We were saddened to hear of the recent death of the pioneering poet Delano Abdul Malik DeCoteau, known as Abdul Malik. Born in Grenada, Abdul grew up between there and Trinidad and Tobago. He became involved in the Black Power Movement in Trinidad in the late 1960s and his poetry developed out of that experience. His publications included Black Up (1972), Revo (1975), All In One Struggle (1985) and The Whirlwind (1988). He also produced records of his poetry set to his own music and edited an anthology of Caribbean children’s poetry entitled De Home Place.
Abdul came to the UK, living in Brixton in south London, and from 1983 on was part of many of the International Book Fairs of Radical Black and Third World Books, showing his ongoing solidarity for the fight for racial equality and social justice. In his first appearance, at the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton, he was part of the International Poetry Reading which was compered by GPI Trustee Linton Kwesi Johnson, with a line-up including Kamau Brathwaite (Barbados), Eugenia Bravo (Chile), Paul Dakeyo (Cameroon), E. Ethelbert Miller (USA), H. O. Nazareth (India) and Wole Soyinka (Nigeria). In 1985, he performed in the International Poetry Evening held at the Camden Centre in King’s Cross alongside other poets such as Jamaica’s Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze and African-American Jayne Cortez. The event was compered by our late Chair, John La Rose. At a following event in Manchester, he appeared alongside fellow Grenadian poet Merle Collins among others. In 1988, he was part of an International Poetry Evening held in Brixton Village as part of the Book Fair, which included the Cuban poet Pedro Perez Sarduy. In 1989 he and Pedro were part of the Book Fair’s International Poetry Evening in Manchester, alongside local poet Su Andi. And in 1990 and 1991 he read at the Bradford Book Fair with Mahmood Jamal and Sene Seneviratne among others.
Abdul Malik travelled widely, performing in Barbados (at the 1981 Carifesta), Cuba and France among others. His work was also used for television (Caribbean in Crisis, Channel 4, 1984) and radio. Abdul read around the UK often, from festivals to community events such as Night of Poems for Liberation, part of the 1990 Seven Nights for Nelson festival marking the end of Nelson Mandela’s twenty-six-year imprisonment. Some of the archives about his readings can be found here: https://www.spokenwordarchive.org.uk/content/artist/abdul-malik
Long-time GPI supporter, the Trinidadian trade unionist and activist David Abdulah, said in Trinidad and Tobago Newsday:
‘The outstanding Grenada/ Trinidad and Tobago poet, Delano DeCoteau, well known as Abdul Malik […] has in his work expressed very important truths about our society. In the ’70s and early ’80s his poems “Pan Run” parts one and two described vividly how the steelpan was born out of struggle and the repression and scorn which official society had for this instrument and its working-class creators.’
We would like to express our condolences to Abdul’s family and thank him for his powerful poetry and his unswerving commitment to the fight for justice and equality.
To learn more about Abdul Malik's contribution to The International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books, head over to our online shop to purchase a copy of A Meeting of the Continents: The International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books – Revisited: History, Memories, Organisation and Programmes 1982-1995.
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