In life, Kamau Brathwaite was quiet in his genius, but the noise about his tremendous breadth of work as poet, academic and builder of a consciousness of their African heritage among Caribbean people, reverberated through James Street Methodist Church in the tributes flowing at his funeral service yesterday.
Drummers played as people entered the church for the beginning of the official funeral service, setting the tone for a farewell in which Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, academics and members of the artistic community highlighted the late Barbadian’s lifelong quest to have people of the region celebrate their Caribbean voices and language and embrace their African ancestry.
“Are we going to do ourselves a favour of making use of the tremendously valuable body of work that Kamau has produced, not for his sake but for our own sake?” asked CARICOM Ambassador David Comissiong in his tribute.
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