Benjamin Zephaniah
British poet (1958–2023) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (15 April 1958 – 6 December 2023)[1] was a British Jamaican writer, dub poet and Rastafarian. He was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008.
Zephaniah was a young black boy who had dyslexia and encountered racism at his new school in Birmingham. He grew up in Handsworth up until the age of 9 when his mother who was also a Jamaican nurse who fled from his father who was a postman back in Barbados, leaving his twin sister Velda and other siblings. Zephaniah felt isolated as being a young black boy with a disability.
Zephaniah faced prejudice frequently while residing in London and was involved in the racial riots of the 1980s: "They happened all around me. Racism was really evident back then. The National Front opposed foreigners and people of color, and the police were also very racist."
Zephaniah died on 6 December 2023 because of a brain tumor at the age of 65.[2]
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