The Questions Kamau Asked of Us

Kamau Brathwaite left us just before COVID-19 changed our world. This memoriam essay explores the questions his work poses in his role as mentor/teacher/Griot to other writers, toward whom he was always very generous and encouraging. He asks us to embrace uncertainty, making it an aesthetic value from which transformative understanding may come. We learn to deeply explore the relation of languages of the voice, the musical instrument, and visual image; to be eclectic with regard to influences; to have the courage to face loss and trauma; and to be honest about history. Kamau made revision into an art form, from which we can learn about ways to embrace change, not only in creative work but in social and political thinking.