Kibo Books, P.O. Box 21442, Cadman
Plaza, Brooklyn, NY 11202 --- Phone-Fax: 718-858-5881 --- INFORMATION:
kibobooks@aol.com
He became a soldier while still a teenager; served in the Middle East. Though liking and fitting in as a tough British soldier, the same civilian faced racial prejudice in the army which he resented; this turned him against serving the full 9 years he signed on for. By his mid-20's, surprisingly, the War Office accepted his complaints, released him from the Regular Army – but to serve out his time in the Reserves. Back in London – as a “temporary” civilian – he became a postman at the country’s main post office – huge, numerous employees, so endlessly busy to be shocking. Yet he liked it, because of the “pretty good” wages and much extra pay from the overtime always available to all those willing to undertake the task. The army’s rights to demand his occasional presence for reservist training, or back to regular service, also forbidding his leaving England without its permission, bothered him. But a year later, ignoring all, he was residing in Ontario, Canada.
There, by day, he was employed in the lithography industry, school by night, freelance – plus his own – writings. In time, he was founder, editor and co-publisher of Spear, reputed to be the first Black magazine published in Canada.
In time, his major roles with Spear ended (early 1970s) when his writing moniker J. Ashton Brathwaite had taken on some popularity. The mainstream media were labeling his writings thus: “militant,” “black power,” “controversial;” at the time of the publication of his third book Niggers, This Is Canada. He strongly believed he was becoming the object of government harassment. With a reputation of having a very strong obsession with writing since as a school-boy in Barbados, obviously nothing could separate him and such an engrained passion. Certainly not his self-imposed exile to New York City. And so it continued there under his African name Odimumba Kwamdela. Engaged in full-time day employment in the lithographic-printing industry, by night, he attended the City University of New York, then New York Institute of Technology, earning undergraduate and graduate degrees – Literature and Journalism ... Science-Instructional Technology – respectively. He has authored 14 books of nonfiction, fiction, poetry and essays; from his poetry books were produced 3 CDs of musically dubbed (fundamental) poetry. Having not returned to residency in Canada, Kwamdela went on to serve 20 years as a New York City high school teacher of Writing and Graphic Arts at various schools – even one in so-very-volatile Rikers Island Jail for the many adolescent “locked down” there. While so busily engaged he also edited and published the monthly pocket-sized magazine The ROOT for some years. Add to the above-mentioned experiences his independent travels to Africa -- and other nations – there can be no surprise about his writing of such captivating, poignantly detailed books.
Kwamdela's books Slideshow
Mighty Sparrow:
Calypso King of the World
The Mighty Sparrow's impact in the
calypso arena contains many
issues
that cry out to be hotly debated: Is
this "Nat King Cole of calypso"
indeed the greatest calypsonian of
all time? Read about the Mighty
Sparrow's rise
from poor boy in Trinidad to
becoming the undisputed Calypso King
of the World. $16
Author: Odimumba Kwamdela
This book by retired New York City high school teacher Kwamdela is a no-holds-barred account of the reasons for NYC schools spiraling downward out of control. Especially captivating is his lengthy account of his years teaching adolescent inmate-students "locked down" in volatile Riker's Island Jail. So tough you will often gasp; yet some humor that will make you laugh. $15
Black British Soldier
Author: Odimumba Kwamdela, J. Ashton
Brathwaite
$10
Soul in the Wilderness
Odimumba Kwamdela, J. Ashton Brathwaite
The reprint of the 1971 book just out of Her Majesty�s Army, back to civilian life in London, no longer the gullible teen when he sign on for nine years, but aware and angry, he struggles with the present, looks back on the past, and contemplates the future. $10
Niggers This Is Canada
Odimumba Kwamdela, J. Ashton
Brathwaite
Reprint
of the 1972 reality-based fiction
book. The original version labeled
was "controversial" for some
time after its release in Canada,
but as years passed, this book's
timeless theme eventually garnered
it the label "underground classic".
Odimumba Kwamdela, J. Ashton Brathwaite
A
very interesting book onto itself,
written several years after Niggers
this is Canada, though the author
claims his motivation to write this
was in his beliefs for years that
the aforementioned book needed such
"a final chapter". $10
Soul in the Wilderness
Odimumba Kwamdela, J. Ashton Brathwaite
The reprint of the 1971 book just out of Her Majesty's Army, back to civilian life in London, no longer the gullible teen when he sign on for nine years, but aware and angry, he struggles with the present, looks back on the past, and contemplates the future. $10
Niggers This Is Canada
Odimumba Kwamdela, J. Ashton
Brathwaite
Reprint of the 1972 reality-based fiction book. The original version labeled was "controversial" for some time after its release in Canada, but as years passed, this book's timeless theme eventually garnered it the label "underground classic". $15
Raining Ruins, Roses & Rockstones
Odimumba Kwamdela, J. Ashton Brathwaite
Four
novellas about Caribbean immigrants
in the USA and Canada that will make
you laugh hysterically one minute
and crying the next. $10.
Back to Penny Hole Forever
Odimumba Kwamdela, J. Ashton Brathwaite
Searching Soul Down Inna Southern Africa
Odimumba Kwamdela, J. Ashton Brathwaite
The author documents his 1998 sojourn in South Africa and neighboring countries in such a manner that gives readers the feeling of being there with sharing in this most interesting experience. $6.
The Small Black Book of Big Thoughts
Author: Odimumba Kwamdela, J. Ashton Brathwaite
The author presents some of his Afrocentric philosophies in a manner that says he is indeed the Prophet with the solutions to the unique problems faced by people of African ancestry.
$12.
Grassroots Philosopher
Blood-Boiling Black Blues
Utilizing the poetic style of author, Odimumba Kwamdela's, fire, passion, perception and pride, the following title is a book of poetry.
