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Edward Kamau Brathwaite

エドワード・カマウ・ブラスウェイト

Edward Kamau Brathwaite

Aliases: Lawson Edward Brathwaite / Edward Brathwaite / E. K. Brathwaite
Pen Names: Edward Brathwaite（Used in early works and legal contexts）, Edward Kamau Brathwaite（Widely used in academic and poetic works）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1930-05-11 （Bridgetown, Colony of Barbados, British Empire）
Died
2020-02-04 （Barbados） age 89
Nationality
Barbadian
Languages
English, Nation language / Creole English
Residence History
Bridgetown, Barbados → London, United Kingdom → Accra / Cape Coast, Ghana → Kingston, Jamaica → New York City, United States → Cow Pasture, Barbados (residence)

Career

Occupations
Poet, Academic (Comparative Literature, History), Educator
Active Years
1948-2020
Affiliations
Caribbean Artists Movement (co-founder), Savacou (journal) (founder/editor), University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus (faculty), New York University (Professor of Comparative Literature), Pembroke College, Cambridge (Honorary Fellow)
Influenced By
J. H. Kwabena Nketia (musicologist), Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Kwame Nkrumah, John La Rose, Andrew Salkey, African oral traditions
Influenced
Subsequent generations of Caribbean poets and critics, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Nathaniel Mackey

Education

Harrison College
Secondary education
Period: 1945-1949
Country: Barbados
Started a school newspaper and wrote essays on jazz; early contributions to the magazine Bim.
Pembroke College, University of Cambridge
History and English / History
Degree: BA (Honours), Diploma of Education
Period: 1949-1954
Year of Graduation: 1953
Country: United Kingdom
Won the Barbados Island Scholarship in 1949; earned a BA (Honours) in History in 1953 and a Diploma of Education in 1954.
University of Sussex
Doctoral studies / History / Social Studies
Degree: PhD
Period: 1965-1968
Year of Graduation: 1968
Country: United Kingdom
Doctoral thesis 'The Development of Creole Society in Jamaica' (later published).

Awards

Cholmondeley Award
1970
Organization: Society of Authors
Result: 受賞
Guggenheim Fellowship
1983
Organization: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Result: 受賞
Fulbright Fellowship
1983
Organization: Fulbright Program
Result: 受賞
Order of Barbados (Companion of Honour of Barbados, CHB)
1987
Organization: Order of Barbados
Result: 叙勲（CHB）
Neustadt International Prize for Literature
1994
Work: Body of work
Organization: Neustadt International Prize for Literature
Result: 受賞
Charity Randall Citation for Performance and Written Poetry
1999
Organization: International Poetry Forum
Result: 受賞
Honorary doctorate
2002
Organization: University of Sussex
Result: 名誉博士号授与
Griffin Poetry Prize (International Winner)
2006
Work: Born to Slow Horses
Organization: Griffin Poetry Prize
Result: 受賞（国際部門）
Musgrave Medal (Gold) for Literature
2006
Organization: Institute of Jamaica
Result: 受賞（金メダル）
President's Award, St. Martin Book Fair
2007
Organization: St. Martin Book Fair
Result: 受賞
W. E. B. Du Bois Award
2010
Organization: (awarding body unspecified)
Result: 受賞
Casa de las Américas Premio
2011
Organization: Casa de las Américas
Result: 受賞
Robert Frost Medal
2015
Organization: Poetry Society of America
Result: 受賞
Elected an Honorary Fellow (Pembroke College)
2016
Organization: Pembroke College, Cambridge
Result: 名誉フェロー選出
PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry
2018
Organization: PEN America
Result: 受賞
Bocas Henry Swanzy Award for Distinguished Service to Caribbean Letters
2020
Organization: NGC Bocas Lit Fest
Result: 受賞（追贈）
Bussa Award
Organization: (information not available)
Result: 受賞（年不詳）

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Rights of Passage

1967 Poetry collection

A collection exploring Caribbean diaspora and nation language (nation language/creole). It later formed part of the trilogy The Arrivants.

DiasporaNation languageIdentityHistory

The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy

1973 Poetry / Trilogy

A trilogy compiling Rights of Passage, Masks, and Islands. Long-form poetic exploration of colonialism, migration, and memory.

Movement and arrivalColonialism and liberationMemory and ancestors

History of the Voice: The Development of Nation Language in Anglophone Caribbean Poetry

1984 Critical study / Literary history

A study of the development of nation language in Anglophone Caribbean poetry; established Brathwaite as a major authority on the subject.

