REVOLUTION AS POETIC INSPIRATION:

GRENADA IN 'MAROON LIVES' BY

LASANA SEKOU

Fabian A. Badejo

REVOLUTION AS POETIC mammaenada in tfIL ,.:aX/ESb-1..._,11 Sokol].

Fabian A. Badejo,

Windward islands Newsday,

P.O. Box 222

Philipslarg, St. Maarten.

Paper presented to the IXth Annual Conference

of the Caribbean Studies Association, St. Kitts

May 29 - June 2, 1984.

R7VOLUTION AS POETIC INSPIRATION:

Grenada in MAROON LIVES b Lasana Sekou.

The truth, the whole truth about the events in Grenada may never be

known. What seemed to have started out as a palace coup hatched to oust

the charismatic leader of the Grenadian Revolution ended in a bloody blun-

der that claimed the lives of Naurice Bishop and several of his cabinet

members and other supporters. The subsequent U.S.-led invasion of the

island was also bloody and - it could be argued - similarly a blunder.

The two events have had a profound impact on the Caribbean as a whole and

consequently, the region will never be the same again. While friends and

foes alike deplored and condemned the assasination of Bishop and other

leaders of the People's Revolutionary Government of Grenada, the invasion

itself divided popular opinion in the region. 1 Grenada has since become a

topic of passionate debate and "hot " copy for editors throughout the

Caribbean. To define such reactions purely in terms of ideological sympa-

thies would be to over-simplify the issues. Yet, there is little doubt

that ideology, heightened by strategic considerations, was at the root of

the invasion.

The ideological stand of Lasana Sekou is unambiguously anti-imperialist

and radically in tune with the leftist revolutions in Africa, Latin America

and the Caribbean. MAROON LDT'S2 is, therefore, an emotive reaction to the

"abortion slaughter", as he calls it, of the Grenadian Revolution. This is

to be expected for several reasons.

Born 25 years ago in Aruba, Dutch West Indies, - incidentally the same

birth-place as ilaurice Bishop - he visited Grenada while still a student of

Political Science at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He,

therefore, had the singular opportunity of witnessing the Revolution in

progress and confirm, first-hand, its strenght and weaknesses. That acade-

mic internship yielded a very robust harvest of poems which he collected

under the title of ALLIA1CT'S3 , the publication of which had to be postponed

to allow the emergency birth of IIROON. His personal contact with the reality

of the Grenadian Revolution which he recounted in very enthusiastic terms

in AILLUCIZ made the events of October 1983 in that island a personal tra-

gedy for Sekou. But the pain and anguish which permeate MAROON do not,

F. Badejo

-2-

La'ways however,Ltranslate into rage, even though he makes no effort to hide his

contempt and indignation towards those he considers guilty of suppressing

the freedom song which the people of Grenada had already begun to intone.

He blames the 'seven "baying jackals" - the Caribbean states that "invited"

the U.S. to spearhead the invasion, and the latter for accepting the invi-

tation as a more than willing "babylonian whore" '. The "malformations

from within" 5the New Jewel Movement do not escape his ire, either. Contra-

ry to what Peter Westmore asserts6, there is obviously a great deal of

anger in these poems. The share invectiveness of the epithets he hurls at

these 'culprits' and his generally execratory tone whenever he refers to

them are clear indications of anger. However, when this feeling is reined

in, the poems become songs of hope, of optimism, of encouragement. Herein

lies the single most important achievement of Sekou in this his fourth book

of verse7: that he could show anger and move immediately beyond self-pity

and demoralization to sound the bugle for the continuation of the struggle.

It is then that reading MAROON becomes indeed "more like being in a mine-

field, at any moment a sharp-edged poem, like a bullet or a bomb can cut at

your reason or emotion."

