Imamu Amiri Baraka Somebody Blew Up America Poem (Essay Sample)

Imamu Amiri Baraka - Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist, some barbaric A Rab, in Afghanistan It wasn’t our American terrorists It wasn’t the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches, or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasn’t Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler, Helms retiring
It wasn’t The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity, as they pleases
They say (who say?) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar, who got the feathers Who had the match, who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God & still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves, who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasn’t insane
Who? Who? Who?
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies, the Philipines, Manhattan Australia & The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who? Who? Who?
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ain’t nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who? Who? Who?
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ain’t even known to be owned Who own the owners that ain’t the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who don’t worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who? Who? Who?
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who? Who? Who?
Who found Bin Laden, maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA, Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida, San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ain’t goin’ nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm, Kennedy & his Brother Who killed Dr King, Who would want such a thing? Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln?
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko, Chris Hani, the same ones who killed Biko, Cabral, Neruda, Allende, Che Guevara, Sandino,
Who killed Kabila, the ones who wasted Lumumba, Mondlane, Betty Shabazz, Die, Princess Di, Ralph Featherstone, Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela, Dhoruba, Geronimo, Assata, Mumia, Garvey, Dashiell Hammett, Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton, Fred Hampton, Medgar Evers, Mikey Smith, Walter Rodney, Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Lenin’s head
Who put the Jews in ovens, and who helped them do it Who said “America First” and ok’d the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg, Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced, tortured, assassinated, vanished
Who got rich from Algeria, Libya, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Saudi, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine,
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indians’ blankets Who thought up “The Trail of Tears”
Who blew up the Maine & started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista, Hitler, Bilbo, Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction, The New Deal, The New Frontier, The Great Society,
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colon’s mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah, Bishop, Who poison Robeson, who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin, Who frame the Rosenbergs, Garvey, The Scottsboro Boys, The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away?
Who? Who? Who?
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence, and hunger and poverty.
Who is the ruler of Hell? Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God?
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night, all day if you listen, Like an Owl Exploding in fire. We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo!
Linton Kwesi Johnson – Di Great Insohreckshan
it woz in April nineteen eighty-wan doun inna di ghetto af Brixtandat di babylan dem cause such a frickshandat it bring about a great insohreckshanan it spread all owevah di naeshanit woz a truly an histarical okayjan
it woz event af di yearan I wish I ad been derewen wi run riot all owevah Brixtanwen wi mash-up plenty police vanwen wi mash-up di wicked wan planwen wi mash-up di Swamp Eighty-wanfi wha?fi mek di rulah dem andahstandat wi naw tek noh more a dem oppreshan
an wen mi ckeck out di ghetto grap evinefi fine out all I coulda fineevry rebel jussa revel in dem storydem a taak bout di powah an di glorydem a taak bout di burnin an di lootindem a taak bout di smashin an di grabbindem a tell mi bout di vanquish an di victri
dem seh: di babylan dem went too farsoh wha?wi ad woz fi bun two kyaran wan an two innocent get marbut wha?noh soh it goh sometime inna war een starnoh soh it goh sometime inna war?
dem seh: win bun dung di Georgewi coulda bin di lanlaadwi bun dung di Georgewi nevah bun di lanlaadwen wi run riot all owevah Brixtanwen wi mash-up plenty police vanwen wi mash-up di wicked wan planwen wi mash-up di Swamp Eighty-wan
dem seh: wi commandeer kyaran wi ghaddah ammunishanwi brill wi barricadean di wicked ketch afraidwi sen out wi scoutfog oh fine dem whereaboutden wi faam-up wi passian wi mek wi raid
well now dem run gaan goh plan countah-ackshanbut di plastic bullit an di waatah canaanwill bring a blam-blamwill bring a blam-blamnevah mind Scarmanwill bring a blam-blam
2. Consider how the work of two or more poets studied on the module (UK, US or both) addresses issues of ethnic and/or racial identity in their poetry.
Imamu Amiri Baraka was a black poet born in New Jersey, 1934 and later moved to New York. He started the Black Arts Movement. The Black Arts Movement established 1965 was created to give black authors and artists a voice, freedom, exposure and self-empowerment. During the Newark riots in 1967, Baraka was arrested for carrying firearms and sentenced to two and a half years. The conviction was reversed during a retrial. He was christened as LeRoi Jones which he saw as a Christian ‘slave’ name later changing it to Imamu Amiri Baraka. His poem Somebody Blew up America 2002 was banned. This led to Baraka being stripped of his position as Poet Laureate of New Jersey. Somebody Blew up America will be discoursed in the essay. Linton Kwesi Johnson was born in Chapelton, Jamaica in 1952. He moved to London in 1963 at a time when racism was at its peak. He joined the Black Panther Movement in 1970. In 1974 he joined Race Today Collective. His first book of poems was Voices of the Living and the Dead 1974. The second collection was entitled Dread, Beat An’ Blood 1975 and the third Inglan is a Bitch 1980. Johnson is regarded as the father of ‘dub’ poetry a term used to describe Reggae music with verse. He studied sociology at Goldsmiths College. In 1977 he was awarded a C. Day Lewis Fellowship and became Writer in Residence for the London borough of Lambeth. Johnson was made Associate Fellow at Warwick University, 1985 and Honorary Fellow at Wolverhampton Polytechnic in 1987. Johnson owned his own record label LKJ selling over two mill...