13/5/2018 Biography - Benjamin Zephaniah

Biography
Dr Benjamin Obadiah
Iqbal Zephaniah was
born and raised in
Birmingham, England. He
cannot remember a time
when he was not creating
poetry but this had
nothing to do with school
where poetry meant very
little to him, in fact he had finished full time education at the age
of 13. His poetry is strongly influenced by the music and poetry
of Jamaica and what he calls ‘street politics’. His first real public
performance was in church when he was 10 years old, by the
time he was 15 he had developed a strong following in his home
town of Handsworth where he had gained a reputation as a
young poet who was capable of speaking on local and
international issues.
He loved Handsworth, he called it the Jamaican capital of
Europe but although his work had become popular within the
African-Caribbean and Asian community he thought the town
was too small, he was not satisfied preaching about the
sufferings of Black people to Black people, so he sought a wider
mainstream audience. At the age of 22 he headed south to
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London where his first book Pen Rhythm was published by Page
One Books. This was a small, East London based publishing co-
operative that were keen on publishing poets who were rooted in
their communities. They published Zephaniah when others failed
to tune into the new poetry that was about to emerge. The book
sold well going into 3 editions but it was in performance that the
Dub (Reggae) Poet would cause a revolution, a revolution that
injected new life into the British poetry scene and attracted the
interest of many mainstream publishers, many of whom had sent
refusal letters to him only 12 months earlier.

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In the early Eighties

when Punks and Rastas
were on the streets
protesting about SUS
Laws, high
unemployment,
homelessness and the
National Front,
Zephaniah’s poetry could
be heard on the
demonstrations, at youth
gatherings, outside police
stations, and on the
dance floor. It was once said of him that he was Britain’s most
filmed, photographed, and identifiable poet, this was because of
his ability to perform on stage, but most of all on television,
bringing Dub Poetry straight into British living rooms. The
mission was to take poetry everywhere, he hated the dead
image that academia and the establishment had given poetry
and proclaimed that he was out to popularise poetry by reaching
people who did not read books, those that were keen on books
could now witness a book coming to life on the stage. This
poetry was political, musical, radical, relevant and on TV.
In the nineties his book publications, record releases and
television appearances increased in Britain, although he has
concentrated on performing outside Europe. He feels at home
anywhere the oral tradition is still strong and lists South Africa,
Zimbabwe, India, Pakistan and Colombia as some of his most
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memorable tours. In fact life has been one long tour but this is
the only way the oral tradition can live. Over a 22-day period in
1991 he performed on every continent on this planet.
Periodically The
Benjamin Zephaniah
Band takes to the road,
the nature of the modern
music business means
recordings reach places
around the globe a lot
quicker than the poet
does, and this means
that many people around the world are more familiar with the
poet’s music than his performances, plays or books. His only
official fan club developed in Malawi in Central Africa and his
only Number One Hit Record was in the former Yugoslavia
where the Rasta LP was released on the Helidon label. He was
the first person to record with the Wailers after the death of Bob
Marley in a musical tribute to Nelson Mandela. Free South Africa
by Benjamin Zephaniah and the Wailers was recorded at
Marley’s Tuff Gong Studio in Kingston, Jamaica. Mandela heard
the tribute whilst in prison on Robben Island and soon after his
release he requested an introductory meeting with Zephaniah,
they have now built a relationship which has led to Zephaniah
working with children in South African townships and hosting the
President’s Two Nation’s Concert at the Royal Albert Hall in July
1996.

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Most of his own musical recordings fall into the Reggae or Dub
Poetry category, but his latest album ‘Naked’ defies
categorisation. It is produced by the legendary drummer Trevor
Morais and features artists as diverse as Howard Jones, Aref
Durvesh, Rupert Heaven, Mike Cahen, Jamie West-Oram, Jean
Alain Rousell, and Dennis Bovell. It is a mixture of Jazz, Reggae,
Hip Hop, Rock and house music. In order to compliment the
music the graffiti artist Banksy gave exclusive permission for his
artwork to feature in the 36 page booklet that comes with the CD.
The album was critically acclaimed and received substantial
radio airplay worldwide. On hearing the album Rodney P,
Britain’s’ foremost Hip Hop artist and BBC radio DJ decided that
was not content with just playing the album, he wanted to
contribute to it, so he asked for permission to re-mixed four of
the tracks, this put the album firmly on the dance floor. Other
musical collaborations include ‘Illegal’ with Swayzak, ‘Theatricks’
With Kinobe and the classic ‘Empire’ with Sinead O’Connor.
Then there is Benjamin Zephaniah the children’s poet. His first
book of poetry for children called Talking Turkeys had to go into
an emergency reprint after just 6 weeks, no one could foresee
how popular the book would be, it went to the top of the
children’s book list and stayed there for months. At first he was
not keen on publishing a book for children believing that there
was just poetry, not children’s poetry or adult’s poetry, but he was
soon convinced that young people did appreciate the fact that he
was not afraid to write about the real world where there are
bullies, guns, racism and war. Being a passionate vegan he
writes a lot about animals but these animals are not all smiley,
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happy creatures, some

may just be waiting for
slaughter or losing their
habitat, and of course
some may be having fun.
Then seemingly from
nowhere, in 1999 he
wrote a groundbreaking
novel for teenagers.
‘Face’ the first of four
novels to date, proved
that teenage boys would
read if they have access
to books that they can relate to. Zephaniah writes gritty, realistic
novels about the lives of teenagers, these novels are directed to
adults as much as they are to teenagers. He believes that for the
most part teenagers know what they are going through, but
adults need reminding, they have short memories.
Young writers have said that the accessibility of his work has
inspired them to take up writing, many record sleeves bare
witness to the fact that he has inspired many of the new
generation of rappers, and of all the performance poets that
emerged in the late seventies and early eighties he is one of the
few that is still going strong. He has sixteen honorary doctorates
and the Eailing Hospital in west London has named a wing after
him in recognition of his work. Zephaniah believes that working
with human rights groups, animal rights groups and other
political organisations means that he will never lack subject
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