Benjamin Zephaniah, who died at the age of 65, meant a lot to many people: an actor, a musician, a poet. For me he was always a scientist.
I met him first online and then in person in 2021 after organizing a Black Culture Archives event with the British Library where he spoke about his book. Storm Child, which was a great insight into a man for whom the Windrush scandal played a big role; He talked about it whenever he could.
We discussed those still waiting for compensation while he drank tea from a cup marked “I love Birmingham” (the poet grew up in the Handsworth area).
His work with the Black Cultural Archives, a charity that aims to preserve the history of people of African and Caribbean descent in Britain, has been pivotal in exploring the history of black literature in the country.
He had the warm, funny air of someone accustomed to touring elementary schools as a children’s poet. His collections, including those from 1994, are beautiful. talking turkeys, He was a lifeline for a generation of young people – after attending my mother’s school, he was the first poet she met as a child, a fact she repeated every time he appeared on television.
But it was also clear that he had a wealth of knowledge and could teach me a lot – and not just about Aston Villa, for whom he had supported all his life.
I remember him telling me about the “barrel children” – the name given to children who stayed at home while their parents went to Britain before them as part of the Windrush generation.
In his thick Birmingham accent, he patiently told me how these children were left without parental supervision but with significant material resources, including barrels full of clothes or toys sent by absent parents. He says the barrel is still a symbol of his childhood in Kingston, Jamaica.
Zephaniah always spoke truth to power. He was a friend, a revolutionary and an anti-blackness when Britain was simply not ready for him.
After rejecting the WTO in 2003, he said: “WTO me? “Yours,” I thought. I get angry when I hear the word “empire”; It reminds me of slavery, it reminds me of thousands of years of cruelty… Benjamin Zephaniah OBE – absolutely not Mr Blair, absolutely not Mrs Queen. I am deeply against the empire.”
His position inspired many others to express their views on the English honors system, but later rejected it. For me, these words are still very relevant today and continue to remind us of the legacy of slavery that Zephaniah reminded us of, albeit always with a smirk.
For all these reasons, when we read tweets like today’s from the Royal Society of Literature calling Zephaniah an “important writer,” we can only nod.
I’m just touched that I was able to spend a few hours with him to learn a lesson about how to use my own power that I will continue to learn.
Without him, the literary world would be much less rich. He was widely revered, but was especially important to immigrants and other black writers. Perhaps the Black Writers Guild said it best. “His life was a testament to the transformative power of reading and the importance of craft,” the group said in a statement.
“Benjamin was an original and beloved member of our tribe. We love him, we will miss him and we are grateful to him.”
Source: I News
I am Mario Pickle and I work in the news website industry as an author. I have been with 24 News Reporters for over 3 years, where I specialize in entertainment-related topics such as books, films, and other media. My background is in film studies and journalism, giving me the knowledge to write engaging pieces that appeal to a wide variety of readers.