What happens in Chapter 1 of Checking Out Me History?
John Agard's "Checking Out Me History" is a powerful poem where the speaker, a Caribbean man, takes a stand against the Eurocentric education imposed by a colonial British curriculum. He starts by listing the figures he was taught in school: nursery-rhyme characters like Dick Whittington and Old King Cole, along with British historical events like the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and Guy Fawkes. Then, he shifts gears, forcefully highlighting the influential figures he was not taught about: Toussaint L'Ouverture, the Haitian revolutionary; Mary Seacole, the Jamaican nurse; and Nanny of the Maroons, an Amerindian leader. Each of these overlooked figures is presented in lyrical, italicized stanzas that starkly contrast with the blunt, dismissive lines about the colonial curriculum. The poem concludes with the speaker confidently claiming his right to reclaim his history — to "carve out me identity" — portraying self-education as a form of resistance and a means of survival.
Analysis
Agard engineers the poem's argument using contrasts in typography and tone. The stanzas that describe the colonial curriculum are clipped and almost contemptuous — featuring short, phonetically spelled lines ("Dem tell me / Dem tell me") that mimic rote recitation and reveal its emptiness. In contrast, the italicized stanzas that celebrate Toussaint, Seacole, and Nanny shift entirely in tone: they become incantatory, rich in imagery, and rhythmically expansive, embodying the very vitality that colonial education suppressed. This structural split is the argument — the form itself conveys meaning.
The non-standard spelling ("Dem tell me," "wha dem want to tell me") isn’t just a stylistic choice but a political statement: Agard uses Caribbean creole to assert the legitimacy of a voice that the curriculum sought to silence. The nursery-rhyme references (Dick Whittington, Old King Cole) are deliberate — they compare lessons in colonial history with children's fantasies, trivializing the empire's self-mythology.
Light and vision are recurring motifs: Toussaint is described as "a beacon," while Nanny is a "hopeful stream." These figures shed light on what colonial education intentionally kept in darkness. The repeated phrase "Dem tell me / Wha dem want to tell me" builds into a drumbeat of grievance before the final shift, where the speaker's tone moves from accusation to agency — "But now I checking out me own history" — signaling a resolution that is defiant instead of despairing.
Key quotes from Chapter 1
“Dem tell me / Dem tell me / Wha dem want to tell me”
The poem's driving refrain, repeated throughout, exposing the curriculum as an act of deliberate selection rather than neutral education.
“Toussaint / a slave / with vision / lick back / Napoleon / battalion / and first Black / Republic born”
One of the italicised celebratory stanzas, compressing the Haitian Revolution into urgent, percussive lines that contrast with the flat recitation of British history.
“But now I / checking out me own history / I carving out me identity”
The poem's closing declaration, in which accusation transforms into agency and self-determined identity.