Benjamin Zephaniah

Benjamin Zephaniah (Birmingham, 1958 – 2023) was a British poet, writer, activist and actor of Caribbean heritage, associated with postmodernism and dub poetry. Drawing on Jamaican music, reggae and what he called "street politics", his work helped bring poetry to readers who rarely picked up a book, and it holds a distinctive place in post-war British literature.

He was born and raised in Handsworth, a district of Birmingham, to a Barbadian postman and a Jamaican nurse. Dyslexia made reading and writing difficult, and he left school at thirteen. As a teenager he was already performing among Afro-Caribbean and Asian communities, had run-ins with the police, and served a prison sentence for burglary. At twenty-two he moved to London, where a workers' co-operative in Stratford helped him publish his first book, Pen Rhythm (1980).

He turned readings into concerts, singing his poems to audiences. In 1982 he released the album Rasta, which featured The Wailers after the death of Bob Marley and paid tribute to Nelson Mandela. It was a hit in Yugoslavia and led to his meeting with the future South African president. His later poetry took on the British legal system, Caribbean identity and cultural diversity, and he also wrote for children and teenagers, including the novels Face (1999) and Refugee Boy (2001).

In 2003 he publicly rejected an OBE, saying he was strongly anti-imperialist. He was a vegan and an advocate for animal rights. His legacy lies in school reading lists, a long run of honorary doctorates and his place in popular British culture. He died in December 2023.