Imani Tafari-Ama | Benjamin Zephaniah: A giant tree fell in the forest

“If you are getting uptight and you want to fight, fight them, not me!” These are famous lasting words from a wordsmith of no mean order whose voice has receded into deathly silence. On December 7, 2023, Benjamin Zephaniah became an ancestor.

From news reports, within two months of discovering that he had a brain tumour, he made his transition. When a tree like Benjy falls in the forest, it makes a big noise. Because, in life, this multimedia artist leveraged word, sound, and power to challenge structures and systems of domination. He tackled many causes and was known for his satirical and hard-hitting resistance of all forms of oppression.

Zephaniah was a stage name he adopted, and he and his seven siblings were children of Jamaican and Barbadian parents. Although he had early learning difficulties because of undetected dyslexia, he later taught himself literacy through the use of a manual typewriter. He early recognised that he had a gift for writing and poetic expression using the spoken word. He said in interviews that written poetry was what white people did and was not his style. His early influences were reggae and the audiovisual performances of the Honourable Dr Louise Bennett-Coverley. Jamaica’s ‘Miss Lou’ is widely regarded as the mother of the dub poetry genre, because she brought spoken word poetry in the Jamaican language to the world.

As a vegan, Benjamin Zephaniah was, understandably, an ardent activist for animal rights. This was demonstrated in his memorable ode to the turkey, which took the mickey out of the carnivore Thanksgiving and Christmas culinary traditions.

Be nice to your turkeys this Christmas

Because turkeys just wanna have fun

Turkeys are cool and turkeys are wicked

And every turkey

Has a mom

Be nice to your turkeys this Christmas

Don’t eat it, keep it alive

It could be your mate

And not on your plate …

I have lots of friends who are turkeys

And they all have a right to a life

Not to be caged up and genetically made up

By a farmer

And his wife … .

Zephaniah’s list of achievements is legendarily long. It includes 16 honorary doctorates, prestigious book awards for his books, and his decade-long acting role in the BBC’s series Peaky Blinders. So outstanding have been his accolades that, in 2003, he was offered an appointment as Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). In a manner of speaking, he told the Queen to stuff the award. In his refusal speech, Zephaniah famously said, “I get angry when I hear the word ‘empire’; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds me of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised.”

REVOLUTIONARY RESISTANCE

This revolutionary resistance to being complicit with post and not-so-post colonial systems was exemplary. What then is the enticement factor that prevents others who have accepted awards like knighthoods from the British Crown from recognising the contradiction inherent in their co-optation? What makes the governor general, for example, feel comfortable to be “Sir-ed” and his wife “Lady-ed”, living in King’s House and doing the ceremonial bidding in that crazy ritual that opens Parliament?

Have you ever witnessed and overheard the bizarre homage that Jamaica pays to the British Throne? And did you know that there is a special flag that indicates that Jamaica is ruled by the British King? The introduction to the opening of Parliament in 2023 ended with an acknowledgement that Jamaica was then “in the year of Our Lord 2023 and in the first year of the reign of King Charles III”? I was gobsmacked when I watched the YouTube video, and even more astounded to hear the person reading the governor general’s introduction end with “God save the King!” (a correction was made because, like a puppet performing this part of the Throne Speech introduction, the lady stumbled over the “God save the Queen!” habit).

Why should Jamaica, an independent country, be paying homage to the king of the country responsible for centuries of colonisation of our ancestors? In a bruising rejection of the hypocrisy that hijacks equality and justice for citizens from underserved countries and communities, Benjamin Zephaniah penned and performed the unapologetic poem called Anti-Society. This creative piece openly objects to popular double standards that maintain the plantation-society style of social stratification.

I see suffering all around me

I can’t think what will happen next

These ideas like plagues of rats and roaches

Make me angry

make me vex

Big nice houses, nice and easy

Is this really human style

Nice and easy

That don’t please me

Cools me not

nor makes me smile

running uptown running downtown

everywhere it seems the same

it’s the tale of same old people

who use blood to entertain …

My name is anti-society

I won’t follow their leader

You get high when your anti-society nature

Is your feeder

Anti-society

damn that hypocrisy

Benjy grew up in church where he got the first opportunity to perform. As an adult, however, he was cynical of religion, even of Rastafari, the livity that he chose as his way of life. He saw the reluctance of Rastafari to activate repatriation as conceding to the norms of Babylon. He was also shocked at how anti-Rastafari sentiment prevented black publishers from supporting his literary works. When he did get his books published, it was because the white-owned institutions were interested in what he had to say.

ROAD LESS TRAVELLED

Benjamin Zephaniah took the road less travelled to find out for himself what made the world go round. He spent six months in North Korea, went to Palestine, China, Russia and Bosnia, among other no-go zones. The anti-black racism theme was sharply focused on in his multi-media efforts to bring attention to the ways in which white supremacy, especially that expressed by the police, negatively affected black lives.

As an anarchist, Zephaniah recommended self-government of people who can keep themselves safer and more productive than the authorities have been doing. He conceded, though, that there is a low level of political will and people enthusiasm to support this effort.

Benjamin’s last word is for the exercise of tolerance for difference, across time and space

“I always remind young people when I am speaking to them that the technology that they have now and the music they are listening to now will seem really old to their children and the next generation.”

A word to the wise is sufficient.

Imani Tafari-Ama, PhD, is a Pan-African advocate and gender and development specialist. Send feedback to i.tafariama@gmail.com.