Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (born 15 April 1958) is a British writer and dub poet. He was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008.
Early life and education
Zephaniah was born and raised in the Handsworth district of Birmingham, England, which he has called the "Jamaican capital of Europe". He is the son of a Barbadian postman and a Jamaican nurse. A dyslexic, he attended an approved school but left aged 13 unable to read or write. During his childhood he was given an old, manual typewriter which he says inspired him to become a writer. It is now in the collection of Birmingham Museums Trust.
He writes that his poetry is strongly influenced by the music and poetry of Jamaica and what he calls "street politics". His first performance was in church when he was eleven, and by the age of 15, his poetry was already known among Handsworth's Afro-Caribbean and Asian communities.
As a young man, he received a criminal record and served a prison sentence for burglary. Tired of the limitations of being a black poet communicating with black people only, he decided to expand his audience, and headed to London at the age of 22.
While living in London, Zephaniah was caught up in the 1980s race riots and experienced racism on a regular basis:
Written work and poetry
Zephaniah became actively involved in a workers' co-operative in Stratford, London, which led to the publication of his first book of poetry, Pen Rhythm (Page One Books, 1980). Three editions were published. Zephaniah has said that his mission is to fight the dead image of poetry in academia, and to "take [it] everywhere" to people who do not read books, so he turned poetry readings into concert-like performances.
His second collection of poetry, The Dread Affair: Collected Poems (1985), contained a number of poems attacking the British legal system. Rasta Time in Palestine (1990), an account of a visit to the Palestinian occupied territories, contained poetry and travelogue.
Zephaniah was poet in residence at the chambers of Michael Mansfield QC, and sat in on the inquiry into Bloody Sunday and other cases, these experiences leading to his Too Black, Too Strong poetry collection (2001). We Are Britain! (2002) is a collection of poems celebrating cultural diversity in Britain.
Zephaniah's first book of poetry for children, called Talking Turkeys (1994), was reprinted after six weeks. In 1999, he wrote a novel for teenagers, Face, the first of four novels to date.
In May 2011, Zephaniah accepted a year-long position as poet-in-residence at Keats House in Hampstead, London, his first residency role for more than ten years. Accepting the role, he commented: "I don't do residencies, but Keats is different. He's a one-off, and he has always been one of my favourite poets."
In 2016, Zephaniah wrote the foreword to Angry White People: Coming face-to-face with the British far right by Hsiao-Hung Pai.
His frank autobiography The Life And Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah was published to coincide with his 60th birthday in 2018, when BBC Sounds broadcast him reading his own text. "I'm still as angry as I was in my twenties," he says. The Birmingham Mail has dubbed him "The people's laureate".
Acting and television
Zephaniah has made minor appearances in several TV programmes in the 1980s and 1990s, including The Bill (1994), The Comic Strip Presents... (1994) and Crucial Tales (1996).
In 1990, he appeared in the film Farendj, directed by Sabine Prenczina and starring Tim Roth.
Between 2013 and 2022, Zephaniah played the role of preacher Jeremiah "Jimmy" Jesus in BBC drama Peaky Blinders, appearing in 14 episodes across the 6 series.
In 2020, he appeared as a panellist on the BBC television show QI, on the episode "Roaming".
Music
In 1982, Zephaniah released the album Rasta, which featured the Wailers' first recording since the death of Bob Marley as well as a tribute to the political prisoner (later to become South African president) Nelson Mandela. The album gained him international prestige and topped the Yugoslavian pop charts. It was because of this recording that he was introduced to Mandela, and in 1996, Mandela requested that Zephaniah host the president's Two Nations Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
Views
Animal rights and veganism
Zephaniah became a vegetarian at age 11, and then became a vegan at the age of 13 when he read poems about "shimmering fish floating in an underwater paradise, and birds flying free in the clear blue sky".