Dedicated to the Grenadian freedom fighters, the book is not a requiem

for a revolution that got strangled in its infancy. It is rather a response

to what Hichel Beaujour termed "the collective need for poetry in certain

historical period... when the group wants both to manifest and structure

its unity, its demands and its enthusiasm."9 The historical period here

spans the time from Bishop's house arrest up to the invasion and the period

of resistance immediately after. The group is the Caribbean "family" which

demands its self-determination and an end to imperialism. Nevertheless,

MAROON is not a journalistic chronicle of events in Grenada. Revolutionary

poetry is obviously not the mere enumeration of historical facts fromnewspaper-clippings of the day, nor is it the unimaginative chanting of

radical-sounding political slogans. From Jose Marti to Nicolas Guillen,from Aime Cesaire to Rene Dopestre, from Langston Hughes to Amiri Baraka,from Martin Carter to Linton Kwesi Johnson... revolutionary poetry has

Badejo - 3

distinguished itself precisely because it transforms what is considered by

some to be prosaic into a most exquisite and enthralling poetic material.

In his introduction to FOR THE GODS„ ..AI; OFF7RI:G10 2 Amiri

Baraka, who exercises a great influence over Lasana Sekou, observes that

the latter's "is a poetry constructed from struggle, reflecting the aware-

ness that is a constant of Black life.” For a young, black creative mind

growing up in the United States, sensitivity to the glaring injustices,

hipocrisy, double-standards and obvious contradictions which seem to plague

the American system makes identification with the struggle of oppressed

people t iespecially in his region, a logical option. And "since, in today's

world, a real artist's consciousness must trascend the stifling parochia-

lism of his own nationality, commitment must, of necessity, imply the choice

of allies. Lasana M. Sekou has unequivocally chosen the side of the people

struggling to build snot just another society, but a just society' ."11

But this struggle is not just a struggle for egalitarianism. It is not

...simply a matter

of civil rights/

sharing a bench

or shit-house with whites

-"This Our Land", Maroon Lives, p.19

It is a creative struggle to carve out and maintain a distinct identity.

Successful revolutions, Sekou seems to have learned, unleash the creative

genius of the people and thrive on this genius. No revolution succeeds

without the people achieving a great measure of pride and self-esteem. The

people in Grenada had, by most accounts, regained a great deal of self-res-

pect. In one of his political essays Frantz Fanon wrote: "It is a liberated

individual who undertakes to build a new society. n12 But as the Grenada ex-

periment clearly demonstrated, "It is not easy to be free and bold/ Itis not easy to endure the spike" 13 . Martin Carter's Iptikel becomei ih. Lasa-

na Sekou the "killer hands/ Clutching the embryo neck of our revolution" 14.The spike is placing every genuinely popular revolutionary effort within

the geo-political and ideological axes of super-power rivalry. But in"a contest of systems/ The People Will Win ► gekou asserts.

Badejo 4

Viewing the problems afflicting the hemisphere through cold-war binoculars

as the U.S. has invariably done to date, ignores the real causes of these

Problems — poverty, ignorance, disease, corruption....

"Rally Round", the poem that serves as preface to the volume opens with

what would be the recurrent theme throughout the book;

The war continues

La lutta continua. And there is no laying down of arms. The poet sees the

invasion as only a temporary set—back; the revolution has not been crushed;

because it is a "walking seed". And

The revolutionaries are (still) here

Rising from ashes and embersLike winds above the hills.

In IVAGES IN THE YARD (1983), Sekou announces almost tauntingly;

See II a RevolutionistRising upTo inherit this Earth

I a RevolutionistMarching across the landsThrashing the downpressors

Planting signposts for those followingThere Will Be No FruitsIf We Do Not Labour.

—("Victory Onward")

But he is not being boyishly provocative nor striking a militant pose.

Indeed, the usual cliches that could be used to describe his poetry (engage,

militant, radical, etc.) can also be applied to "the Lord's Prayer and the

Monroe Doctrine" as Marquez and Murray so poignantly noted with respect to

the works of Nicolas Guillen. 16 Sekou is no one to be concerned with tags.

There is no demagoguery in his attitude. Rising up with Fanon's wretched of

the earth, like a Prometheus unshackled, to defeat the "downpressors", the

exploiters, the inperialists; to retrieve his dignity and "inherit this Earth".

