Nov 22

Nov 22 Caribbean Literary Giants: The Poets

The idyllic Caribbean archipelagos, which includes (but is not limited to) Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad, Haiti, Cuba, Guadeloupe, and Martinique, are often known for their beaches, weather, sounds and food, architecture – a testament to the symphonic parallels between peoples, societies and places separated by water. But as a historically, linguistically, and culturally diverse region, the Caribbean hosts and boasts many pioneering literary giants: Barbadian Edward Kamau Brathwaite, St Lucian Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, Martinican Aimé Césaire, Jamaican Louise Bennett-Coverley, to name but a few.

These notable poets have all grappled with the task of documenting the Caribbean experience. Each covering topical issues from slavery and colonialism; migration, creolisation, and exile; to present-day sensibilities, superstitions, customs, and proverbial words of wisdom. Here is a compiled list of notable Caribbean poets and their works:

Aimé Césaire

Aimé Césaire was a Martinican poet, author, and politician. As one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature, Césaire mixes poetry and prose with philosophy and polemic. His epic, Return to My Native Land (1969), first published as Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (1939) his book-length poem is the cornerstone of French (Creole) literature. Not only is it the magnum opus of Aimé Césaire, asides from Discourse on Colonialism, it is here that he coined the word Négritude in French. His literary prowess showcases the wit of Martinican colloquialisms and his thoughts on the status of the global Black diaspora.

Notable works: Lost Body (Corps Perdu); The Complete Poetry of Aimé Césaire: Bilingual Edition

Louise Bennett-Coverley

Louise Simone Bennett-Coverley, or “Miss Lou”, as she was affectionately called, was a renowned poet, folklorist, social commentator, and storyteller. Writing and performing her poems in Jamaican Patois, Bennett worked hard to preserve the practice of oral traditions in poetry, folk songs, and stories. At first, she was ridiculed for using such “bad language” instead of the more official “Queen's English” that was taught to all school students across the empire. However, in time, people all over the world and at home, began to fall in love with Ms. Lou’s messaging through her works.

Notable works: Colonization in Reverse, Love Letter, No Lickle Twang

Linton Kwesi Johnson

Linton Kwesi Johnson is a Jamaican dub poet who has been based in the United Kingdom since 1963. Whilst at school he joined the Black Panthers, where he organised a poetry workshop within the movement. After developing his talent alongside Rasta Love, a group of poets and drummers, Johnson published his first poetry collection titled, Voices of the Living and the Dead, in Race Today in 1974. While his other titles encompasses both recorded albums and printed poetry collections published by Bogle-L’Ouverture. In 2002, he became the second living poet, and the only Black poet, to be published in the Penguin Modern Classics series. More recently, Linton Kwesi Johnson was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize in 2020.

Notable works: Making History; Mi Revalueshanary Fren; Dread, Beat and Blood; Tings an Times: Selected Poems

Edward Kamau Brathwaite

Kamau Brathwaite’s poetry has earned him both critical acclaim and a world reputation. His poetry is devoted to the history, mythology, rhythm, and language of the African diaspora in the New World. He is best known for his collections: Rights of Passage (1967), Masks (1968), and Islands (1969). Though his magnum opus, The Arrivants is a masterpiece. The trilogy is a kaleidoscopic collage of folklore and memory that recounts the transatlantic slave trade and the enforced migration of Africans across the Middle Passage to the New World, before “arriving” at the contemporary political predicament of the Caribbean.

Notable works: Ancestors; The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy; Black + Blue

Derek Walcott

Derek Walcott is the acclaimed author and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1992) - the first individual from the English-speaking Caribbean to do so. Walcott’s poetry is deeply rooted in the history of the Caribbean. His work stylistically interweaves folklore, myth and ritual, into epic tales of adventure, while his prize-winning book Omeros (epic poem) is a narrative that transports the reader between Ancient Greece and the Antilles. Asides from writing, Walcott set up the Trinidad Theatre Workshop in Port-of-Spain where he produced his plays. He has also received several awards for his work including (but not limited to) the Guinness Award for Poetry, the Hummingbird Gold Medal from Dr. Eric Williams and was made a fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation in 1957.

Notable Works: Omeros, The Haitian trilogy; The Odyssey; A Far Cry from Africa, The Sea is History; The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory

Nancy Morejón

Nancy Morejón is the preeminent and most widely translated Black female poet of post-revolutionary Cuba. Deeply influenced by the Black liberation movement, freedom fighters, and intellectuals like Angela Davis in the United States, Morejón is known for her collection, 'Mujer Negra', which centres (Black) women and African and Spanish traditions. More broadly, her poetry deals with issues of the pan-Caribbean Black experience and Cuban national identity. Morejón's writing career spans more than half of a century and she is the recipient of the Cuban National Literature prize (2001) and the prestigious Latin American Studies Association award (2012).