In Walcotts essay, The sea is history, he explicates on the concept of decapitalizing history.

He says, The word called history is the questionIm

talking about the idea of history becoming a deity, a force, as much as science
has become a deity.
Walcott objects to history becoming an inaccessible force that is and wants
to replace it with something that does. Walcott criticizes criticism when he
says, Theres no history in art, for example. The criticism of art is historical, but
art itself does not contain history. Walcott seems to emphasize that history is
over-emphasized and art (or meaning-making) is de-emphasized and deformed from looking at it through an historical, teleological perspective.

He says, For the artist to deliver himself from the bondage of time, which is
called history is the only way he himself can burst through. An artist must
dismiss himself from history (however pleasant or terrifying) or else he is
under the same burden of science, politics and the state.

This concept of controlling and ruling time is the job of Empires and of dictators
but artists should not convince themselves that they are the culmination of
other epochs of artistic history. Artists are outside of the realm of time because
each one follows a unique progression not to be reproduced or repeated. So
when he is asked, Where is your history? I would say, It is out there, in that
cloud, that sky, the water moving. And if the questioner says, Theres nothing
there, I would say: Well thats what I think history is. Theres nothing there.
The sea is history. [1]
And very literally the sea is where the history of the Caribbean peoples is often
located. The slaves and indentured servants were brought on the sea, died on
the sea, were buried in the sea. Even the colonials came and left on the sea.
When you read this poem, see if you can decide where History "is" according to
Walcott.

Walcott both emphasizes and de-emphasizes History in this poem. Because the
poem ends with "History, really beginning," Walcott is indicating that History is
not behind us but in front, made and discovered through writing, through art,
through meaning making.