This introduction covers 🌎 The History They Gave Me, and the History They Buried within Checking Out Me History (Agard) for GCSE English Literature. Revise Checking Out Me History (Agard) in Power and Conflict Poetry for GCSE English Literature with 10 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. This is a high-frequency topic, so it is worth revising until the explanation feels precise and repeatable. It is section 1 of 19 in this topic. Use this introduction to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
🌎 The History They Gave Me, and the History They Buried
Dick Whittington. 1066. The cow that jumped over the moon. This, John Agard tells us, is what British education handed him: nursery rhymes and conquest dates. Meanwhile, Toussaint L’Ouverture — a man who led the only successful slave revolution in history — went unmentioned. So did Nanny de Maroon, who fought British colonisers in Jamaica. So did Mary Seacole, who nursed soldiers in the Crimean War while Florence Nightingale got all the credit. Agard’s poem is a refusal: to accept that history, to write in the dialect that was policed out of him, and to reclaim what was taken.
Practice questions for Checking Out Me History (Agard)
In 'Checking Out Me History', Agard writes 'Dem tell me' rather than 'They told me'. What does this choice of language represent?
How does Agard use the poem's alternating structure to challenge colonial education? [2 marks]