Edward Kamau Brathwaite

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Limbo

• Edward Kamau Brathwaite

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Learning outcome

• To have more in-depth knowledge of the poem
  Limbo in order to define the poems overall
  meaning and primary themes.

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Important events
On August 26th 1963 Martin Luther King made his
famous I have a dream speech to 200,000 people
in Washington.
During the 1950s/60s the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
killed dozens of Afro-Caribbeans due to their
beliefs in white supremacy. No one was convicted
of these crimes.
In 1955 Rosa Parks boarded a bus and refused to
give up her seat. She was arrested and convicted.
Her appeal and release sparked the end of bus
segregation in the US.
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The African Slave Trade

• The exact numbers of Africans shipped overseas
  during the slave trade is hotly debated -
  estimates range between 10 and 28 million.
• What is undisputed is the degree of savage
  cruelty endured by men, women and children. 20
  of those in the holds of the slave ships died
  before they even reached their destination.
• Between 1450 and 1850 at least 12 million
  Africans were taken across the notorious Middle
  Passage of the Atlantic.
• Despite attempts to suppress or even eradicate
  African culture, slaves and their descendants
  carried skills and traditions to their
  destination countries.
• Britain banned the slave trade in 1807 but a
  fierce debate started in the United States, which
  started a civil war. Slavery was eventually
  abolished in the US in 1865 by the 13th Amendment
  to the constitution.

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The Transatlantic Slave Triangle
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Meanings of the word 'limbo'

1. A dance originating from the Caribbean Islands,
   where a dancer leans backwards and has to move
   under a stick to the rhythm of music, without
   touching it. The stick is moved lower and lower
   throughout the dance.
2. The 'half way house' between heaven and hell
   which Catholics believe unbaptised infants are
   kept until judgement day.
3. Differing slightly from the original meaning, in
   colloquial speech, "limbo" is any status where a
   person or project is held up, and nothing can be
   done until another action happens.

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Three meanings of the word limbo. 1. Dance
2. A place between heaven and hell 3. Any
state of uncertainty.
Suggests an ongoing situation?
Limbo And limbo stick is the silence in front of
me limbo limbo limbo like me limbo limbo
like me long dark night is the silence in front
of me limbo limbo like me stick hit sound and
the ship like it ready stick hit sound and the
dark still steady limbo limbo like me
Repetition of the word silence suggests no
communication.
Repetition of limbo gives the poem a beat, like
music to the limbo dance.
The stick is a symbol of the slaves oppression
a slave drivers weapon. The limbo stick from
the dance also means you have to bend your body
into submission.
Some parts of the poem rhyme. Articles (i.e.
a and the ) are omitted to mimic the
drummers beat.
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A sense of entrapment no escape both
physically and mentally for the slaves.
long dark deck and the water surrounding me long
dark deck and the silence is over me limbo
limbo like me drum stick knock and the
darkness is over me stick is the whip and the
dark deck is slavery stick is the whip and the
dark deck is slavery limbo limbo like me knees
spread wide and the water is hiding limbo limbo
like me
Repetition of dark and images of darkness
suggests physical conditions, but also mental
despair of people on the ship.
The words are short and when pronounced they
sound like a drum beat, or the stick of the
slave driver hitting the slaves.
A very submissive position for the slaves to be
in. The area in the hold of the ship was
very low and cramped and with no windows.
Italics suggest repetitive chanting like a
chorus, conveying a vivid image of dance.
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knees spread wide and the dark ground is under
me down down down and the drummer is calling
me limbo limbo like me sun coming up and the
drummers are praising me out of the dark and the
dumb gods are raising me up up up and the music
is saving me hot slow step on the burning ground.
Monosyllabic words and singular word lines give
more emphasis.
Repetition with dual meaning 1) Going down into
the hull of the boat, like going under the limbo
stick. 2) Going down into hell
Repetition with dual meaning 1) Going up out of
the hull of the boat, on to land. 2) Dying and
going up to heaven.
Could also suggest the slave has died or been
set free and has been taken by his Gods, he
has been saved by the limbo music associated
with the African Gods.
Could mean they have arrived at their
destination, and the self-proclaimed gods or
white men are taking them onto land, up out of
the hull of the ship.
Only piece of punctuation makes poem more
rhythmic.
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Make notes on the following...

1. The poem has often been called an extended
   metaphor, why do you think this is?
2. Why do you think the language is very simplistic
   and there is only one piece of punctuation in the
   whole poem?
3. Make two semantic fields one of words associated
   with darkness and pain, the other with words of
   light and hope. What do you notice about the
   position of these groups of words in the poem?

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Main themes in the poem

• Black oppression and slavery.
• Importance of layout and presentation to the
  poem.
• Poem as a single extended metaphor.
• Features of a traditional (Caribbean) dialect.