Ben-Z
The passing of self-proclaimed poet, writer, lyricist, musician and naughty boy
Benjamin Zephaniah at the age of 65, brought to my attention an interview that he gave in 2005. Specifically, his childhood perspective of family life growing up in a broken home.
When you come from a broken home, or a home where there’s violence, you almost think it’s normal. So, I just thought that most families fight. I once asked a friend of mine, ‘What do you do when your dad beats your mum?’ And he went: ‘He doesn’t.’ I said, ‘Ah, you come from one of those, like, feminist houses. So, what do you do when your mum beats your dad?’
Benjamin Zephaniah, in conversation with Simon Joseph Jones, High Profiles
It made me laugh. But it's really no laughing matter. (embarrassed)
In 2003, he turned down the award of an OBE—for services to, oh I dunno, being a black writer I guess—because representations of empire conflicted with his activism. This is despite the death of the British Empire having occurred well before his birth, and it now only being mentioned in the titles of trifling accolades. Bless.