Badejo — 5

To show by his heroism that freedom is a fruit of labour, of struggle, of

revolution, not a gift of the gods nor a coveted inheri'cance willed by imassal.

The poet is marching with the masses, not on horseback, but on foot, like

a maroon in the hills, like a lion across the land, restoring the land to

its rightful owners; teaching them that there is dignity in labour; that

there is life in the communion with the land and wisdom in sharing this

patrimony; that freedom is the triumph of Truth.

Sekou sees revolutionary tactics not in any dogmatic terms. He writes:

When the Truth withinPushes youTo set yourself freeBy any means

Then there will beNo more peace.

—("We of the Diaspora", For the Mi7htvGods..., p.26)

No more peace of the kind that numbs the spirit and makes zombies and mimic

men out of a once proud people. No more peace of the kind that perpetuates

the enslavement of the rind and enshrines untruths.

If there can be no peaceIn which we are MenOf greatest worth

Then let there be war.

— ("For Exiles", naroen Lives)

The kind of oeace we must, therefore, seek by anv means is the one that

emanates from Truth, inner Truth, liberating Truth. And for Sekou, Truth

is knowledge; is love; is beauty; is struggle; is the leitmotif of Maroon.

The book is divided into three sections which correspond respectively

to the invasion ("Resistance"), poems of solidarity which place Grenada in

a wider historical perspective ("Forwarding") and the immediate cause of

the invasion ("Toiled from Morning"). teach section is preceded by a relevant

quote which the poems subsequently 'illustrate'. The division also corresponds

to the poets perception of his role as a warrior, "kno:Ter" and lover. These

blend smoothly in his consciousness "which operates at three levels perceived

harmoniously as one" 17— consciousne ss as a young man, as a Dlacknan, and as

a poet who understands Revolution not only as a heroic struggle for libera-

Badejo - 6

tion but, like Depestre, as a"total cultural phenomenon". 18 It is, in fact,

"the first great creation of a society which aspires to free itself from

colonization and establish a new identity" 19 .

The first section of ::AROON starts with an excerpt from an 1894 editorial

of the Puerto Rican La Democracia which warned that the U.S. is a "dangerous

neighbour" and advised that we must be vigilant. The 'danger' posed by the

U.S. becomes tragically real in its invasion of the Spice Island. In this

section, the poet addresses himself to the role of the major protagonists

of the Grenada drama. The heads of the members of the Organization of East-

ern Caribbean States (•CS), Barbados and Jamaica who, in concert, "invited" .

the U.S. to stage the invasion.are seen as "traitors", "cowards", "treache-

rous slaves" and "sellers of Caribbean sovereignty". In the tradition of

the Nicholas Guillen of West Indies Ltd., he minces no words but fearlessly

resorts to name-calling, setting aside conventional poetic niceties in pre-

ference for a direct, elemental use of language, devoid of all embellishments.

In "Traitors", these Caribbean leaders are called out one by one, charged

with conspiracy with an outsider "to spill/Our family blood." They are, in

Lasana Sokouts view, saboteurs of Caribbean unity, fifth-columnists within

the Caribbean family who added fire to the already smouldering house of a

'relative'. They are strangers and enemies interfering in the internal affairs

of another state. One of them, the Prime Minister of Barbados, is singled

out in "Puppet" as a CIA collaborator for letting his airport be used as a

listening and staging post for the invasion.

The USA is the "imperial beast from the north"; the "hostile stranger"

who parades "sickly notions of liberty"; the "iiaperialistas" who will not

leave us alone; the "transgressor" whose history is replete with similar

military actions in Haiti, Cuba, Santo Domingo...., the long list of these

interventions or invasions in the inside covers of MAROON, though impressive,

still falls far short of the 150 of these compiled by the Illinois Senator

Everett Dirlmon 15 years ago. And the list keeps growing.... Jose Marti saw

through this expansionism when he declared with respect to Cuba and Puerto

Rico: "It is balance we are bringing to the world, not two islands that we

are going to liberate."20

Badejo - 7

Sekou revolts against the cultural component of this imperialism. In

"Symbols", perhaps the most accomplished poem in this first section of the

book, he declares:

War does not endWhen the U.S. forcesTake over a once Radio Free GrenadaHave their sayThen play the Beach BoysWHO THE FUCK ARE THE BEACH BOYS!

