Benjamin Zephaniah
Writer, Poet & Actor Dies age 65
Wilkswood Reggae Festival pays respect to the much admired and hugely respected ‘People’s Laureate’ who died on 7 December 2023.
Benjamin Zephaniah died in the early hours of Thursday 7 December after being diagnosed with a brain tumour eight weeks ago, a post on his Instagram page has confirmed. “Benjamin’s wife was by his side throughout and was with him when he passed,” the post read. “We shared him with the world and we know many will be shocked and saddened by this news. Benjamin was a true pioneer and innovator, he gave the world so much. Through an amazing career including a huge body of poems, literature, music, television and radio, Benjamin leaves us with a joyful and fantastic legacy.”
Born in Handsworth, Birmingham in April 1958, Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah was the son of a Barbadian postman and a Jamaican nurse. A dyslexic, he left school at 13 unable to read and write but became influenced by the music and poetry of Jamaica. By the age of 15 he had started performing poetry in his home town and at 22 he struck off to London to seek a wider audience.
In 1979, his first collection, Pen Rhythm, was published and he began performing his unique brand of superfluid verse and dub rhymes at demonstrations, youth gatherings and outside police stations. “I was a big protester, not just against racism but also apartheid. We are a multicultural society but the institutions have to catch up with us,” he said in 2019.
Forty years and over a dozen published works of poetry later, Zephaniah is widely considered to be one of the the UK’s most influential writers to chronicle the lives of black people in Britain. He has won the BBC Young Playwright’s Award as well as several honorary doctorates. In 2008 he was listed at 48 in The Times’ list of 50 greatest postwar writers and he is widely acknowledged as the ‘People’s Laureate’.
His work, which appeared on the national curriculum, was heavily influenced by Jamaican music and poetry, and he was often classified as a dub poet. He also released a number of albums, and was the first person to record with the Wailers after the death of Bob Marley in a tribute to Nelson Mandela. Mandela heard the tribute while in prison, and later asked to meet Zephaniah. When a concert honouring Mandela was held at the Royal Albert Hall in 1996, Mandela asked Zephaniah to host it.
He has released several albums of both poetry and unique music. His debut EP, Dub Ranting, brought him to the attention of John Peel and Zephaniah became a staple of his evening show throughout the 80s. He has released seven albums, including Back to Roots, Belly of De Beast and 2017’s highly acclaimed Revolutionary Minds. His acting skills have brought him to a wider audience more recently, playing the part of Jeremiah “Jimmy” Jesus in BBC2’s Peaky Blinders.
Zephaniah performed to an enthralled crowd at 2019’s Wilkswood Reggae Festival and everyone who witnessed his powerful and extraordinary performance will be greatly touched by his passing. He was truly a giant in Black British cultural history and his loss will be heavily felt, his cultural impact long remembered. People will always need Benjamin Zephaniah.
