ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION

POST-COLONIAL LITERATURE

TOPIC: ‘Bread’ by E.K. Brathwaite

Name: Divya Jain

Course: B.A. (Hons.) English
Semester: VI
Roll No.: 1406

Submitted on 22nd April, 2021

to
Ms. Shayantani Das
Kamau Brathwaite is undoubtedly one of the biggest and most influential voices when it
comes to the Caribbean Literary canon, his name- foundational in the study of Caribbean
literature, culture and history. With his groundbreaking study of black cultural life both in
Africa and throughout African diasporas of the world, he assures readers, through his grasp
and poetic interpretation of the historical culture that they can expect to not only be
entertained but also educated.
The poem ‘Bread’ is part of a collection of poems titled ‘Born to Slow Horses’, which is
central to another tripartite exploration characteristic of Brathwaite’s epic journey through the
African diaspora. In the collection, from the get-go, we can see that the poet never lets any
part of his text elude the opportunity to communicate. His composition of the Table of
Contents is a mini study in this remarkable artistry as he segments the book into seven
sections using a combination of lower- and upper-case Roman Numerals and Arabic
numerals in bold black type, which implies and unapologetic boldness, blackness and
variations of discourse. The seven sections are:
i) The Master of the Mary Jones, Bermudas, Guanahani;
ii) Donna, Days and Nights, Iwa;
iii) MMassccourraamann;
iiii)>’I was wash-way in blood’, Bread, Dear PM;
v) Kumina;
9/11) Hawk;
vii) Namsetoura, Mountain, The Robin Poem.

The reader evidently isn’t supposed to see this page simply as a way to scan the contents of
the book, but it is used by Brathwaite to define his own structure within the confines of the
establishment. He works with the conventional Roman numeral until he departs from the
norm by replacing the contemporary Roman numeral ‘iv’ with its traditional/original
counterpart ‘iiii’. He emphasizes the importance of not confusing his use of the roman
numerals with any implicit religious reference. The use of ‘IV’ was initially to represent God
or YHWH (Yaweh) and only began to be more widely used when the numbering system
began to make use of subtractive notation. This replacement and the blend of Roman and
Arabic numerals is to signify his poetic message/position as original and additive.
Another departure from the conventional is the use of 9/11 between sections v) and vii) as
opposed to using vi). This suggests a major departure in the context of the work, and how the
events of 9/11 were beyond the geographical confines of New York. This ‘interruption’ is to
tell the haunting story of the death of thousand of souls. It seems that Brathwaite believed
that use of the no. vi) wouldn’t sufficiently capture the severity of the experience.
 The poem ‘Bread’ is part of the fourth section of the book.

Bread
-  KA MA U B R A TH WA IT E

Slowly the white dream wrestle(s) to life

hands shaping the salt and the foreign cornfields
the cold flesh kneaded by fingers
is ready for the charcoal for the black wife

of heat the years of green sleeping in the volcano.

the dream becomes tougher. settling into its shape
like a bullfrog. suns rise and electrons
touch it. walls melt into brown. moving to crisp and crackle

breathing edge of the knife of the oven.

noise of the shop. noise of the farmer. market.
on this slab of lord. on this table w/ its oil-skin cloth
on this altar of the bone. this scarifice

of isaac. warm dead. warm merchandise. more than worn merchandise

life
itself. the dream of the soil itself
flesh of the god you break. peace to your lips. strife

of the multitudes who howl all day for its saviour

who need its crumbs as fish. flickering through their green element
need a wide glassy wisdom
to keep their groans alive

and this loaf here. life

now halted. more and more water add-
itive. the dream less clear. the soil more distant
its prayer of table. bless of lips. more hard to reach w/ penn-

ies. the knife

that should have cut it. the hands that should have broken open its victory
of crusts at your throat. balaam watching w/ red leak
-ing eyes. the rats

finding only this young empty husk

sharp-
ening their ratchets. your wife
going out on the streets. searching searching

her feet tapping. the lights of the motor-

cars watching watching round-
ing the shape of her girdle. her back naked

rolled into night into night w/out morning

rolled into dead into dead w/out vision
rolled into life into life w/out dream

In ‘Bread’, Braithwaite begins with the easily flowing rhythms and positive imagery of
kneading and forming bread. He then moves, as the poem progresses, to more broken and
jagged rhythms and ever more harsh and negative images. Bread is a metaphor for the dreams
of black people for life and abundance, dreams that the poem shows breaking and turning into
nightmare.

