‘Time Come’ for Linton Kwesi Johnson

Title: Time Come: Selected Prose

Author: Linton Kwesi Johnson

Linton Kwesi JohnsonPublisher: Picador, an imprint of Pan McMillan (2023)

It’s been almost two decades since his last book was published. So this latest collection of prose is like the proverbial water to the lost soul in a desert.

Linton Kwesi Johnson’s “Time Come” is a selection of prose since the 1970s to today. A voice of reason, protest, power, critique, and struggle, Johnson’s time has once again come in this memoiresque tome that celebrates his life and triumphs, not just in his words but also from those who inspired his lifelong activism.

At the Calabash International Literary Festival in May this year Johnson introduced this latest work to a rapt audience (roughly 3,000 over the weekend) who hung on to his every word as he chatted with Kwame Dawes onstage about his evolution as a poet/writer/performer over the years.

GENESIS

Having graced the Calabash stage several times, Johnson looked quite comfortable in the cushy bamboo chair with the rhythmic lapping of the Caribbean sea behind underscoring his words as her talked about the genesis of “Time Come”.

“First thing I would like to say is a big thank to my wife Sharmilla, who is responsible for the book. We were having some discussion about me turning 70 and the book being published posthumously. She felt that was a stupid idea,” explained Johnson smiling broadly.

Indeed, we want to thank her too. For without her prodding and pushing we all would have missed out on the creative genius of a life fuelled by reggae music, sound system culture, and the fight for justice in a radicalized Britain.

With an introduction by Paul Gilroy, noted scholar on cultural studies and the the black Atlantic diasporic experience, “Time Come” is set in a class of literature that fearlessly lays bare the struggles of a generation who were not afraid to make their voices heard.

Yes, it is a collection of prose Johnson has created over his long literary career. But, all carefully chosen and positioned to tell a cohesive story of his life, his youth, his maturity and revelations, and the influences that helped concretize his path. It is organized chronologically in sections highlighting the culture, politics, places, and people that impacted his life. Reggae music, for one, clearly defined and shaped his existence.

“Reggae music was important in sustaining my Jamaican identity when I moved to England at the age of 11. As you all know, there was a colour bar and we were more or less excluded from British social and cultural life. So, we had to do our own thing. For the youth of my generation, we were lucky enough to have the sound system. And the sound system provided a basis for social and cultural life. Also, because of the strong African consciousness in reggae music, it kept us aware of our African ancestry and our African roots,” said a reflective Johnson.

APATHETIC

His lyricism was deeply influenced by the reggae music poetics of Reggae DJs of his time like Daddy U-Roy, Big Youth, Prince Jazzbo who wrote and sang about the oppression and inequality

of the day. Johnson’s own poetry and prose highlight social ills and the apathetic political system as experienced in Britain. So, just as these DJs lyrics were responses to what was going on in Jamaica in the 1970s — unemployment, crime, homelessness — Johnson’s own creative lyricism had the same purpose.

“One of my first essays on reggae (Jamaican Rebel Music, 1976) was published in the Black Liberator. I don’t think anybody else would have published that kind of writing at that time,” Johnson noted.

“That kind of writing for me was all about learning in every sense of the word. I come from a Jamaican peasant background. There were no books apart from the bible. As a child I had an avid appetite for learning, and subsequently an avid appetite for books. So reading and writing fundamentally for me was about learning. So, my writing is about studying it (racism, culture, history) and trying to make sense of it.”

Indeed, what Johnson has done with this collection is bring together the many sides of his prolific writings. From speeches, book introductions, book reviews, lectures, and obituaries, we see brilliant facets of a man who has lived the black British experience through a Jamaican lens. It is this confluence of cultures and groundings that forced him to write as an unapologetic activist, which earned him unprecedented recognition.

In fact, as he approached 50 Linton Kwesi Johnson was selected as only the 2nd living poet to be included in the Penguin Modern Classics, Britain’s largest and most respected publishers. It brought ire from the British literary establishment. Johnson’s response? His piece “Writing Reggae - Politics, Culture and Popular Culture”, included in “Time Come”.

Looking quite matter-of-fact, but with a knowing smirk, Johnson explained to the tent-full of Calabashians.

“There was this alarm amongst the literary establishment, and I’m thinking what’s the matter with these people, I’ve got nothing to do with this. The Daily Telegraph had an article saying Reggae poet has breached the fortifications of the canons of British literature. By way of repost, I wrote that essay to explain the roots of my poetics, where I was coming from as a poet and all the important influences in my work.”

“Time Come: Selected Prose”, a brilliant culmination of a life’s worth of work that will leave its mark on the next generation of wordsmiths.