Afrocentricity, Pan-Africanism, and Creole Identity in the Poetry of Edward Kamau Brathwaite

Edward Kamau Brathwaite’s poetry is a powerful site for rejuvenating African cultural identity within the Caribbean literary landscape. His engagement with ideas such as Afrocentricity, Pan-Africanism, and Creole language challenges Eurocentric historical narratives. In this context, this paper explores Brathwaite’s poetic expression using Asante’s Afrocentric theory, Fanon’s postcolonial discourse, and Irigaray’s feminist critique and examines how his works negotiate themes of displacement, linguistic reclamation, and cultural memory. The paper also attempts to map the gendered dimensions of this reclamation on the axes of the roles of Black women, Creole hybridity, and Ananse folklore in shaping diasporic resistance. By way of situating Brathwaite’s work within the broader conversations of decolonization and identity formation, this paper highlights his contribution to the ongoing discourse on postcolonial subjectivity, linguistic autonomy, and Afro-diasporic consciousness.