Between ‘home’ and migritude: Louise Bennett, Kamau Brathwaite and the poet as migrant

Abstract

Abstract What is the relationship between migration and poetry? By examining poetry by Caribbean writers Louise Bennett and Kamau Brathwaite, this article provides historical context and alternative ways of answering this question. Theoretically speaking, this article embarks on the conceptual path of Aimé Cesairé’s use of négritude as a ‘compass of suffering’. It does so by adopting Vijay Prashad and Shailja Patel’s term migritude or an aesthetic attempt to live within the idea of the migrant subject. The article begins with a sketch that examines Warsan Shire’s poem ‘Home’ in the context of the Syrian refugee crisis. It then looks into the archive of Bennett’s and Brathwaite’s poetry to see how poems written by migrant authors help to shape visions of migration and migrant subjects.