The poem's first two stanza describe the kneading and baking of bread. The poem flows
without jarring breaks from line to line as the dough readies for the oven. The word
“wrestles’ in the first line also seems to imply that for the colonized community of the
Caribbean, it’s no just fulfilling one’s dream that requires struggle, but even daring to dream
wasn’t easy. We learn that the dream of the finished bread becomes "tougher." In the oven, it
starts to "crisp and crackle" as if it is nearing completion. The word crackle also invokes
thoughts of passion and hope which formulate and strengthen our dreams. Despite the
positive build up in these initial stanzas, there are ominous undertones, denoted through
phrases like “of foreign cornfields" and the "cold flesh" of dough. Similarly, though “crisp
and crackle” of the bread seems to imply that the bread is almost prepared, it also gives a
sense of brittleness and fragility, thereby foreshadowing the more portentous ending of the
poem, as ultimately the dreams are short-lived or fail to come to fruition.

By the poem’s third stanza, something is interfering with the dream the bread represents. This
interruption is the society itself, symbolized with shops, farms and markets.

The next couple of stanzas speak of violence and sacrifice. The general sense seems to be that
the dream that the people had toiled so long for is being ripped away from them due to their
social position. This is a direct reference to the colonization of and slavery in the Caribbean.
The Europeans came to the Caribbean in search of wealth and one main source for the same
became the sugarcane plantations. This generated need for more workers and consequently
millions of enslaved Africans were brought to the Caribbean as labour. All the colonized
people, and especially the slaves were subjected to harsh and inhumane treatment. A
discriminatory way of categorizing people emerged in the colonies which placed the white
colonisers at the top, and the black people at the bottom as the inferior race, which was then
used to excuse the brutality of slavery. These people never bore the fruits of their work, and
their dreams gave way under the greed of the Europeans. The references to “sacrifice” and
“altar of the bone” seem to signify their plight, where the merchandise they helped produce
was valued much more than their lives.

”warm merchandise. more than worn

merchandise
life
itself…”

The poem continues to refer to ‘dreams’, although instead of positing them as something in
motion, or something which people are at the precipice of achieving, these are now painted in
a gloomier light. The dreams are shown to be slipping away, becoming less clear every
moment. The slaves’ dreams of freedom and emancipation are getting farther away as they
become more entrenched in this society, and their own poor socio-economic condition. Their
plight, their constant agony in their victim-like state as they work on plantations/land/ etc. are
denoted through lines like:

“multitudes who howl all day…….

………. flickering through their green
element”

Just like water dilutes the flour, or how water used to salvage stale bread dilutes its value and
nutrition, similarly, the people of the Caribbean lose hope, as the chance at freedom and
better prospects evades them, and future where they can fulfill their needs and desires
becomes distant and foggy.

Brathwaite circles back to how the people who made the bread are now being kept from the
reward. By the end of the poem, the knife and hands that should have cut the nourishing
bread are at their throats instead. The bread is also hard to reach because of a lack of pennies.
This too points to the destitution that the people lived with, so much so that they couldn’t
even afford to feed themselves properly. Centuries of imperialism forced countless people
into human rights struggles so drastic that they faced life-threatening circumstances on a day-
to-day basis, living under war-like conditions. Brathwaite could have also used these lines to
more specifically point to Britain's price fixing which forwarded poverty, segregation, and
curbed basic freedoms, which prevented his people from achieving economic growth and
thus, any political power leading up to his lifetime.

It is interesting to note that Braithwaite breaks the word "pennies" between two stanzas
creating an enjambment. Braithwaite uses both the stops of frequent periods to create
fragments along with the lengthening quality of enjambments to create a feeling of
disorientation in the reader. This seems to mimic the sense of disorientation the blacks must
have felt at being uprooted from their homes, and the sense of loss and dejection in the face
of broken dreams and a bleak future.
demonstrate the
inherent tenant forces of the colonizing empires in Africa, who hid their abusive motives
from
citizens through religious propaganda
demonstrate the
inherent tenant forces of the colonizing empires in Africa, who hid their abusive motives
from
citizens through religious propaganda
demonstrate the
inherent tenant forces of the colonizing empires in Africa, who hid their abusive motives
from
citizens through religious propaganda

The poem's last stanza is in the form of anaphora, which is the repetition of the same words
—"rolled into"—at the beginning of each of the last three lines. In this case, the anaphora
creates a sense of litany that despairs at the prospect of life "w/out dream," the two words
with which the poem ends. Despite the fact that there is no punctuation in these three lines,
the musicality of the whole is such that it would be difficult not to read this with an even,
neutral tone. At the same time the repeated use of the word ‘rolling’ invokes an image of
rolling dough (as if for the bread), a constant, monotonous and painstaking task. The
repetition also seems to imply how the action would never come to an end. This sums up the
life of the blacks too, who are stuck in an endless loop of labour without reward, and worse
without any foreseeable end. This constant subjection to brutality and deprivation of even the
basic necessities and amenities drives away all hopes and dreams.

