Without Passport or Apology

by Ishaq Imruh Bakari

Poetry about emigration and immigration, racism and resistance, slavery and freedom. Ishaq Imruh Bakari addresses head-on the experience of African-Caribbean migration, for himself and for the millions who constitute the African Diaspora around the world. It is an affirmation of the defiant spirit of the runaway African, the Maroon who moves through the world without passport or apology.

161 pages, Paperback

Published August 9, 2017

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm still trying to figure out my taste in poety so picked this one up with a few others from the library. My selection criteria was picking out books based on titles and colours I liked the look of on the spines and reading a poem or two. My ratings are always my own enjoyment of a book, not on its own merits and I just don't think this was the right collection for me.

I enjoyed the strong rhythms and the noticeable changes in pace; it certainly felt as though it had elements of a spoken word style. I liked a few of the poems - Salme's Night Flight, Sipping Tea at the Queen's Jubilee, Treasures, Zawadi Ya Zenj/A Gift of Zanzibar - and appreciated parts of others.

My lack of knowledge of political or cultural affairs to understand the context of some of the poems (even with some googling) may have been a considerable part of why I didn't engage with most of the poems. I also found the amount of imagery really offputting. Maybe I need to read more poetry? It got me thinking: I think I like imagery used sparsely and appreciate it most when I already 'get' the thing described. In other words, I think imagery helps me better visualise something I already know, but is a hindrance when describing things/situations I'm not already familiar with. It's not alienating as such, but my mind finds it hard to connect with it.