Tributes for trailblazer Benjamin Zephaniah

LONDON:

Tributes continue to pour in from artistes and political figures for writer and actor Benjamin Zephaniah, following his death in Britain last week.

The prolific poet, whose mother was from Jamaica, died of a brain tumour at 65 years old, two months after his diagnosis.

Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah was described as “the people’s laureate”. His work encompassed themes of racism, poverty, social injustice, and veganism.

Zephaniah’s literary work, which is featured on the British national curriculum, was heavily influenced by Jamaican music and poetry, and he was often classified as a dub poet.

Linton Kwesi Johnson, renowned poet, dub musician and record producer, spoke glowingly about Zephaniah.

Johnson, who was born in Clarendon, said, “Benjamin Zephaniah was an iconic figure for a younger generation of aspiring performance poets. His life story is one of the triumph of talent over adversity.”

Dianne Abbott, the longest-serving black member of parliament in the UK, writing on X, also praised the poet’s artistic talents. She said, “So sad to hear about the death of poet Benjamin Zephaniah. A great man and a trailblazer.”

Actor, Cillian Murphy, who performed with Zephaniah on Peaky Blinder’s, the British period crime drama, expressed his condolences. He said, “Benjamin was a truly gifted and beautiful human being - a generational poet, writer, musician, and activist. A proud Brummie and a Peaky Blinder. I’m so saddened by this news. RIP.”

A spokesperson for the Black Curriculum, a social enterprise that aims to embed black history into the English national curriculum and provide youths with a sense of identity, said, “Benjamin believed that the history curriculum did not adequately address the experiences and contributions of black people and that only half the story was being told.”

DIFFICULT YOUTH

Zephaniah released numerous albums during his career. He was the first person to record with the Wailers in 1982, after the death of Bob Marley.

The musician’s recording was titled Rasta, which was produced in tribute to Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid activist.

The artiste performed at the Two Nations Concert at Royal Albert Hall in London, at the behest of the former South African president, in 1996. Mandela initially heard the tribute on Rasta while he was in prison. The album reached number one on the Yugoslavian charts.

Zephaniah was inspired by the tapes he and his mother listened to of Louise Bennett, the Jamaican poet and activist, from Kingston, Jamaica.

He experienced a difficult childhood and was kicked out of school at 13 years old, unable to read or write as he had dyslexia.

It wasn’t until the Birmingham-born writer was 18 years of age, when his friend gave him a typewriter, that he started writing. He often declared that it was his life’s purpose to democratise access to the arts by “taking poetry everywhere”, including to people who couldn’t read.

The artiste of Jamaican descent frequently wrote about historical and current events. In 1990, he published Rasta Time in Palestine, poetry describing his experiences in the Palestinian occupied territories.

During the late 1990s he wrote What Stephen Lawrence Has Taught Us, which fuelled the campaign to find the murderers of the black teenager from south-east London.

In 2008, Benjamin Zephaniah was named among Britain’s top 50 post-war writers.

Between 2013 and 2022 the artiste had a recurring role as the preacher Jeremiah “Jimmy” Jesus, in Peaky Blinders, based in Birmingham in the middle of England. The same year he made the film, Standing Firm: Football’s Windrush Story, about the influence of Caribbean migration on British football.

ANTI-EMPIRE

Zephaniah published 14 books of poetry, five adult novels and five for children.

In the 1990s the artiste established his reputation outside Britain, touring countries including South Africa, Zimbabwe, India, Pakistan, and Colombia. During a three-week spell in 1991 he performed on every continent except Antarctica.

In 2003, Zephaniah turned down an OBE for his services to literature. He is recorded as saying: “No way, Mr Blair (former British Prime Minister), no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire.

“Me? I thought, OBE me? I get angry when I hear that word ‘empire’, it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised,” he said.

Zephaniah’s death was announced in a statement posted on his Instagram account. It read, “ We shared him with the world, and we know many will be shocked and saddened by this news. Benjamin was a true pioneer and innovator, he gave the world so much.

“Through an amazing career including a huge body of poems, literature, music, television and radio, Benjamin leaves us with a joyful and fantastic legacy. Thank you for the love you have shown Professor Benjamin Zephaniah.”

Benjamin Zephaniah was born on April 15, 1958, a twin and the eldest of eight children. When his mother left his abusive father, he was the only one of the eight who stayed with her.