Odimumba Kwamdela, born J. Ashton Brathwaite (11 September 1942 – 16 January 2019), was a Barbadian-born[1] writer who published 14 books of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, and three musically dubbed spoken word albums.
"[citation needed] Eventually becoming disappointed with what he saw as the limitation of Spear in a nation with too small a Black population and believing the "controversial" label given to the original edition of his book, Niggers...This is Canada, made him the object of governmental harassment, he exiled himself to New York City.
[citation needed] There, during the Black Arts Movement of the mid-1970s, he made adopted the name Odimumba Kwamdela in place of his birth name.
[1] Kwamdela taught in for the New York City Board of Education as a high-school teacher of Writing and Graphic Arts, serving for several years in the roughest schools in the world, one for adolescent offenders located in infamous, volatile Rikers Island Jail.
Kwamdela graduated with a bachelor's degree in creative writing from the City University of New York[which?]