Language and expressionPostcolonial studiesOral/voice expression

Born to Slow Horses

2006 Poetry collection

A late-career collection featuring experimental typography and spelling (Sycorax video style), memory and historical themes; winner of the 2006 Griffin Poetry Prize (International).

MemoryAgingHistoryLanguageMusicality

The Zea Mexican Diary: 7 September 1926 – 7 September 1986

1993 Diary / Poetry

Contains writings responding to the death of his wife Doris; deals with personal loss and memory.

LossMemoryPersonal history

Ancestors

2001 Poetry collection

A collection of poems concerning ancestors, oral traditions, and musicality.

AncestorsOralityMusic

Bibliography

  • Four Plays for Primary Schools (1964)
  • Odale's Choice (1967)
  • Rights of Passage (1967)
  • Masks (1968)
  • Islands (1969)
  • Folk Culture of the Slaves in Jamaica (1970)
  • The Development of Creole Society in Jamaica, 1770–1820 (1971)
  • The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy (1973)
  • Contradictory Omens: Cultural Diversity and Integration in the Caribbean (1974)
  • Other Exiles (1975)
  • Black + Blues (1976)
  • Mother Poem (1977)
  • Soweto (1979)
  • History of the Voice (1979/1984)
  • Afternoon of the Status Crow (1982)
  • Gods of the Middle Passage (1982)
  • Third World Poems (1983)
  • X/Self (1987)
  • Sappho Sakyi's Meditations (1989)
  • Shar (1992)
  • Middle Passages (1992)
  • The Zea Mexican Diary: 7 September 1926 – 7 September 1986 (1993)
  • Trench Town Rock (1994)
  • Barabajan Poems (1994)
  • DreamStories (1994)
  • Dream Haiti (1995)
  • Words Need Love Too (2000)
  • Ancestors (2001)
  • Born to Slow Horses (2006)
  • Elegguas (2010)
  • Strange Fruit (2016)
  • Liviticus (2017)
  • The Lazarus Poems (2017)

Translations of Works

  • Le détonateur de visibilite / The Visibility Trigger (French translation, 1986)
  • Los danzantes del tiempo: antología poética (Spanish anthology, 2009)
  • La unidad submarina: ensayos caribeños (Spanish, 2010)
  • Selections in Italian in La Rivista dell'Arte (2012)
  • RêvHaïti (French translation, 2013)
  • Diritti di passaggio (Italian translation, 2014)
  • Pensiero caraibico (Italian, 2016)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Aggressive use of nation language (Creole-inflected English)Sycorax video style: experimental typography, spelling and typeface playOral, musical rhythms emphasized in poetry
Recurring Motifs
Sea / voyagesDiaspora (movement and arrival)Ancestors and memoryMusic (jazz, Afro-Caribbean)Voice and orality

Health

  • Serious gunshot injury
    1990
    A near-death experience that strongly affected his life and creative work

Legacy

Kamau Brathwaite is recognized as a major voice in Caribbean poetry; through his scholarship and practice of nation language he transformed expression in Anglophone Caribbean literature. He was internationally acclaimed as both poet and scholar and received numerous awards.

Museums

  • Portrait of Kamau Brathwaite (Pembroke College, Cambridge) Pembroke College, Cambridge Opened in 2020

Academic Societies

  • Honorary Fellow, Pembroke College, Cambridge
  • Caribbean Artists Movement (co-founder)

Archives

  • PennSound: recordings of Kamau Brathwaite reading
  • Digital Library of the Caribbean (various articles and materials)
  • George Padmore Institute: materials and collections related to his work

In Popular Culture

  • Linton Kwesi Johnson's tribute 'Negus - a tribute to Kamau Brathwaite'
  • Recordings of his Griffin Prize reading and inclusion of poems in English curricula

Trivia

  • In 1971 he was given the name 'Kamau' by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's grandmother in Limuru, Kenya during a fellowship to the University of Nairobi.
  • His wife Doris Monica Brathwaite compiled the bibliography 'EKB: His Published Prose & Poetry, 1948–1986' (1986).
  • In 1988 his archive in Irish Town, Jamaica, was destroyed by Hurricane Gilbert.
  • In 2010 he reported the theft of his Musgrave gold medal and other items from his New York home.
  • Co-founded the Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM) in London in 1966.