Edward Kamau Brathwaite

Edward Kamau Brathwaite: Biography

Lawson Edward Brathwaite (later Edward Kamau Brathwaite) was born on May 11, 1930, in Bridgetown, Barbados. His father was a warehouse clerk, and his mother was a pianist. Brathwaite attended school at Harrison College in Bridgetown, where his exploration of writing began. As a teen, he wrote essays about jazz in the school newspaper and wrote for the Caribbean literary magazine, Bim.

After high school, Brathwaite won a scholarship to study English and History at the University of Cambridge. While attending Cambridge, Brathwaite started broadcasting his poems and stories on a BBC radio show called Caribbean Voices. He graduated with a Bachelor's in History from Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1953, and a Diploma of Education in 1954.

In 1955, after completing his degrees at Cambridge, Brathwaite worked for the Ministry of Education in the Gold Coast. The Gold Coast was a British colony from 1821 until it became the first African state to gain independence. The Gold Coast became the county of Ghana in 1957. Living in Ghana during this progression towards independence gave Brathwaite a deep interest and awareness of Caribbean identity and culture, which are central themes in his books and poetry.

While in Ghana in 1960, Brathwaite married his wife, Doris Monica Wellcome, and wrote a play called Odeale's Choice. The play premiered at a secondary school in Cape Coast, Ghana, in 1962.

Around 1963, Brathwaite returned to the Caribbean, where he was a tutor in St. Lucia, and then became a History teacher at the University of the West Indies Campus in Kingston, Jamaica.

In the mid-1960s, Brathwaite returned to England to do doctoral studies at the University of Sussex. In 1966, Brathwaite became a co-founder of the Caribbean Artists Movement. In 1968, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Sussex. 1971, Oxford University Press published his doctoral thesis, The Development of Creole Society in Jamaica.

In 1973, Brathwaite published a poetry collection called The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy. This Trilogy is comprised of three earlier volumes of his most significant work: Rights of Passage (1967), Masks (1968), and Islands (1969).

In the 1980s, Edward Kamau Brathwaite experienced difficulties, including the death of his wife and the destruction of Hurricane Gilbert in Irish Town, Jamaica.

From 1990 to 2004, Brathwaite was a Professor of Comparative Literature at New York University (NYU) and lived between New York and Barbados. After retiring from New York University, Brathwaite stayed in Cow Pasture, Barbados. He died on February 4, 2020, in Barbados.

Edward Kamau Brathwaite: Books

Edward Kamau Brathwaite is best known for his 1973 trilogy of poetry books calledThe Arrivants: A New World Trilogy. The Trilogy is made up of three poetry collections: Rights of Passage (1967), Masks (1968), and Islands (1969). The poems follow the movement of African people through the atrocities of the Middle Passage, the endurance of slavery, and displacing journeys to the UK, France, and America. The stories of these books span centuries but are tied together through the use of African and Caribbean jazz and folk rhythms.

Brathwaite published another trilogy of poetry books made up of the books Mother Poem (1977), Sun Poem (1982), and X/Self (1987), which continue the exploration of African and Caribbean identity.

Edward Kamau Brathwaite is well known for his 1994 collection of poetry, Barabajan Poems, 1492‐1992. The poet also published numerous cultural and historical research studies, including Folk Culture of the Slaves in Jamaica (1970), The Development of Creole Society in Jamaica 1770‐1820 (1971), History of the Voice: The Development of Nation Language in Anglophone and Caribbean Poetry (1984), and Roots (1986).

While Brathwaite's poetry and cultural writings were primarily based on history and collective cultural identity, his later writing became more autobiographical. In 1993, he published The Zea Mexican Diary: 7 September 1926 – 7 September, an account of the poet's experience of his wife's death.

Edward Kamau Brathwaite: Poems

Two well-known poems by Edward Kamau Brathwaite are "Ogun" (1986) and "Bread" (2005).

Fig. 2 ‐ Brathwaite's poems are known for their reflection of Caribbean language, voices, and African and Caribbean rhythms that evoke the sounds of drums, calypso, reggae, jazz, and blues music.

"Ogun" by Edward Kamau Brathwaite

"Ogun" (1986) is a poem about Brathwaite's great uncle, an extremely talented, hardworking carpenter. The poem expresses the poet's view that recognizing of the past must be built into the present. The poem expresses frustrations that modernity has trampled over appreciation of past culture, art, and skill.

Notice how the poet builds intensity and develops a drum-like rhythm through the use of alliteration (repetition of the initial letter sounds of nearby words) in the opening lines of the poem:

"Bread" by Edward Kamau Brathwaite

"Bread" (2005) is a poem from Brathewate's collection of poems, Born to Slow Horses (2005). The poem explores the idea of black people's broken dreams and hopelessness. The poem uses fragmented lines and phrases to emphasize the fragmented and lost experiences of displaced Black people.

Fig. 3 ‐ In the poem, bread is a symbol of hopes and dreams.

Edward Kamau Brathwaite: Quotes

Edward Kamau Brathwaite's poetry draws heavily upon African and Caribbean music and culture. The poet infuses Caribbean identity into his poems' meter, rhythms, and expressions.

Although Brathwaite's poetry was heavily influenced by Caribbean poetry, the poet noted that T.S. Eliot had an effect on conversational tones and different voices used within Caribbean poetry. Brathwaite's famous poetry book, The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy (1973), uses Eliot's technique, as the voices of numerous people throughout African and Caribbean history weave in and out of the narratives.

Interesting Facts About Edward Kamau Brathwaite

• While living in Ghana, Edward Kamau Brathwaite studied with one of Africa's most famous musicologists, J.H. Kwabena Nketia.
• Edward Kamau Brathwaite started a literary journal called Savacou: A Journal of the Caribbean Artists Movement.
• Brathwaite used unique computer fonts and spacings in his poetry books to create striking visual effects he called Sycorax video style.
• Brathwaite won the 1994 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. The other candidates for the prize included Toni Morrison, Norman Mailer, and Chinua Achebe.
• Edward Kamau Brathwaite received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Sussex in 2002.

¹ Kalamu Ya Salaam, "Interview: Edward Kamau Brathwaite," Neo-Groit, 2014.

² Edward Kamau Brathwaite, "History of the Voice: The Development of Nation Language in Anglophone Caribbean Poetry," New Beacon Books, 1984.