Edward Kamau Brathwaite

Kelly Baker Josephs (York College, CUNY)

Ed. by Nick Selby, University of East Anglia
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 4.1.1: Anglophone Writing and Culture of Central America and the Caribbean.
Vol. editors: Ronald Cummings (McMaster University), Delphine Munos (Université de Liège), Melanie Otto (Trinity College Dublin), Jak Peake (University of Essex), Abigail Ward (University of Nottingham)

Dates

Born 11 May 1930
Died 4 Feb 2020
Activity 1964-2020

Places

Born in Barbados
Active in Barbados; Jamaica; United Kingdom; United States; Ghana

Cultural Identities

Caribbean Black British

Activities

Primary

Essayist
Historian / Chronicler
Poet

Resources

Kamau Brathwaite was born Lawson Edward Brathwaite in Barbados in 1930 to father Hilton Edward and mother Beryl Brathwaite. His upbringing in Barbados was firmly middle class; he attended Harrison College and, in 1949, he won the coveted Barbados Island Scholarship to Cambridge University in England. Brathwaite was a Pembroke College student at Cambridge, where he read for History and English. He earned a BA in History (1953) and a diploma in education (1954).

In 1954, he journeyed to Ghana, where he was an Education Officer at the Ministry of Education from 1955-62. These years in Ghana had a large impact on Brathwaite’s writing. The most explicit influence was his realization of the strong currents that bond members of the …

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2251 words

Citation: Josephs, Kelly Baker. "Edward Kamau Brathwaite". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 March 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=551, accessed 31 October 2024.]

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