Imperialism is also seen as racial in character. Denouncing the invasion as

an affront on the racial dignity of the Blackman, he says in the same poem:

That was an insult to Black people everywhere.

This dignity is redeemed, in his eyes, by the brave resistance put up

by the Cubans who complete the trio of foreign actors involved in the "tra-

gic opera" of Grenada. Los Cubanos are depicted as "companeros/UpfUl streams

of our flanhood/Of our Peoplehood" ("Drink Water Children"). Their heroic

sacrifice, he contends, deserves praise, deserves celebrating, deserves emu-

lation21 because it is a supreme act of solidarity, of Caribbean brotherhood.

He urges the Grenadians to continue this resistance, like the maroons and

Back the invadersTo the hell whence they cameBy every means

By any means...

- ("Re-organize)

It is a resistance which, in fact, the whole Caribbean and the entire oppres-

sed world should mount against imperialism. It is a historic resistance, a

physical and mental struggle for self-determination, for national liberation.

Nowhere is this so clearly evident as in the title poem of the book:

Maroon livesIn the hills and in the heartIn the right and in reasonResisting invaders

Badejo —

To reclaim our landTo.let our destiny beLet it beIn our hands. ("Maroon Lives")

And the poet exhorts the "workers and warriors" to persevere in the fashionof the Maroons because time is on theif side, on the side of "...nation

builders" who have tasted freedom, who have known victory, who, to use

Brathwaite's memorable lines, "are born of the ocean (and) can never seek

solace/in rivers

The second section of the book is headed by a quote from Walter Rodney

stating that now is the time to make a resolute stand against evil and

injustice. These a are by no means confined to Grenada. In "The Trium-

phant Living", the poet catalogues some of these evils and injustices and

exposes the contradictions inherent in U.S.-imperialism which preaches

liberty but hugs the apartheid "beast of Pretoria"; which takes the side of"hitlerite regimes" like that of Somoza in Nicaragua and breeds counter camps

"to down the people rising" in that country. U.S. antagonism to regimes

which it perceives as radical or revolutionary has led to the "big stick"

policy which has invariably aligned her with despotic and oppressive rulers

in the region and elsewhere (the Duvalier dynasty in Haiti, Somoza's Nicara

gua, apartheid South Africa, etc.). The U.S. Government readiness to apply

the Monroe Doctrine in a now habitual knee—jerk reaction to almost any

development in the region that threatens the status elm, has had the effect

of positioning it as an opponent of the suffering masses. "The single article

of this doctrine, Fanon wrote, stipulates that America belongs to the Ame-

ricans, in other words, to the State Department." 23 Latin America and the

Caribbean thus become the U.S.'s "backyard" where there is no room for

ideological pluralism. The 'backyard' syndrome reveals what Jose Marti hascalled the "arrogant disdain" which characterises U.S. attitude toward its

hemispheric neighbours. Fundamental to this attitude is the much vaunted,

alleged superiority of the American tae 7 of life which is paraded as the model

to initate, especially in the dovt-1,opine, world. This "American myth" as Rene2/Depeatre i*efers to it, hides tho old colonial theory of assimilation. Sekou

Badejo - 9

refers to this as the "ideals and idiosyncracies/Taught you/By colonial

confines /Train you/Assimilate" ("Confound"). The American myth has,

however been dealt a fatal blow by the Cuban Revolution:

today childrenTake courage -Cuba lives

he writes in "The Triumphant Living". Grenada had joined the ranks of

those "rebuilding democracy" as against those "selling their democrazy".

