Key Quote
“"I know your kind, / travelling without a passport"”
Shamshad Khan · pot
Focus: “passport”
The word 'passport' transforms a colonial artefact into an illegal immigrant — the pot was taken from its homeland without consent, mirroring the forced displacement of colonised peoples.
Technique 1 — APOSTROPHE & EXTENDED METAPHOR — POT AS DISPLACED PERSON
Khan uses apostrophe — directly addressing the Nigerian pot as though it were a person — to collapse the distinction between object and human. The pot becomes an analogue (equivalent) for every colonised person displaced from their homeland: taken without consent, stripped of context, displayed for the entertainment of the coloniser. The technique transforms a museum visit into a confrontation with colonial violence.
The extended metaphor of the pot as an immigrant or prisoner operates on multiple levels. Phrases like 'travelling without a passport' and 'held without charge' apply the language of immigration law to a ceramic object, exposing the absurdity of colonial logic: the same nation that forcibly removed objects (and people) from their homelands now demands that immigrants carry documentation to prove their right to be in Britain. Khan reveals the hypocrisy at the heart of the British establishment.
Key Words
RAD — STAGNATE
The pot is trapped in a condition of permanent stagnation — held in a museum case, permanently displaced from its homeland, unable to return. This physical immobility mirrors the experience of colonised peoples whose cultures and artefacts remain in Western institutions. Khan suggests that the pot's imprisonment is not merely historical but ongoing: as long as it remains in a British museum, the act of colonial theft continues. There is no resolution, no repatriation — only the perpetual display of stolen heritage as 'culture'.
Key Words
Technique 2 — DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE & IMPERATIVE VOICE
The poem operates as a dramatic monologue — a single speaker addresses a silent listener (the pot), revealing their own perspective and values through the act of speaking. The speaker's tone shifts between solidarity and accusation, creating a complex relationship with the pot: they recognise a shared experience of displacement but also challenge the pot's complicity in its own display.
Khan's use of imperative language — commands and directives — gives the poem an urgent, confrontational energy. The speaker does not merely observe the pot; they interrogate it, challenge it, and demand it account for its presence. This rhetorical aggression mirrors the violence of colonialism itself, but redirected: now it is the colonised voice that makes demands, asserting agency (the capacity to act independently) in a space designed to silence it.
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Context (AO3)
MUSEUM CULTURE & COLONIAL THEFT
The poem was commissioned for Manchester Museum and addresses a Nigerian pot in its collection. British museums hold millions of artefacts taken from colonised nations during the era of empire. The debate over repatriation — returning stolen objects — intensified in the 21st century, with the Benin Bronzes and the Elgin Marbles becoming symbols of colonial appropriation (taking without permission). Khan's poem intervenes directly in this debate.
DETENTION WITHOUT CHARGE
The poem's dedication to 'prisoners held without charge' connects the pot's confinement to contemporary practices of indefinite detention — particularly the holding of asylum seekers in immigration removal centres. Khan draws a direct line from colonial theft to modern immigration policy: Britain took people and objects from their homelands, and now imprisons those who try to follow. The pot becomes a symbol of all those incarcerated without justice.
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WOW — POSTCOLONIAL MUSEOLOGY — MUSEUMS AS SITES OF COLONIAL VIOLENCE
Khan's poem engages with postcolonial museology — the critical study of how museums perpetuate colonial power structures. Scholars such as Tony Bennett argue that museums function as instruments of cultural imperialism: by classifying, labelling, and displaying objects from colonised nations, they assert the West's right to define and control other cultures. The pot in its display case is not merely 'preserved' — it is decontextualised (removed from its original context), stripped of its meaning within Nigerian culture, and reframed as an object of Western curiosity. Khan exposes the museum as a site where colonial violence is not remembered but actively continued: every day the pot remains behind glass, the original theft is re-enacted. The poem demands we ask not 'What is this object?' but 'How did it get here — and at whose expense?'
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