Zephaniah

A lot of good people seem to have died in the last few weeks. Today, I was saddened to learn of the death of Benjamin Zephaniah at the tender age of sixty five. It was a brain tumour that got him.

I guess that most bloggers from other countries will not have heard of him but here in Great Britain, over decades, he had become something of a national treasure. Born into an immigrant West Indian family in the city of Birmingham, he left school without qualifications having being diagnosed as "dyslexic".

Later, it was a meeting with a typewriter mixed with his growing fascination with the lyrics of reggae songs that woke up his poetic voice.

He found a way to make his poetry sing to ordinary people and schoolkids. His topics often involved injustice and the multicultural experience but he could be funny and sweet too, enjoying wordplay, looking at nature and the quirkiness of human existence.

He appeared in "Peaky Blinders" and was a lifelong vegan. He became fluent in Mandarin Chinese and since 2008 had spent much of his time living in the Lincolnshire village of Moulton Chapel near Spalding. Perhaps he found it easier to write there.

In the example poem I have chosen, Zephaniah likens Britain to a kind of cultural melting pot and the poem is written rather like a recipe. Between the lines, you sense he is poking fun at the Britain of country houses and white people hunting on horseback or attending operas - the Britain of Jane Austen or "Downton Abbey".  Especially if you live in our big cities, the Britain of today may appear very different and rather more multi-faceted.

⦿

The British

Take some Picts, Celts and Silures
And let them settle,
Then overrun them with Roman conquerors.

Remove the Romans after approximately 400 years
Add lots of Norman French to some
Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings, then stir vigorously.

Mix some hot Chileans, cool Jamaicans, Dominicans,
Trinidadians and Bajans with some Ethiopians, Chinese,
Vietnamese and Sudanese.

Then take a blend of Somalians, Sri Lankans, Nigerians
And Pakistanis,
Combine with some Guyanese
And turn up the heat.

Sprinkle some fresh Indians, Malaysians, Bosnians,
Iraqis and Bangladeshis together with some
Afghans, Spanish, Turkish, Kurdish, Japanese
And Palestinians
Then add to the melting pot.

Leave the ingredients to simmer.

As they mix and blend allow their languages to flourish
Binding them together with English.

Allow time to be cool.

Add some unity, understanding, and respect for the future,
Serve with justice
And enjoy.

Note: All the ingredients are equally important. Treating one ingredient better than another will leave a bitter unpleasant taste.

Warning: An unequal spread of justice will damage the people and cause pain. Give justice and equality to all.

by Benjamin Zephaniah

(1958 -2023)