Character analysis
Toussaint L'Ouverture
in Checking Out Me History by John Agard
Toussaint L'Ouverture is one of three historical freedom fighters that the Speaker honors in John Agard's protest poem "Checking Out Me History." He is featured in a unique stanza sequence characterized by a rhythmically urgent voice, which stands in stark contrast to the nursery-rhyme rhythms used for British figures. Toussaint is introduced with the phrases "de thorn to de French" and "de beacon of de Haitian Revolution," immediately situating him in his historical role as the leader who inspired enslaved people in Saint-Domingue to rise against colonial rule in the late eighteenth century. The poem captures his essence with the lines "de Toussaint / a slave / with vision / lick back / Napoleon / battalion," condensing his remarkable journey—from enslaved individual to military and political genius—into powerful, defiant phrases. His defining qualities include resilience, visionary courage, and the ability to turn oppression into liberation. In the poem's structural argument, Toussaint serves as living evidence that the Speaker's ancestral history has been intentionally obscured: the colonial education system emphasized figures like Dick Whittington and Robin Hood while neglecting individuals like Toussaint. Thus, his presence embodies both historical significance and rhetorical strength—he is not just commemorated but utilized as proof of cultural erasure. By the poem's conclusion, the Speaker's act of reclaiming Toussaint's narrative transforms into an act of self-determination, reflecting Toussaint's own refusal to accept the identity imposed on him by colonial forces.
Who is Toussaint L'Ouverture?
Toussaint L'Ouverture enters "Checking Out Me History" not as a biographical portrait but as a concentrated burst of historical fact and political symbolism. Agard introduces him through two rapid-fire epithets — "de thorn to de French" and "de beacon of de Haitian Revolution" — which convey a history lesson in a single breath. The language is deliberately spare and percussive: Toussaint is identified first by what he resisted and then by what he illuminated for others. He is a historical figure, yes, but within the poem's architecture he functions as evidence — proof that a world-altering story was systematically kept from the Speaker and, by extension, from every student educated under a colonial curriculum.
What is Toussaint L'Ouverture's arc and motivation?
The compressed biography the poem offers is one of the most striking in the text: "de Toussaint / a slave / with vision / lick back / Napoleon / battalion." That sequence — enslaved person, visionary, military victor — enacts an arc of transformation in six short lines. Toussaint's motivation, as the poem frames it, is inseparable from his condition. He does not rise despite being enslaved but in direct confrontation with the system that enslaved him. The word "vision" is essential here: it separates Toussaint from mere reactive rebellion and positions him as a strategic, future-oriented thinker. His defeat of Napoleonic forces — one of the most astonishing military upsets of the eighteenth century — is rendered in the vernacular "lick back," a phrase that carries both physical force and triumphant contempt. Agard refuses the distancing effect of formal historical prose; the motivation and the victory belong to the people who claim them.
What are Toussaint L'Ouverture's key moments?
The stanzas devoted to Toussaint are rhythmically distinct from the nursery-rhyme sing-song Agard assigns to Dick Whittington and Robin Hood. Where those British figures are given bouncy, childlike cadences that mimic the schoolroom tradition through which they were transmitted, Toussaint's lines are clipped, urgent, and propulsive — closer to a drumbeat than a lullaby. This formal contrast is itself a key moment: the reader feels the difference between legends taught as entertainment and history suppressed because it is dangerous. The phrase "de beacon of de Haitian Revolution" is another pivotal instant, because it moves Toussaint beyond individual heroism into collective significance. He is not merely a great man; he is a light that guided an entire people. The act of naming him — saying "Toussaint" in this poem, in this voice — is, by the logic of the text, a political act of recovery.
What are Toussaint L'Ouverture's most important relationships?
The Speaker and Toussaint share the poem's deepest identification. The rhythmically urgent stanzas signal that the Speaker does not observe Toussaint from a scholarly distance but claims him as an ancestor-figure whose erasure is felt as a personal wound. Invoking Toussaint is the most politically charged moment of historical reclamation in the poem.
Toussaint and Nanny de Maroon function as paired emblems of Caribbean resistance. Both are celebrated in vivid, vernacular verse, and together they constitute the counter-canon the Speaker is constructing — a curriculum of Black liberation set against the official one.
Toussaint and Mary Seacole occupy structurally similar positions: non-white historical actors whose erasure, placed side by side, argues that suppression is systemic and deliberate rather than a matter of unfortunate omission.
Toussaint and Dick Whittington / Robin Hood exist in structural opposition. The nursery-rhyme treatment of these English legends, taught instead of Toussaint's story, exposes the ideological machinery of colonial education: myths of English virtue were amplified while Black liberation history was silenced.
How is Toussaint L'Ouverture connected to the other characters?
- The Speaker (Narrator)
The Speaker reclaims Toussaint as a suppressed ancestor-figure whose story was denied by colonial schooling. Invoking Toussaint is the Speaker's most politically charged act of historical recovery, and the passionate, rhythmically distinct stanzas devoted to him signal the depth of the Speaker's identification with his defiance and vision.