Alas, the Grenadian Revolution, still suffering from the pangs of birth,

fell victim to the tragic irony of this way of life which imposes its

"superiority" through military might. Nevertheless, there is no reason

to despair, Sekou urges in "Forwarding" because we are still fanny and

We journey still...." La lutta continua. •

The solidarity expressed in this section of MAROON is a solidarity

with the struggle in South Africa, in Namibia, in Nicaragua.... The poet-

warrior in the first section, singing resistance songs, prowling the hills,

entrenching roots of uprisings in the minds of freedom fighters, of the

modern-day Maroons, that poet-warrior comes into the second part armed with

Truth. ie becomes the poet-fknowert, the sage who has drunken from the

eternal well-spring of knowledge - history. He knows the past, i.e. the

history of his ancestors, of Witbooi, of Ndemufayo and Kutako, of Toussaint

and Marcus Garvey. He also knows the present - contemporary history. The

history of struggle, of "waging songs against death", of "righting wrongs"

in South Africa, ramibia, Angola, El Salvador, Chile, Nicaragua, Cuba,

Grenada all Davids up against the Goliath of imperialism. The truthof this knowledge imbues him with strenght, with courage, with cptimism:

In Nicaragua

Be assured victory is on handEl Sal-rador i coning& Namibia is around the cornerJust so

-("The Greatest March")

Badejo — 10

R, you full well knowGrenada is no small matter& Cuba is as our owrVThe Greatest March Continues

— ("The Greatest ':arch")

It is an inexorable march to victory, especially if nurtured by love and

labour.

If "The Triumphant Living" is an indictment of imperialism and "The

Greatest Earch" an anthem of certain victory, "We Continue" is a hymn to

Pan-Caribbean unity and hemispheric brotherhood. This "bilingual poem" 25

is without doubt, the most successful in this section. It is also the poem

that most lyrically reflects Sehouls vision of the Caribbean. In content

and in style, the thrust here is toward Caribbean integration. Imperialism

has stood in the way of that integration despite the cultural unity of the

region:

...we have lived in the same houseAnd danced the same dancesWe have loved each other's songsWithout really knowing each other's names-

Sekou's Caribbean family of "brothers and sisters/Cousins and comrades....

/Sufferers and fighters..." who are ignorant of each other's identity, is

a victim of imperialism which "... mutilates, divides, balkanises. It is

largely responsible for the fact that speaking the same tongue or tongues,

we do not speak the same language. Imperialism is largely responsible for

the dramatic and painful fact that today, a cultural commually cannot

emerge spontaneously among the writers and artists of our America." 26 With

Lasana Sekou, this may have started to change. And he is aware of it as he

addresses the 'family' "as if for the first time" in the language of freedom

and invokes the names of the heroes of his proud Caribbean ancestry, fighters

all for a common destiny despite their different tongues — English, Spanish,

French, Dutch, Papianento....

The poem flows effortlessly from English to Spanish and back, sometimes

between stanzas, or between lines and other times even within the same line,

forging a new poetic voice which retairs the distinctive charm and grace of

Badejo 11

each language and blends them into a hauntingly beautiful song perfumed with

reggae rhythms and salsa beats. It is a conscious attempt at linguistic in-

tegration, at creating a truly pan-Caribbean poem in form as in content.

When Nicolas Guillen sprinkled some of his poems with English, he did so

to illustrate the effects of American imperialism on the ordinary Cuban,

not with the intent of emphasizing Caribbean unity. The fact that Lasana

Sekou originates from St. Maarten no doubt made him especially attuned to

the linguistic plurality of the region. In St. Maarten, English,Spanish,

Papiamento, Dutch and French are commonly spoken. 27 Even Haitian creole can

be heard on the streets of this tiny splash of land still administered after

more than 300 years as a condominium by France and the Netherlands. Sekou,

the poet-knower, is a polyglot. He knows the languages, the major tongues

of the Caribbean. He also has a direct experience of how colonialism can

divide a people and even a family,no matter how small a stretch of land

they occupy. The language situation in St. Maarten /St. Martin, it could be

said, makes the island a linguistic microcosm of the Caribbean. If language

should play the important role which corresponds to it in the process of

Caribbean integration, St. Maarten /St. Martin may offer a possible blue-

print for such a role. Sekou comprehends this in an intuitive manner and

embarks on a pioneering effort in this area with "We Continue".

