English for Activists

"It was in April 1981..." that the actions of the English police provoked an uprising of West Indian, Haitian, and other people in Brixton. Linton Kwesi Johnson was not there for what he called "Di Great Insohreckshan," but he wrote this poem celebrating it.

I can't find the words to the poem, so you will have to do your best. Here is one bit I found online:

it woz in april nineteen eight wan

doun inna di ghetto af Brixtan

dat di babylan dem cauz such a frickshan

dat it bring about a great insohreckshan

an it spread all owevah di naeshan

it woz truly an histarical occayshan

In "standard" English, this means:

"It was in April Nineteen Eighty One
down in the ghetto of Brixton
that the Babylon caused such a friction
that it brought about a great insurrection
and it spread all over the nation
it was truly an historical occasion."

For a mainstream review of the Brixton riots, see this piece from the BBC.
"In early April, Operation Swamp - an attempt to cut
street crime in Brixton which used the Sus law to stop more than 1,000
people in six days - heightened tensions...."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4854556.stm