Regardless of the often visceral and sometimes rebellious nature of his poetry, Benjamin Zephaniah, who has died aged 65 of a mind tumour, had such large attraction within the UK that he turned one thing near a nationwide treasure, attracting devotion amongst all lessons and sorts of individuals, younger in addition to previous.
With a down-to-earth mission to take poetry wherever he might – and particularly to those that wouldn’t usually learn it – his attain additionally prolonged to different components of the world, the place he was revered as a author and performer who might be relied upon to talk his thoughts with forthrightness, honesty and self-effacing humour.
From an unpromising begin to life in Birmingham, Zephaniah hauled himself into the general public eye throughout the early Nineteen Eighties by hitching himself to a post-punk caravan of streetwise efficiency poets akin to John Cooper Clarke, Attila the Stockbroker and, at a barely higher take away, Linton Kwesi Johnson – all of whom eschewed the summary in favour of writing with a fierce political edge about on a regular basis life.
Focusing initially on the debilitating results of racism, together with by his breakthrough poem Dis Policeman Keeps on Kicking Me to Death, Zephaniah later branched out to contemplate different matters that have been shut his coronary heart, together with unemployment, homelessness and, as a vegan from the age of 13, animal rights.
Along with writing novels for adults, he additionally harnessed his expertise for easy language to develop into a bestselling writer for youngsters, with books akin to Talking Turkeys (1994) and Windrush Child (2020) that turned customary faculty studying materials in multicultural Britain.
Zephaniah was born Benjamin Springer within the Hockley space of Birmingham to Oswald Springer, a publish workplace employee, and Leneve (nee Wright), a nurse, who had emigrated to Britain from Barbados and Jamaica respectively. He had a twin sister, Velda, and 6 different siblings. Experiencing racism as a toddler on an nearly every day foundation, he additionally felt unhappiness at house, the place his father was a distant and violent determine, particularly to his mom. When he was 10, after Leneve had obtained an particularly savage beating, she and Benjamin went on the run collectively.
Dwelling a hand-to-mouth existence, the pair by no means returned, leaving the opposite youngsters of the household in estrangement. The dislocation that adopted had its impact on Zephaniah: at 13 he was expelled from Broadway faculty, later spending time in borstal, whereas in his late teenagers he was imprisoned for numerous offences, together with affray and housebreaking.
Poetry, Rastafarianism and an iron will have been his salvation. Realising that he was going to face additional longer spells in jail and even an early demise by gang-related violence, on the age of twenty-two he left Birmingham and headed for London to be a poet.
One in all his first recollections of composing poetry had come as a small boy whereas strolling to the nook store, and, although dyslexic, he had inherited from his mom an excellent lyrical facility. By the age of 15 he had a fame as a wordsmith, and when the elders of his mom’s church, feeling he had a prophet-like high quality with language, dubbed him Zephaniah (“treasured by God”), the identify caught.
In London he turned a part of the punk, reggae and various comedy scenes, studying his poems throughout breaks at gigs. His first assortment of poetry, Pen Rhythm, was revealed in 1980 by a co-operative, after which, like Johnson, he started to show to dub poetry, including reggae music to his phrases with a debut album, Rasta (1982).
Quickly in demand for radio, TV and movie work, Zephaniah performed Moses within the movie Farendj in 1990 and had a TV play, Dread Poets Society, screened by the BBC the next yr. His first novel, Face, a few younger man whose life is dramatically modified by facial accidents he receives whereas joyriding, was revealed in 1999, however within the previous years he had continued to supply a gentle stream of poetry collections, together with The Dread Affair (1985), Inna Liverpool (1988), City Psalms (1992) and Propa Propaganda (1996).
Along with his 14 poetry books and 7 dub poetry albums, over time he produced additional novels and youngsters’s books, in addition to seven performs. Amongst his extra high-profile performing roles was a stint as the road preacher Jeremiah Jesus within the TV drama collection Peaky Blinders.
In later life he moved from London to Lincolnshire, the place he lived quietly, however the power he threw into numerous initiatives. Though dedicated to widening entry and undermining elites, Zephaniah noticed this as suitable with tutorial work, and in 2011 accepted the publish of professor of poetry and artistic writing at Brunel University, the place he was an everyday, pleasant presence within the staffroom and a dedicated, hardworking lecturer.
Extra just lately he had been spending three months of the yr in China, the place he practised tai chi, however, regardless of his largely peaceful nature, he remained an offended man with a punk sensibility, figuring out, he stated, most simply with anarchism and observing that “after I see what individuals must put up with from their governments, I’m stunned they don’t stand up extra typically”.
Persistently radical to the tip, he refused the supply of an OBE in 2003, and 15 years later scotched any concept that he may develop into the poet laureate in succession to Carol Ann Duffy by explaining in poetic kind: “Don’t take my phrase, go verify the verse / Trigger each laureate will get worse”.
In 1990 he married Amina, a theatre administrator; they divorced in 2001. On a go to to China in 2014 he met Qian Zheng, and so they married three years later. She survives him, alongside together with his sisters, Velda (Benjamin’s twin), Joyce and Millie, his brothers, Mark, Paul, Tippa and David, and his mom.
Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah, poet and writer, born 15 April 1958; died 7 December 2023
