Hi Candice,
During the late sixties and seventies an excellent group of poets, including
Edward Kamu Brathwaite and Louise Bennett (aka Miss Lou) began to find fame
by writing in what was then called patios/dialect. As these dialects
developed, common ground was established right across the Caribbean Islands
among writers and poets. Effectively a new and vibrant language was
developed. Clear and qualitative links was established with African
languages, mainly from West Africa. By the early eighties the eminent
historian and poet Edward Kamu Brathwaite published a classical book
called - History of the Voice. This book alongside Morgan Dalphine's
Caribbean Language, quickly established the fact that what we used the call
patois/dialect in Caribbean Letters was in fact a genuine alternative to the
English Language, spoken and written from Caribbean Aesthetics, lavishly
rooted in African culture, spiritualism and history. Edward Kamu Brathwaite
coined the phrase - Nation Language.
As a direct result of this new self confidence in Caribbean letters Dub
Poetry evolved, harnessing the rhythms of Reggae Music and Nation Language.
Famous exponents of this art include; Michael Smith, Oku Onora, Linton Kwesi
Johnson, Jean Binta Breeze, Benjamin Zephiniah. Essentially these poets and
others found an excellent structure in which to carry the music of poetry to
wider audience. Dub Poetry is not based on themes. In this Genre you seldom
find agricultural language, Greek mythology, structured stanzas or
confessional anecdotes, instead you find politics, protest, prosaic
reportage and "language as a point of reference". Language permeates all
facets of the art. If "all poetry begins with music" this is the art form
that sings it.
Desmond Johnson
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