"Toiled from morning" is the title of the third section of MAROON. It

comprises of four poems only and opens with two quotes. The first one is from

Maurice Bishop's famous radio broadcast of March 13,1979 in which he equates

the Revolution with work, food, decent housing, education and an equitable

distribution of the fruits of the Revolution. The second is from a Washington

Post report of his release from house arrest by thousands of his supporters.

The first excerpt is developed in part in "All Labor" while the second is

elaborated upon in "For Justice":

There be no houseIn which to arrestThe people's willAnd no realit7 but JusticeWill continue this proces s

The tone in this section borders on the elegiac. The poet-warrior and the

Badejo - 12

poet-knower now seek justice as the poet-lover who has lost a dear one to

the lethal bullets of assasins but whose belief in the cause the latter died

for remains unshaken even in his bereavement:

That thisThe Revolution continuesIs our best actionRebuild strong pillars peopleAnd convene a people's court

Bring out the assasins

- ("Continuum')

Distant echoes of Mark Anthony clutching the lifeless body of Julius Caesar

resound in this poem written on the eve of the invasion. It-ends on a pro-

phetic note warning that imperialism would not hesitate to seize the oppor-

tunity to halt the progress made by the Revolution and return Grenada to

the pre Bishop era. This is in the same vein as the official statement by

the Cuban Government issued the day after the executions and which he quotes

on the back-cover of the book.

The progress made by the Grenadian Revolution was real and quantifiable

before tragedy struck from within and from without. Michael I:anley recognises

these achievements: nI give Bishop's regime, in the four years that it was

there, very high marks" he writes. "For one thing, the World Bank held,in a major document in 1983, that the Grenadian economy was the best mana-

ged in the English-speaking Caribbean and pointed to the fact that it was

the only economy in the English-speaking Caribbean that achieved significant

growth, around 5 per cent in 1982 they did excellent work in the fieldof social development: they worked very hard on education; they had a massive

literacy drive which made real inroads into the chronic problems of illite-

racy; and the did good work in legislation for women's rights, in protec-

ting trade union rights, and matters of that sort.n 28 This is the plain truth.It confirms that on the internal front, the Grenadian Revolution was working.

It explains the messianic appesl Bishop had with hie people, before his

blood was spilled, before "a once people's army/....slaughtered life among

our number/ Good life" ("All Labor "). Gokou further comments in "Crisis":

/12

Badejo - 13

Look what they didTo the lyricsOf the songTo the rhythm of our laborLook howThey tore the wingsFrom the people's voice

Anthony Maingot was right in observing that in the manifesto of Bishop's

New Jewel 1,:ovement, " the pitch was utopian revolutionary aspirations and

conservative nostalgia for redemption and spiritual regeneration rolled

into one package". He further notedCluthen, so it had been in Cuba in

1958 - 1959 and Nicaragua in 1979 - both mass movements that carried re-

volutionary elites to power on a wave of collective moral indignation!'30

He failed,however, to link the hardening of position of the revolutionary

leadership in those countries to the intransigent muscle-flexing that the

U.S. time and again has substitued for diplomatic efforts.31 This intran-

sigence is characteristic of the I-:onroe Doctrine, the self-serving, self-

righteous, might-makes-right nature of which has helped to alienate the

revolutionary vanguard in places like Cuba, Nicaragua, then Grenada, thereby

contributing to their progressive radicalization.

The "gunboats" which Sekou feared in "Continuum" would be used

To assault our frontlineTo make principle jewelsCasualtiesOn this first line of defence

were all too readily deployed by Reagan. But gunboat diplomacy, whatever

ideological rationalizations might be advanced for it, is invariably a

bully action, be it in Grenada or in Afghanistan. Precisely because it

relies on brute force to achieve change, it becomes vulgar and offensive

to any reasonable sense of justice. Viewed against the light of the enor-

mous human, economic and technological resources at the disposal of its

prattitioners, this bully action becozes a pathetic display of moral bank-

ruptcy. It also reflects, as all bully actions do, a basic feeling of inse-

curity. Insecurity born of distrust, of fear and, ultimately, of a deep-rooted

inferiority complex. This conjures up the image of the ugly bad guy, play-ing tough in the wild, wild West. It is the image of the night marauders on