An important aspect of this poem, in fact of many of Brathwaite’s works is the use of his
‘Sycorax-video style’ (a term coined by Brathwaite himself). It is his signature which
originated with his early use of the word processor and later the computer for all his writing
as opposed to the use pf pencil and paper. Brathwaite contends that this technological use
more closely stimulates what takes place in oral communication- a type of fluidity that
capture his various voice stylings and ‘musings’ in his manipulation of font sizes, styles, and
bold/muted typefaces. Sycorax is the ‘muse’ that lives in his computer.
The term was also used to describe an aspect of his rebellion against the rules of standard
English. For post-colonial writers, the use of English and European art forms is problematic.
English is the language of the colonizers, but it is also a language that allows communication
with the world. Addressing this issue, Brathwaite re-colonizes the English language, writing
in what he calls a revolutionary ‘nation language’. Though he uses English vocabulary, his
spelling and grammar, for example, are non-standard. Notice all the different ways in which
Brathwaite deviates from standard English in ‘Bread’. He cuts lines in unusual places, uses
non-standard spelling, such as ‘scarifice’ for ‘sacrifice’, and incomplete sentences. Rather
than being used to mark units of sense, punctuation is employed as a rhythmic device,
shaping units of breath. Furthermore, the syntax and rhythms of his verse are deeply
influenced by African culture, by blues music and by jazz.
It is also important to note that it is often quite difficult to read Brathwaite’s poetry, and as is
true for most literature, there can be more than one way to interpret it. Thus, there is another
perspective of looking at the poem ‘Bread’. It can be interpreted as tracking the development
of society using the metaphor of bread. Life is shaped according to the natural resources of
the land. Bread is placed on the table, just as people are forming an economy and farming.
The Christian religion, probably brought by early European missionaries, makes an
appearance with the reference to Isaac. The proposed sacrifice mentioned is that of the
environment to human progress, but Isaac is spared just like the earth is preserved as humans
learn more about conservation and agriculture.
Generations pass. Society advances to the point of self-reformation. Africa is consumed with
wars. Needing relief, people turn more seriously to religion. The bread is finished. To prevent
it going stale, the bread must either be eaten or water added. Water takes the form of moral
regard. The people continue to fight and starve and sell one another as slaves. Balaam, the
prophet who refused to listen to God until his donkey reprimanded him in speech, makes an
appearance. He is the characterization of the humans: stubborn and refusing to talk to one
another. As morality declines even further, technology advances. Sexuality is the ruling force,
demonstrated in a wife waiting for her unfaithful husband to return home. Now there are cars
and electricity and mass production. People lose hope, becoming increasingly cynical.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/bread/

 (n.d.). Retrieved from Enotes: https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/close-read-
the-poem-bread-by-kamau-braithwaite-2334896
 ARIBBEAN IDENTITY AND NATION LANGUAGE IN KAMAU BRATHWAITE’S
POETRY. (2010, december 19). Retrieved from
memofromlalaland.wordpress.com/2010/12/19/caribbean-identity-and-nation-
language/
 Brathwaite, E. K. (1947). The African Presence in Caribbean Literature. Daedalus,
73-109.
 lambert, D. (2016, November 16). An Introduction to the Caribbean, empire and
slavery. Retrieved from British Library.
 Schmidt, J. (n.d.). A Literal Analysis of Braithwaite's Middle Passages: Connecting
Human Rights Issues Between "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" & "Stone".
Retrieved from Research Gate:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328890712_A_Literal_Analysis_of_Braith
waite's_Middle_Passages_Connecting_Human_Rights_Issues_Between_How_Europ
e_Underdeveloped_Africa_Stone
 Williams, E. A. (2006). Reviewed Work: Born to Slow Horses by Kamau Brathwaite.
CLA Journal, pp. 256-261 .