Benjamin Zephaniah Stood for Something – Today’s Artists Shouldn’t Be Afraid To, Either

The late Black British dub poet performed in workers’ clubs and wrote poems aimed directly at fascists, in a refusal of apolitical art we should be emulating now more than ever, writes Afua Hirsch.

When I think about Benjamin Zephaniah, I think about his mother. The late poet had a close relationship with her: at one point during his childhood, they went “on the run” together, fleeing his violent father while the rest of his siblings stayed behind. Whenever Zephaniah used to talk about his mother, there was such palpable tenderness in his voice.

And yet he did not hold back in his critique of her worldview. Born to descendants of enslaved Africans and Scots in colonial Jamaica, Zephaniah’s mother was a diehard imperialist. Her views made me gasp when we recorded a podcast together.

Slavery? Divine retribution for us, as Black people, having sinned.

Racism from white Brits? “We are guests in their country, so we have to be grateful to them.”

The Windrush scandal? “An administrative error.”