The Arrivants

Reviews

"This epic trilogy traces the migrations of African peoples in and from the African continent, through the sufferings of the Middle Passage and slavery, and dramatizes 20th-century journeys to the UK, France and the US in search of economic and psychic survival. The Arrivants exemplified Brathwaite’s ambition to create a distinctively Caribbean form of poetry, which would celebrate Caribbean voices and language, as well as African and Caribbean rhythms evoking Ghanaian talking drums, calypso, reggae, jazz and blues." — Lyn Innes, The Guardian

"His dazzling, inventive language, his tragic yet unquenchable vision, make Kamau Brathwaite one of the most compelling of late 20th century poets." — Adrienne Rich

"Brathwaite, a scholar of history, literature and philosophy and a professor emeritus at New York University, was interested in what unified the diverse Caribbean before colonialism fractured it." — Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times

"One of the titans of post-colonial literature and the arts." — Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados

"Kamau Brathwaite is a connecting spirit. He explores the African presence in Africa, the Caribbean, and the world, not in its staticness but in its movement, inits changingness, in its interactions." — Ngugi wa Thiong'o