PO'M for KAMAUAuthor(s): Jean SmallSource: Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 1/2, KONVERSATIONS in KREOLE. The CreoleSociety Model Revisited: Essays in Honour of Kamau Brathwaite (March-June, 1998), pp. 177-182Published by: University of the West Indies and Caribbean QuarterlyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40654030 .

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177

PO'M for KAMAU*

Sistren and Brethren The lot has fallen to me

To sing the praises of the poet Of the poet/historian Kamau Brathwaite

Who came out of the cold To land on these warm shores

In the middle of the day Yesterday

And he asked me to leave him alone Alone, with his Gods' alone

For he needed to rest After the long journey

Out of the cold And he needed to be alone

As he made the markings on the page Which will soon come to your ears

Specially created for this twenty-fourth day Of the month of February

One day before the birthdate Of Sir Philip, Founding Father

Of this place Of this place

Of this place of learning.

The journeying has been long For this son of the island

Of Barbados This journey which started in 1949

When he emerged victorious As the island scholar

And left those island shores For Cambridge

To gain his honours in History That was 1953

And having stayed one more year To complete a certificate

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178

In education He forwarded to Ghana, Africa To be an Education Officer.

This was the turning point in his life This was the beginning

Of the opening of his eyes To see Africa

As the centre of Caribbean culture And so, hearing

Many rhythms of music Many sounds of language

Many tales of his ancestors And so, learning

Of the sources of the black esse

Of the black spirit Of the black tongue Of jazz and bebop

And the sound of the drum He began to write He began to write

To the tap of his foot To the stroke of his pen To the beat of his heart

And so, many markings of words Which started long ago in BIM

In his early days Began again

From Ghana he travelled To work in St. Lucia

To work as Resident Tutor And the year that followed

in 1963 He came to this University

In the Department of History

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179

What can I tell you more Than you already know

Of his seminal work On the creole society in Jamaica

Of his collections of works In which he told the history

Of his people, in poetry I speak of that first trilogy

Masks, Rights of Passage & Islands Now called the Arrivants

Which every one of you must read And every one of your thrilldren

Must read to overstand The rootless, restless psyche

Of the Caribbean Wandering to Europe

Wandering to North America

Migrating and returning Then there was the other trilogy Not sure if it is he or you or me Or all the people collectively

Of the Caribbean Sea

Many more are the poems That speak of recovery

And affirmation, of imprisonment And freedom from bonds

Especially that linguistic bond That leaves the tongue tied

The head blank And the heart sits in silence

And so, hurting for his people He fathered and created

A nation language That dubs out the Euro- And dubs in the Afro-

Caribbean beat To unify Black People

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180

Some say that his greatness Is to be found in this work

Some say that his greatness Is his nakedness seen

In the Zea Mexican Diary Some say that his greatness

Is as a literary critic And some say he is the greatest

Cultural historian

The breadth of his vision The perfection of his poetic lines

The mission that he has taken unto himself To restore a whole nation through

Himself, his life and the word The Caribbeanised word

Is praised in every part of the world For he has gained many Awards

and Honours Both here and abroad

Like the Gramophone Award In 1969

For a recorded version Of Rights of Passage

And the Cholmondoley Award The year after

The Yoruba Foundation In his island home in 1972

Crowned him with the Bussa Award Twice did he win

in 76 and 86 The Casa de las Americas

Prize For Poetry

And Literary Criticism Twice too did the Institute of Jamaica

Recognize his brilliance By bestowing on him

The Centennial Award for Literature In 1 980

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181

And again the Musgrave Medal For bibliography

In 1983

x/Self gained him The Commonwealth Prize in Poetry

In 1987 And in that same year

He walked away With the Bussa Award for Literature And contribution to Bajan Culture

In that very same year The year of 87

He was made Companion of Honour Of Barbados, his island home

And a Special citation, to boot, The Gabriela Mistral Inter-American

Prize for Culture

Now you know that not so long ago Last year, in fact, he won

That famous famous Neustadt Award For Literature

And was named One of the golden dozen At New York University

Where he teaches Comparative Literature

It was that other poet Kofi Awoonor Of Ghana Who said, Brathwaite

Is a poet of African consciousness Is a poet possessing deep grasp of tones Is a poet with reflexes of African Lingua

Encompassing the aboriginal sounds Of West Africa

And the distinct echoes ever present In the English-speaking Caribbean

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182

Now we are in the post-Neustadt phase Works written

In the post-modem Video Sycorax style

Incorporating DREAM STORIES BARABJAN POEMS

And TRENCH TOWN ROCK All connected with past works

A summation Of the psycho-ecological changes

In his whole life.

And so, Sistren and Brethren We are gathered here today

Not only to celebrate The nine score and three years

Of Sir Philip Nor to commemorate the erection

Of this building But we are gathered here To celebrate greatness

The greatness of the sons of the Caribbean The greatness that comes from persistence of effort The greatness of Caribbean scholarship and creativity

The greatness of a commitment to a people

And so now I will hold my tongue For the time has come

For the poet For the poet/historian

THE GRIOT OF THE CARIBBEAN To tell the tale Of the Gods Of the Gods

Of the Gods of the Middle Passage. Jean Small

* Introduction by Jean Small to Professor Kamau Brathwaite, Guest Lecturer, Annual Sir Philip Sherlock Lecture, PSCCA, UWI, Mona Campus, February, 1995

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