I hadn’t heard Benjamin Zephaniah’s poetry until he died.
Then I watched this recording of a 1983 concert in Doncaster and enjoyed his sense of humour and his direct expression of ideas about the world.
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I’ll pass, he was violent to women. Not acceptable, no excuses. Ever.
Martin
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Repentance and redemption, indeed.
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Ah - I did not know that.
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It’s perhaps worth reading this for context.
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Indeed.
“ How you talk about life and justice when you can’t handle domestic crisis? Now you’re talking about burning Rome, but you don’t have liberty at home. Now you’re talking about fight the fight, when your sister can’t walk the streets at night. Not because you’re so proud and hip, hey, check out your own relationship.”
I was lucky enough to see him perform at a small venue many years ago up at the Edinburgh festival. He stayed around and spoke to various people. He was both scarily fierce and scarily intelligent. He was very much aware of his less than salubrious past and came across as someone determined to right his own wrongs. A good man sadly gone.
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Its that time of year again…
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I had the pleasure of meeting Benjamin on a couple of occasions, a nice guy and really quite humble.
As well as writing, broadcasting and poetry he was a fantastic roots reggae artist, recording some great albums with Mad Professor and then his 2017 Revolutionary Minds album which is a favourite here. I saw him perform this at One Love and it was incredibly powerful.
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A pretty good selection of his recordings on Qobuz (probably Spotify etc as well) and youtube
I see some people are objecting to the man and his poetry. I remember reading some Arthur Miller who is married to Marilyn Monroe. He wasn’t addressing his marriage but he said when a woman gets out of line you never ever want to hit her in the face. He recommended that you give them a punch in the thigh. That will be sufficient to leave a bruise and remind them when they take their pants on or off. I’ve never slapped or touched a woman in that fashion but I found it kind of a amusing anecdotal recommendation. One of my favorite authors was Charles Bukowski who also wrote novels and poetry and drank and went horse racing and told everyone to screw off. He later was a subject of a movie starring Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway called Barfly. Thank you for sharing
If you have ever witnessed or worse suffered from domestic violence which far too many of us have be it as a woman, a child or a man then you will know how long felt and devastating it’s effects can be on those involved.
It is quite right that Benjamin Zephaniah be held to account on public forums such as these it is then up to us as individuals how we judge him and his actions personally it does effect how I view him, his poetry and his music. I actually didn’t know about this until today and so am very disappointed that I now feel this way because though I wasn’t his biggest fan I did enjoy his music once in a while…
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Forgiveness and an understanding of the circumstances of a person’s actions, their own childhood, and a whole slew of other socio-economic indicators take more time and consideration than simply standing loftily in judgment and by implication moral superiority.
It’s easy to condemn someone, and in doing so position ourselves seemingly and visibly beyond reproach, but that’s just self deluding and self-serving.
Sins and virtues aren’t mutually exclusive.
Thanks Dread and HH for your humanity.
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I didn’t condemn anybody or ask anyone else too I believe that was you, I just gave an opinion that was based on first hand experience of how domestic violence can affect the victim for a life time.
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Whilst you words are laudable I don’t actually see anywhere that Mr Zephaniah used his background as a reason or excuse for his violence towards women and other criminality.
It was good however that he came to a realisation that it was wrong and stopped it.
What I can’t stand however is the association of background with either honesty or violent behaviour by many so called social commentators. I find it insulting to any and all from deprived backgrounds that such behaviour by their peers is excused in this way, usually by those who have no experience of poverty or deprivation themselves.
Such behaviour applies to all levels of society and has no excuse at all…. It’s just that the middle and upper classes often don’t like admitting it’s an issue in their circles.
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People need to read what he has said about his background and where he is now…
Quite typical really, white middle class people countering the achievements and intelligence of a respected Black man with something to say about the world that has been negatively shaped by white people.
He who is without sin cast the first stone
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Brilliant Dread. Every word and every step of the way.
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