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Author Profiles

Linton Kwesi Johnson

Books of Poetry

• Voices of the Living and the Dead (1974)
• Dread Beat an' Blood (1975)
• Inglan is a Bitch (1980)
• Tings and Times (1991)

Discography

• Dread Beat An Blood (Virgin, 1978)
• Forces of Victory (Mango/Island, 1979)
• Bass Culture (Island, 1980)
• LKJ in Dub (Island, 1981)
• Making History (Island, 1983)
• LKJ Live in Concert with the Dub Band
  (LKJ Records, 1985)
• Tings An' Times (LKJ Records, 1991)
• LKJ in Dub: Volume Two (LKJ Records,1992)

At a Glance

The importance of Linton Kwesi Johnson to Black British literature's development is one that has been recognized by several other fellow Black British writers. Fellow novelist, poet, and academic critic David Dabydeen says of Linton Johnson:

We have to be grateful to Linton Kwesi Johnson for his early poetry in creole. He was really a seminal figure in that he was the first poet that I know of in England in this century who has the backing of the community. Linton would head a march of about a hundred people to a police station and would read a poen there about some black man who had been locked up unjustly. And he had the backing of the whole community behind him. It is almost like a troubadour, the ballad tradition, brought back almost single-handedly to Britain. So he is an important historical figure in English poetry. He gave us alot of courage to write as well, because he was catapulted into national fame. Caryl Phillips says of him that at the time that Johnson began writing "there was nobody else articulating what was going on in the streets of Britain for young black people."

Linton Johnson was born in Chapleton in Jamaica in 1952, and came to Britain in 1963. In London he attended Tulse Hill Comprehensive School and later entered Goldsmith's University, University of London in 1973 where he graduated with a sociology degree. During his time in college, he was very proactive politically through his association with the Black Panther movement. His works include a play, a distinctive style of performance poetry that has loosely been coined "dub poetry" and discography. He also has his own record label, LKJ records.

Johnson's Works

It was the aggression of the 1970's time period, and the angry sentiments of Black British youth that inspired Johnson to represent his times through the poetry genre. It was a different type of poetry through, popularly coined 'dub poetry' or 'performance poetry.' In keeping with the mood of the times, Johnson writes his first book of poems in 1975, a reactionary collection called Dread Beat and Blood. It picks up on the aggressive tone of this previous 1973 play "Voices of the Living and the Dead." In this play, Johnson speaks of the need for counter-violence and self-defensive fighting as necessary to fight against British mainstream oppression. The worth of this play is measured in light of its publication eight years before the Brixton riots (a time when Black British youth erupted in riots against the police). Johnson writes during a non-violent period and is yet able to capture the sentiments of angry youth population as they attack with shotguns, blades, stones and sticks. Their fight is for employment, equal rights, and for "the truth/ that was hidden from our lives."

Dread Beat and Blood (1974) continues an exposition of these very themes, concentrating on the woes of the Black British 'yout.' Like their parents, they are oppressed by unemployment and discrimination. But their situation is different. These youth are more conscious of belonging to Britain, for they are not immigrants like their parents. They want to be seen as rightful British citizens. Their marginalization leads to the embrace of the Rastafarian culture for in its embrace they have claimed the right to practice independent forms of cultural expression, thus forging a unique identity. This collection focuses on all of these themes, including the oppression by the police. The latter theme comes to define the struggles for this new generation.

The police have a pervasive presence in his poetry. In "Yout Scene", youths are forced to hustle and engage in crimes for economic sustenance. But these crimes are all petty: "is a packit dem a pick/ an is woman dem a lick." But the policemen "beat dem dung/kick dem ass/sen dem pass justice/to prison walls of gloom." These "babylonian tyrants" (a term used to describe the police in the poem "Five Nights of Bleeding") are angered by this music. They are aware that reggae music is a symbolic form of expression for hope and historical remembrance. Johnson focuses on the power of this music in such poems as "Dread Beat and Blood", "Reggae Sounds", "Bass Culture", "Song of Rising" and "Klassical Dub". In "Street 66", we are told: "For out of this music shall come a greena riddim/even more dread dan what/de breeze of Glory breed/vibrating violence." ("Street 66") There are unrighteous killings by the police, we are told the death of David Oluwale in "Night of the Head", of the oppression of the new white British organizations like the National Front ("Doun the Road") and the Special Patrol whose oppression would be not be accepted without "bakkles an bricks an sticks/ wi have fists/ wi have feet/ wi carry dandamite in wi teeth." ("All We Doin is Defendin")

This brutality reaches its climax in the next collection Inglan is a Bitch (1981). Johnson proves his dedication and relationship to this Black British generation by continuing his analysis of their sufferings. A classic poem is "Sonny's Letta," where we hear the voice of an imprisoned youth, Sonny, who is in jail for defending his brother Jim from being beaten by three policemen. These policemen try to pick Jim up in the middle of the rush hour on the well-known SUS law. This law allows the police to arrest anyone under the suspicion of crime, without evidence. When Jim is picked up, Sonny lashes out at the police:

Soh mi jook one in him eye an' him started to cry
Mi t'ump one in him mout' an' him started to shout
Mi kick one pan him shin an' him started to spin
Mi t'ump him pan him chin an' him drap pan a bin
An' crash
An de'd
Mama more policeman come dung
An' beat mi to di grung
Dem charge Jim fi sus
Dem charge mi fi murdah.

