Starting the research

As we began to explore the points of contact between the two cultures in poetry, more and more commonalities became apparent, for example in the issues of the status of the two countries' languages, as both are dominated by use of English.

It was recognised that the mixing of the artistic forms found in Jamaican Dub-poetry and Jamaican-style recitation has commonalities with Welsh “cerdd dant” and “adrodd”, and also there are many similarities between the ancient Bardic traditions of Wales and the Griot traditions that followed the enslaved Africans to their new circumstances in Jamaica.

The research team undertook desk and internet research, and explored the emerging links in discussion during the workshops held at Ty Newydd.

The time spent in Jamaica (which was not funded by the Arts Council Wales) added a great deal to the projects development and together Yasus Afari and Rhys Trimble made over 12 presentations, showcasing Welsh poetry and Jamaican poetry alongside, as well as engaging many Jamaican poets and performers during the delegation visit. This was invaluable as unfortunately, because of a health problem outside our control, Yasus and Rhys were unable to follow up further joint research in Wales in October in the lead up to the pilot presentation. However, the other Welsh team members were able to work with Yasus Afari and Natalie Fagan Brown to pull together the research findings to create to show.