She was a small wiry woman with piercing eyes;
Her influence over the Maroons was so strong it appeared supernatural (said to be connected to her powers of obeah);
She was good at organising guerilla warfare (this kept British troops out of the mountain areas);
She was a chieftainess, or wise woman, who passed down oral legends and encouraged the continuation of customs, music and songs that had come with the people from Africa and that instilled them with pride and confidence.
In 1739 when Quao signed a second treaty declaring peace with the British Nanny was very angry as she felt this would lead to subjugation by the British.
Nanny died at the instigation of the British sometime around She is still held as a symbol of the desire never to yield to captivity.

12. Shaka kaSenzangakhona
(c – c. 22 September 1828), was the most influential leader of the Zulu Kingdom.
He is widely credited with uniting many of the Northern Nguni people, specifically the Mtetwa Paramountcy and the Ndwandwe into the Zulu Kingdom, the beginnings of a nation that held sway over the large portion of southern Africa between the Phongolo and Mzimkhulu Rivers, and his statesmanship and vigour marked him as one of the greatest Zulu kings.[2] He has been called a military genius for his reforms and innovations, and condemned for the brutality of his reign.[3][4] Other historians note debate about Shaka's role as a uniter versus a usurper of traditional Zulu ruling prerogatives, and the notion of the Zulu state as a unique construction, divorced from the localised culture and the previous systems built by his predecessor Dingiswayo.[5] Research continues into the character and methods of the Zulu warrior king, whose reign still greatly influences South African culture.
Information from:

13. Caribs and Arawaks
The Caribs are believed to have migrated from the Orinoco River area in South America to settle in the Caribbean islands about 1200 AD, according to carbon dating. Over the century leading up to Columbus' arrival in the Caribbean archipelago in 1492, the Caribs mostly displaced the Maipurean-speaking Taínos, who settled the island chains earlier in history, by warfare, extermination and assimilation. Carib islanders traded with the Eastern Taíno of the Caribbean Islands. The Caribs produced the silver which Ponce de Leon found in Taíno communities. None of the insular Amerindians mined for gold, but obtained it by trade from the mainland. The Caribs were skilled boatbuilders and sailors. They appeared to have owed their dominance in the Caribbean basin to their mastery of warfare.
The Caribs were displaced by the Europeans with a great loss of life; most fatalities resulting from Eurasian infectious diseases to which they had no immunity, as well as warfare. Others were assimilated during the colonial period; a few retained areas such as in Dominica. Small populations survive, specifically in the Carib Territory in northeast Dominica.
The 'Black Caribs' (later known as Garifuna) of St. Vincent were descended from group of enslaved Africans who were marooned from shipwrecks of slave ships, as well as slaves who escaped here. They intermarried with the Carib and formed the last native culture to resist the British. It was not until 1795 that British colonists transported the Black Carib to Roatan Island, off Honduras. Their descendants continue to live there today and are known as the Garifuna ethnic group. Carib resistance delayed the settlement of Dominica by Europeans, and the Carib communities that remained in St. Vincent and Dominica retained a degree of autonomy well into the 19th century.
The original inhabitants of Jamaica are believed to be the Arawaks, also called Tainos. They came from South America 2,500 years ago and named the island Xaymaca, which meant "“land of wood and water”. The Arawaks were a mild and simple people by nature. Physically, they were light brown in colour, short and well-shaped with coarse, black hair. Their faces were broad and their noses flat. They grew cassava, sweet potatoes, maize (corn), fruits, vegetables, cotton and tobacco. Tobacco was grown on a large scale as smoking was their most popular pastime.They built their villages all over the island but most of them settled on the coasts and near rivers as they fished to get food. Fish was also a major part of their diet.
The Arawaks led quiet and peaceful lives until they were destroyed when the Spaniards conquered Jamaica.

14. Mary Seacole
Mary Seacole was born Mary Jane Grant in Kingston, Jamaica in She was a businesswoman, traveller, gold prospector, writer and nurse. Her father was a Scottish army officer, and her mother a descendant of African Slaves.
It was her nursing skills that Mary used to good effect in the Crimean war ( ) tending to the wounded servicemen there.
One soldier wrote in his memoirs: "She was a wonderful woman, all the men swore by her, and in case of any malady, would seek her advice and use her herbal medicines in preference to reporting themselves to their own doctors. That she did affect some cure is beyond doubt, and her never failing presence amongst the wounded after a battle and assisting them".
At the end of the war, she came back to London and became a 'media star', due to her widely acclaimed work, which had been fully reported in the London newspapers.
Information from:
Florence Nightingale is well-known but Mary Seacole is less so. The narrator is arguing that they should be of equal importance as they both worked as nurses at the same time and were well respected by their patients. Agard, as a poet, is arguing that history teaching in Britain is very limited and looks at history largely from a white perspective. He argues it is important for Black people to know about their cultural heritage as it is part of their identity. It can also be argued that white people also need to know this history to have a clearer understanding of what led to the present day. Knowledge brings awareness and understanding and can lead to acceptance and celebration of difference and diversity rather than intolerance and ignorance.

15. ‘no dem never tell me bout dat’
Agard repeats this line with some small
alterations twice more in the poem.
Can you find where he repeats the line?
Why does he do this?
What effect does it have?
Think about the Black history we have learned about.

16. Looking at imagery

17. Bandage up me eye with me own history
What do you think this means? Is it literal or metaphorical?

18. Blind me to me own identity
How can someone ‘blind’ you to your own identity? Don’t you know who you are?
What is Agard suggesting educators have done to his sense of identity by not teaching him about black history and culture?

19. ‘carving out me identity’
What does Agard mean by this image?
Think about the idea of carving something – it takes time, care and precision.
If you carve something you get rid of the bits that are not important to reveal the image (identity) you want to create. Is Agard suggesting much of the history he has learnt is irrelevant? If so is this reverse racism? Should the message be that we should all learn about the history of all races looking at and learning from the tragedies and inequalities of the past and trying to forge a society that is ‘colour blind’ and where everyone is equal?
This is a wooden carving of a slave found in North Carolina, USA.

20. Structure
Why does Agard refer to more white history and culture than black?
Why does he devote more lines to explaining who Toussaint L’Ouverture, Nanny de maroon and Mary Seacole are?

21. Shape of the poem Look at the shape of the poem on the page.
Is it an odd shape?
What are the line lengths are they equal
or very different?
Why has Agard presented the poem in this way do you think?
Is it symbolic that Agard uses very thin narrow lines with few words to describe the black heroes? Does this represent the narrowness of taught history? How Black history is squeezed out of syllabuses?

22. Reflection What is the poem about?
What tone of voice does the narrator have? Why?
What images show something about the voice of the narrator?
What does the form (the rhyme, rhythm, dialect) of the poem indicate about the poet’s purpose for writing the poem?
What does the structure say about the poem’s ideas?