Edward Kamau Brathwaite (born 1931) is a Barbadian writer, poet and dramatist; his poetry explores the African and Caribbean roots of his country and his people. The "national language" that he proposes is a new type of poetry linked with those themes.

Born in Bridgetown, Barbados, he was born to humble parents, and he attended many schools. He went to Cambridge, England; in 1957, he travelled to Ghana, shortly after independence, where he spent almost five years. Then he stayed in Kingston for producing clubs, one of which was the Caribbean Artists Movement (1966-1970): he was its secretary-general. In 1968, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Sussex, and in 1994, the International Neustadt Prize for Literature.

His travels give him knowledge about the legends of Africa and its pre-colonial identity, which then he decided to use in his poetry.

Brathwaite has been married to Doris Welcome, since 1960; they have one child.

Selected works

• Four plays for schools (1964)
• Odale's Choice (1967)
• Masks (1968)
• Islands (1969)
• Folk Cultures in the Slaves in Jamaica (1970)
• Caribbean Man in Space and Time (1974)
• Other Exiles (1975)
• Days & Nights (1975)
• Black + Blues (1976)
• Mother Poem (1977)
• Soweto (1979)
• Jamaica Poetry (1979)
• Barbados Poetry (1979)
• Sun Poem (1982)
• Third World Poems (1983)
• Jah Music (1986)
• X/Self (1987)
• Shar (1992)
• Trenchtown Rock (1993)
• Roots (1993)
• Dream Stories (1994)

External link

• http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/brathwa.htm