By Oluwatosin Maliki
Renowned British writer and poet Benjamin Zephaniah, who is popular for using humour and wit to address issues on political injustice, died on Thursday, December 7, at age 65.
Also, the pioneering author’s works tackled societal issues on race and racism.
Zephaniah was no stranger on TV, he was known for his works about refugees and healthy eating, he also appeared in the hit BBC show Peaky Blinders as Jeremiah Jesus.
Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with a brain tumour shortly before his death.
The sad news was posted on his social media channel read, “It is with great sadness and regret that we announce the death of our beloved Husband, Son, and Brother in the early hours of this morning (7 December)”.
“Benjamin was diagnosed with a brain tumour eight weeks ago”.
“Benjamin’s wife was by his side throughout and was with him when he passed. We shared him with the world and we know many will be shocked and saddened by this news”.
The statement continued, “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, radio, Benjamin leaves us with a joyful and fantastic legacy.”
The prolific writer was credited with creating “dub poetry”, with the words recited over the beats of reggae music.
As an outspoken political activist, his work was centered on themes of racism, poverty, and social injustice.
Quest Times gathered that Zephaniah was born in Birmingham on 15 April 1958, to a postman (father) from Barbados and his mother was a nurse from Jamaica.
At an early age, he was diagnosed with dyslexia, which forced him to leave school and was unable to read or write at the age of 13.
However, Zephaniah discovered his talent when he was given a typewriter, which inspired him to become a writer.
It was learnt that the manual typewriter is currently on display at the Birmingham Museums Trust.
Zephaniah’s journey to greatness, began when he wrote his first book titled; “Pen Rhythm”, which was published in 1980. He embarked on a mission to resuscitate the reputation of poetry within academia, pledging to “take [it] everywhere”.
His influence was extended to the music and poetry of Jamaica as well as what he called, “street politics”.
Afterwards, he launched his 2001 book, ‘Too Black Too Strong’, Zephaniah pointed out the struggles of Black Britain with incredible force and insight. Subsequently, he released, We Are Britain! in 2002, a collection of poems celebrating the country’s unique cultural diversity.
Zephaniah was also the author of Talking Turkeys, his popular children’s poetry book, which was reprinted six weeks after its release in 1994.
Following his success, he was named one of The Times‘ 50 greatest postwar writers, Zephaniah famously turned down an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for his services to literature in 2003, stating that he was “proudly anti-empire”.
In an interview with the Guardian, he said, “Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought. 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”.
In 2011, he was appointed poet-in-residence at Keats House in London, with Zephaniah explaining he accepted the position because John Keats “has always been one of my favourite poets”.
Similarly, Zephaniah was awarded the BBC Young Playwright’s Award and received 16 honorary doctorates from universities across the country. The Rastafarian performance poet was also a creative writing professor at Brunel University in London.
The iconic poet was once married to Amina, a theatre administrator, for 12 years before they divorced.
In 2022, he addressed, with remarkable candour, his struggles with infertility, in a first-person piece published on iNews.
He said, “Every few weeks I would have to suffer (what I thought of at the time as) the humiliation of going for sperm tests,” he wrote. “As a young man I watched my friends having kids. Some would complain about how expensive they were, but then say that I was lucky, because I was having fun, and getting away with it.”
Zephaniah explained that he and his ex-wife had tried to “make up for all the heartache” of not having children by adopting, but could not because of his criminal record, “albeit one that has been clean since 1976” after Zephaniah was convicted for burglary.
However, “I stopped worrying about my legacy when I started coming across children that were raised on my poetry, and I have now met six of the seven children who I was told were named after me,” Zephaniah added.