- Nanny de Maroon
Toussaint and Nanny de Maroon are paired as the poem's twin emblems of Black Caribbean resistance. Both are presented in vivid, celebratory verse as leaders who fought colonial oppression, and together they form the counter-canon of 'real' history the Speaker insists on learning.
- Mary Seacole
Mary Seacole is the third figure in the Speaker's recovered history. Like Toussaint, she represents a non-white historical actor erased from the curriculum, and her inclusion alongside him reinforces the poem's argument that suppression of such figures is systemic rather than accidental.
- Dick Whittington
Dick Whittington is one of the mythologised British figures the Speaker was taught instead of Toussaint. The structural contrast—nursery-rhyme whimsy for Whittington versus urgent, revolutionary verse for Toussaint—underscores the poem's critique of a curriculum that privileges colonial folklore over Black liberation history.
- Robin Hood
Robin Hood occupies the same structural role as Dick Whittington: a romanticised English legend taught at the expense of figures like Toussaint. His presence in the poem highlights the ideological choices embedded in what counts as 'history' worth teaching.
Questions readers ask about Toussaint L'Ouverture
Who is Toussaint L'Ouverture in 'Checking Out Me History'?
Toussaint L'Ouverture is one of three suppressed historical freedom fighters the Speaker reclaims in John Agard's protest poem. He is introduced through two rapid fire epithets — "de thorn to de French" and "de beacon of de Haitian Revolution" — positioning him as both a military opponent of colonial power and a guiding light for enslaved people in Saint-Domingue. In the poem, he serves as evidence of deliberate cultural erasure by the colonial education system.
How does Agard describe Toussaint L'Ouverture's journey from slavery to victory?
Agard condenses Toussaint's entire arc into six compressed lines: "de Toussaint / a slave / with vision / lick back / Napoleon / battalion." The sequence moves from enslaved person to visionary to military victor, enacting a transformation rather than merely reporting one. The vernacular phrase "lick back" carries physical force and triumphant contempt, refusing the distancing effect of formal historical prose and returning the victory to those who claim it.
Why does Toussaint L'Ouverture matter to the Speaker in the poem?
Toussaint matters because his erasure from the curriculum is felt by the Speaker as a personal wound, not a scholarly oversight. The Speaker claims him as an ancestor-figure whose story was actively suppressed while English legends like Dick Whittington and Robin Hood were taught. Reclaiming Toussaint's name and narrative is the Speaker's most politically charged act of self-determination in the poem.
How does Toussaint L'Ouverture's stanza rhythm differ from the poem's British figures, and why does it matter?
Toussaint's stanzas are clipped, urgent, and propulsive — closer to a drumbeat than a lullaby — while Dick Whittington and Robin Hood are given bouncy, childlike nursery-rhyme cadences. This formal contrast is an argument: readers feel the difference between legends taught as harmless entertainment and history suppressed because it is politically dangerous. The rhythm signals that Toussaint's story carries a weight the colonial curriculum was designed to silence.
What is Toussaint L'Ouverture's relationship with Nanny de Maroon in the poem?
Toussaint and Nanny de Maroon are paired as the poem's twin emblems of Black Caribbean resistance. Both are celebrated in vivid, vernacular verse as leaders who confronted colonial oppression, and together they form the counter-canon of liberation history the Speaker insists on learning. Their pairing shows that the suppression of such figures is systemic — a pattern, not an oversight.
Is Toussaint L'Ouverture presented as an individual hero or as a symbol of collective struggle?
Agard frames Toussaint primarily as a collective symbol rather than a solitary great man. Calling him "de beacon of de Haitian Revolution" — rather than simply a brilliant general — positions his importance as something he illuminated for an entire people. The word "vision" reinforces this: it separates him from reactive rebellion and marks him as a future-oriented, strategic thinker whose significance belongs to the community that claims his legacy.
How does Toussaint L'Ouverture's presence support the poem's argument about colonial education?
Toussaint serves as the poem's most powerful evidence that colonial schooling practiced active erasure, not mere omission. A figure who defeated Napoleon's forces and led one of history's extraordinary slave revolutions was replaced in the curriculum by mythologised English legends. Placed alongside Mary Seacole and Nanny de Maroon, Toussaint's exclusion demonstrates that the suppression of Black liberation history was deliberate and systemic, a point the Speaker makes by naming him.
Use this in your essay
Form as argument: How does Agard's use of contrasting rhythms and line lengths construct a hierarchy of historical value, and what does Toussaint's stanza rhythm claim for his significance?
Language and power: Analyse how vernacular diction ("lick back," "de thorn") reclaims Toussaint's story from the formal, distancing register of colonial historiography.
Collective vs. individual heroism: Toussaint is called "de beacon of de Haitian Revolution" rather than simply a great general
to what extent does the poem frame his importance as communal rather than personal?
Structural erasure: Using Toussaint as your central case, argue that the poem presents colonial education not as accidental ignorance but as an active, ongoing political project.
Self-determination through naming: How does the Speaker's act of reclaiming Toussaint mirror Toussaint's own refusal to accept the identity imposed by colonial forces, and what does this suggest about the relationship between historical memory and personal identity?