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Article: Linton Kwesi Johnson.(Interview)
- Article from:
- The Progressive
- Article date:
- February 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 The Progressive, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Lyricist Linton Kwesi Johnson was born in Jamaica but has become Britain's most celebrated black poet. He immigrated to England as a child, part of the succeeding waves of West Indians who arrived in the UK in the last several decades. "My generation is the second generation," he says. "I call us the Rebel Generation." This generation would not put up with the racial abuse its parents did. "Through our rebellion, we helped change Britain," he says.
As a teenager in 1970, he joined the British Black Panthers and by the 1980s was a journalist and editor of the journal Race Today. He's also reported for BBC and Channel 4.
As a young man growing up in south ...