horse-back, stealing cattle, shooting the farmer in cold-blood and raping

his bride. It is, unfortunately, a metaphor for the flip-side of the Ameri-

Badejo - 11+

can psyche. The other side of this psyche - the handsome, loneranger who

becomes sheriff in the land of Lincoln and sets out to avenge the poor-

seldom manifests itself in U.S. foreign policy. Sekou understands this

Who else can free us?Who else can feed us?Who but ourselves... majestic multitudes....

This is the beginning of liberation, of revolution. For our young poet;

who is heir to a family tradition of radicalism32 and whose first radical

act was to change his name from Harold Lake to the African names of Lasana

Sekou, ideology is to liberation what faith is to christian salvation. His

ideology of liberation makes him see revolution as a people's struggle for

freedom; freedom from oppression, from hunger, from disease. It is a struggle

for self-determination, for decolonisation, for a new identity. It means

war against imperialism, against ignorance, against cultural alienation.

Although he seems to favour armed struggle, ANY method is acceptable if

the objective is the same. It could therefore be peaceful political acti-

vism or violent confrontation or cultural radicalism:

Fashion your toolsIn the image of your necessityOf Fedon or FanonOf Ghandi or KingOf nalcolm or 1:arley.

- Melly Round")

However, he believes, as the Cuban Government stated in its reaction to the

killing of Bishop, that "...no crime can be committed in the name of revolu-

tion and freedom." The Revolution he advocates should be engaged

Without bloodstained hands...For we need not hear our childrenOne day soonScold us too, in horror

("purges ")

• .1/1 5

Badejo - 15

And to achieve the revolutionary goal, unity is essential. Pan-Caribbean _

unity which, for him, forms an integral part of Pan-Africanism. He asserts

in "Time Come":

I mean to seeThis Pan- African worldRising/Up from ZimbabweAround Grenada way

- (Images in the Yard, p.121)

Grenada has had a great influence on Lasana Sekou. The Revolution there

filled him with hope and served as his Muse, with two volumes of poetry in-

spired in it. On MAROON LT S, Peter Westmore writes: "To date, few quality

literary works have been published, addressing the Grenadian crisis so boldly.

Maroon is a crucial first in poetry."33 Both this and the forthcoming ALLIArc --2sare born out of love. Both are passionate expressions of solidarity. In our

quest for a new identity, in our thirst for freedom, we should remember that

"the new man will be born from the revolutionary unity of our peop10 34

Sekauts abundant talent and imagination, his peculiar feel for language,

have made his a radically distinct poetic voice. We should be able to sing

with him, as he does in the poem, "All Labor":

Under this new bannerUnder this red sunOn this Caribbean isle we stoodOne with water and land and skyOne people

And we may add: "One destiny".

"'4,'"to•••".'"e ""4,^41,'W

Badejo - 16.

Notes

1. In Jamaica, for example, 5E6 favoured the invasion while 315 were againstit according to an opinion poll conducted by Dr. Carl Stone. Cfr, CarlStone, "The Jamaican Reaction: Grenada and the political stalemate",

Caribbean Review, Vol. XII, No. 4, 1983.

2. House of l7ehesi, :ew York, 1983. Hereinafter called :maroon.3. A forthcoming volume.4. "Maroon Lives", op. cit. p.115. "All Labor", op. cit. p.32.6. Peter Westmoore, "Lamm Sekou, St. Yaartents Foremost Poet Publishes Two

New Books", Windward Islands Newsday, Vol. 8, No. 890, St. Maarten, Feb.23, 1984.

7, His other published works include: Moods for Isis, (1981); For the Mighty Gods... An Offering, (1982); Images in the Yard, (1983), all by House ofNehesi, New York.

