Benjamin obadiah iqbal zephaniah biography sample
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Benjamin Zephaniah ADD
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RIP BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH [April 15, 1958 - månad 7, 2023]
Dr Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah was born and raised in Birmingham, England. He cannot remember a time when he was not creating poetry but this had nothing to do with school where poetry meant very little to him, in fact he had finished full time education at the age of 13. His poetry fryst vatten strongly influenced by the music and poetry of Jamaica and what he calls ‘street politics’.
His first real public performance was in church when he was 10 years old, by the time he was 15 he had developed a strong following in his home town of Handsworth where he had gained a reputation as a young poet who was capable of speaking on local and international issues. He loved Handsworth, he called it the Jamaican capital of Europe but although his work had become popular within the African-Caribbean and Asian community he thought the town was too small, he was not satisfied prea
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Benjamin Zephaniah
By Joy Francis, Executive Director, Words of Colour
When Museum of Colour’s Samenua Sesher texted that Benjamin Zephaniah had died, tears immediately sprang to my eyes. Disbelieving, I checked The Guardian. My heart felt punched. My mind went numb. Our beloved poet of the people Professor Benjamin Zephaniah had passed, aged 65, on the 7th December 2023.
Within five minutes of hearing the news, I mindlessly wrote a tweet on the Words of Colour feed and pinned it to the page. Immediate and uncensored, it captured my shock. My denial. My palpable sense of deep loss, like Benjamin was a beloved family member.
This reaction was a collective one as never since Words of Colour has been on Twitter have I seen such an outpouring of love and positivity in response to a simple, stark, though heartfelt message. In less than a week, 30,000 tweet impressions, 846 likes and 141 shares told us how much he was (and is) missed.
His unexpected passing, only t
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It’s with great sadness that I Am Hip Hop Magazine announces the death of poet and author Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah. In an era where many people of colour accept appointments from the monarchy, Zephaniah stood firm in the rejection of such things and critiqued those who accepted on grounds of inclusivity, greater platform and pro-monarchy family history;
“…these rock stars, successful women, and ex-militants write to me with the OBE after their name as if I should be impressed. I’m not. Quite the opposite — you’ve been had.”
Dubbed by some sections of the press as “Mr. No‑B.E”, Zephaniah famously rejected an O.B.E (Office of the British Empire) appointment for services to literature in 2003, he outlined his reasoning in a Guardian newspaper article in November that year, the opening paragraph I believe is worth quoting in full;
“Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought. I get angry when I hear that wo