Born and raised in Penny Hole aka Gemswick, St. Philip, as a little Barbados schoolboy, he internalized as fact that he would become an author based on his abilities, pursuits, and movements. He wrote plays and stories in school and church. His educators and mentors often commented about his potential for eventual success due to the obsession he always displayed regarding his own stories and poems.
As a very poor teenager, Brathwaite worked hard and found a way out of 
his impoverished Barbados village. Leaving home a young teenager, he led a very adventurous and enterprising life. In the 1960s he settled in the far away, totally different metropolis – London Town, Great Britain. There he ‘became a man overnight’.
While still a teenager, J.A.B. became a British soldier. He was so young and small in physical stature, the recruiting officer didn’t believe he was of age to enlist. His experiences are documented in his book Black British Soldier and the follow-up Soul in the Wilderness.
c. 1960 in Cyprus
In time he was a freelance writer, author, and founder, editor, and co-publisher of Canada’s first Black magazine, SPEAR. He was branded and ostracized as a “controversial militant” by contemporaries, media, and government entities. He wrote about these experiences in the fictitious Niggers This Is Canada and the memoir Soul Surviving Up in
Canada. The backlash against his provocative outlook on racism, particularly in Canada, later caused a move to the United States, where family obligations, and a good-paying full-time day job offered within the New York City graphic arts industry at first held him back from pursuing the inflammatory issues he exposed while in Canada.
J. Ashton Brathwaite adopted the name Odimumba Kwamdela to show his identification with his Pan-African identity, chronicled in his poem Roots Reborn in his book, Grassroots Philosopher. He dedicated himself to laying low and taking care of his family; attending university at night and earning undergraduate and graduate degrees. Eventually, he became a high school English teacher in the New York City Department of Education at volatile Rikers Island Jail for the many teenage inmates, where he helped the prisoners develop their own books and publications.
He took a stand to not sell out his vision, nor the hardships of his people so he strove to write and publish his way. He kept working on telling these stories; he authored books, he created poetry and audio recordings set to music, and he created/edited/published a pocket-sized magazine called, The Root magazine.
About his literary abilities, he always shared with his readers and colleagues: “Although I was not from a background of privilege, I didn’t have a conventional life, and didn’t develop my interest in writing in college, but from dedication and a birthright talent of storytelling, I lived in major world cities and visited different nations in the world – African, Arab, and European. I have been writing for as long as I can recall. What a pity truly “great writers” are generally credited long after they die.”
Odimumba Kwamdela passed onto the ancestors in early 2019, in Brooklyn, New York, after completing his final book, Deception + Resentment + Racial Hatred + Anti-poor = POLITICS (PARTICULARLY In AMERICA). This latest tome is a scathing look at history, world events, and
modern politics.
