Limbo

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"Limbo" is a poem by Edward Kamau Brathwaite.

It describes the similarity between a limbo dance and the transportation of African slaves into the West Indies and America. There is a strong sense of position throughout the poem. The limbo stick is "in front of me", then "over me", "down down down", then "coming up...up up up". This is how a slave would have moved on a ship to the plantations, he would have seen the ship "in front" of him, then "down down down" into the lower decks, then "coming up...and the dumb gods are raising me".

The poem starts with a conjunction and has no punctuation until the very end, much like a limbo dance keeps flowing until the end, and the endless flow of slaves into the Caribbean, mainly Barbados.

This poem encourages the listener to feel for the slaves and their plight.

Limbo is a theological theory (not official dogma) concerning a place between heaven and hell where unbaptized babies become stranded forever. This is also like slavery, and the poem works conveying all the three different types at one time. It talks about darkness, which could be translated as the future being unknown and hidden in the slave ship. It could be the slavery in which a person can get trapped.

The refrain: 'limbo, limbo like me' This can be translated as many different things. The line 'limbo like me' is also very ambiguous. It could mean 'like me limbo', almost begging the stick to favour him and get him under it. It could also mean the limbo is like me, as in how the slaves are stuck in slavery, unable to get freedom or it could mean limbo like me, do the limbo like I am doing the limbo.

It was intended to be read by Caribbean people.

This is studied for GCSE English and English Lit.

The poem has been included in the AQA Anthology for study at GCSE, in Cluster 1, Poems From Different Cultures.