8, Peter Westmoore, op. cit.9. Michel Beauj our, "Flight Out of Time: Poetic Language and Revolution",

Literature and Revolution, Jacques armann, ed., Boston, Beacon Press,1967, p.30. Quoted in Nicolas Guillen: I:an-:"aking Words, Introductionby Robert Marquez and David A. Murray, Editorial Arte y Literatura, LaHabana, 1975,

10. op. cit.11. Unpublished manuscript, Introduction by Fabian Badejo.12. Frantz Fanon, Toward the African Revolution, Grove Press Inc. N.Y., 1969,p.102.13. Martin Carter, "The Knife of Dawn", Poems of Resistance, Univ. of Guyana, 1964.14. L. Sekou, "'War Dogs", op. cit. p.3.15. "For Michael (Mikey) Smith", id. p.17.16, op. cit.17. F. Badejo -,"Lasana Sekou, St. Maarten's First Revolutionary Poet", Wind-

ward Islands Newsday, Vol. 7, No. 819, St. Maarten, May 24, 1983.18, R. Depestre, Pour la Poesie, Pou•la Revolution, Lemeac, Ottawa, 1974,

p.139. Translation mine.19. -id., p.139.20. Jose Marti, Paginas Escegidas, I, Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, La Habana,

1971, p. 29. Translatio n mine.21. It is interesting to contrast this view with the Mighty Sparrow's insinua-

tion in the lyrics of his calypso hit, "Grenada" that the Cubans don'tknow how to fight.

22. Edward K. Brathwaite, "South", Rite of Passage, Oxford, 1967.23. op. cit. p.123.24. op. cit. p.14125. I first used this term in my introduction to Sekou's forthcoming Alliances

to refer to those poems written in two languages, in this case, in Lnglishand Spanish. Poems in which borrowed word from another language appearwould not, however, qualify as "bilingual poems".

, • _138•26. R. Depestre, op. cit. D27. Cfr. Linda Andrea Richardson, "The Sociolinguistic Situation in St. •:aa ten",

working paper presented to the 3rd Biennial Conference of the CaribbeanSociety for Caribbean Linguistics, Aruba, 1T80.

Badejo - 17

Notes

28.Michael Eanley, "Grenada in the Context of History", Caribbean Review,Vol. XII, No. 4, 1983, p. 9.

29.Anthony Maingot, "Options for Grenada", id., p, 26.30.-id.-31.Cfr. Wayne S. Smith's article: "The Grenada Complex and Central America:

Action and Negotiation in U.S. Foreign Policy", op. cit. p. 34.32.His father, the late Jose Lake, Sr. was the father of journalism in St.:la rtes.

He fought relentlessly against corruption and injustice from the pages of hispaper, "Windward Islands Opinions". His elder brother, Jose Lake,Jr., is theradical editor/publisher of the "Windward Islands Newsday", the most influentialnewspaper in the Dutch Windward Islands.

33. op. cit.34.Depestre, op. cit. p. 144.

zibliograPhv

1, Badejo, FLA., "Lasana Sekou, St. Maarten's First Revolutionary Poet", in:Windward Islands Newsday, Vol. 7, No. 819, Nay 24, 1983.

2. Caribbean Review, Vol. XII, NO. 4, 1983.

3. •Depestre, Rent, Pour la Revolution - Pour la Poesie, Lemeac, Ottawa, 1974.

4. Fanon, Frantz,Toward the African Revolution, Grove Press, Inc. N.Y. 1969.

5. GuilAn, Nicolas, '_an-Making Words, Editorial Arte y Literature,La Habana, 1975.

6. Richardson, L.A. "The Sociolinguistic Situation in St. Maarten", Paperpresented to the 3rd Biennial Conference of the Societyfor Caribbean Linguistics, Aruba, 1980.

7. Lasana M. Sekou, I ,:oods for Isis: Poens ofLatamigklaja,House of Nehesi l hew York, 1981.

8. For the M -Mhty Gods An Offering, 1982.

9. ,

1983.

10. ::aroon Lives, 1983.11.Westmoore, P. "Lasana Sekou, St. Maarten's Foremost Poet Publishes

Two New Books", Windward Islands Newsday, Vol. 8, No, 809,February 23, 1984.