Johnson writes in Jamaican Creole, for he came to Britain from Jamaica at the age of eleven. Examination of his collections shows that the majority of his poems are recorded in this Creole, the rest recorded in the new language of Black British dread talk. Very few of his poems are recorded in standard English, in Dread Beat and Blood 18 of this 25 poems are in Creole, 11 out of 12 in Inglan is a Bitch, and 12 out of 13 new poems in Tings and Times. In an interview with Caribbean critic Mervyn Morris, Johnson reflects "I found that what I wanted to say could have been much more easily and more appropriately expressed in the Jamaican language."

Johnson is a Black British poet who identifies a deep connection to the West Indies. It is not as fervent as his declaration of Black British issues. In "Inglan is a Bitch", Johnson articulates the woes of a 55 year old West Indian immigrant poem who moves from ' dish-washah," to "clack- watchah," to ditch digger "w'en it cowl noh bitch," pulling day and night work. He is eventually laid off from his fifteen year job where he " pack crackry." The poem's chorus recalls the title:

Inglan is a bitch
Dere's no escapin' it
Inglan is a bitch
Dere's no runnin' whey fram it
Mi know dem have work, work in abundant yet still, dem mak me redundant now, at fifty five, mi gettin' quite ol' yet still, dem sen' me fi goh draw dole
Inglan is a bitch
Dere's no escapin' it
Inglan is a bitch fi true
Is whey wi goh dhu 'bout it?

Firmly grounded in Black British issues, many of the poems record actual historical events that highlight widespread discriminations. "It Dread Inna Englan" deals with the wrongful imprisoning and subsequent freeing of George Lindo, which leads the poet to declare Margaret Thatcher's racist show of politics:

African
Asian
West Indian
an' Black British
stan firm inna Englan
inna disya time yah
far noh mattah wat dey sey
come what may
we are here to stay
inna Inglan.

"Man Free" deals with the imprisoning of Darcus Howe, founder of the Race Today collective magazine. This arrest prevents a plan to express disapproval at the police's harassing of the Mangrove Caribbean restaurant. Johnson also celebrates Black British victories. In "The Forces of Victory" we celebrate the inability of the police to stop the Nottinghill Carnival. The poem is triumphant in recording the celebration of a people who have won the right to define themselves through their culture:

We're the forces of victory
An wi comin' rite through
We're the forces of victory
Now what yu gonna do.

But the negative abounds everywhere and police brutality has not disappeared by Johnson's 1991 collection Tings and Times, Johnson continues to record actual historical happenings in 1980's Britain. In the poem New Craas Massacre, he recalls the 1981 Deptford fire that claimed the lives of 14 children, injuring 27. Johnson exposes the corruption in the law authorities through their purposeful hiding of information:

instead a raisin di alaam mek di public know wha gwaan
planty paypah print oure lie fi bline joe public eye
and di police dem plat an scheme canfuse an canceal
mi hear seh even du poor payrence af di ded
dem try fi use but yu know in spite a dem wicked parpahganda
wi refuse fi surrendah to dem ugly inuendah.

But there is also cause of much celebration. In "Di Great Insohrekshan", Johnson gives us insight into the Brixton riots where "di babylan dem cauz such a frickshan/ dat it bring about a great insohrekshan/ an it spread all ovah di naeshan/ it woz truly an histarical occayshan." There is "Making History" by blacks in Britain through the creation of a space for themselves:

well dere wox Toxteth an dere woz Moss Side
An a lat a addah places whey di police ad to hide well
Dare woz Brixtan an dere woz Chapeltoun
An a lat a addah place dat woz burnt to di groun
Burnt to di groun
Burnt to di groun
It is noh mistri
Wi mekkin histri
Iit is noh mistri
Wi winnin victri.

Johnson's scrupulous dedication to the historical realities of the Black British populations allows us to comment on the fact that there is a range of attitudes that these writers bear towards Black British issues. Johnson is one poet who boldly declares his Black British affiliations, and he does so with an aggression and firm commitment. He is firmly grounded in Black British realities and dedicates his poetry to an exploration of the British scene.

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Copyright 2000 Black British Literature
Last Updated May 10, 2000 by Cesar and Sharon Meraz