Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Springer (1958-04-15)15 April 1958 Handsworth, Birmingham, England
Died
7 December 2023(2023-12-07) (aged 65)
Occupation
Poet
playwright
author
actor
Genre
Poetry
teen fiction
Literary movement
Rastafari movement
postcolonialism
postmodernism
Years active
1980–2023
Spouses
Amina
(m. 1990; div. 2001)
Qian Zheng
(m. 2017)
Benjamin Zephaniah's voice
Zephaniah talking about generational views of music and technology
Website
benjaminzephaniah.com
Zephaniah reciting a poem in 2015
Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (né Springer; 15 April 1958 – 7 December 2023) was a British writer, dub poet, actor, musician and professor of poetry and creative writing. He was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008. In his work, Zephaniah drew on his lived experiences of incarceration, racism and his Jamaican heritage.
He won the BBC Radio 4 Young Playwrights Festival Award in 1998 and was the recipient of at least sixteen honorary doctorates. A ward at Ealing Hospital was also named in his honour. His second novel, Refugee Boy, was the recipient of the 2002 Portsmouth Book Award in the Longer Novel category. In 1982, he released an album, Rasta, which featured the Wailers performing for the first time since the death of Bob Marley, acting as a tribute to Nelson Mandela. It topped the charts in Yugoslavia, and due to its success Mandela invited Zephaniah to host the president's Two Nations Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in 1996. As an actor, he had a major role in the BBC's Peaky Blinders between 2013 and 2022.
A vegan and animal rights activist, who self-identified as an anarchist, Zephaniah supported changing the British electoral system from first-past-the-post to alternative vote.
In 2003, he was offered appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) but publicly rejected the honour, stating that: "I get angry when I hear that word 'empire'; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers, brutalised".
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Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (né Springer; 15 April 1958 – 7 December 2023) was a British writer, dub poet, actor, musician and professor of poetry...
album also includes a collaboration with British writer and musician BenjaminZephaniah, who died in 2023. Moby commented that a thread throughout his career...
Refugee Boy is a teen novel written by BenjaminZephaniah. It is a book about Alem Kelo, a 14-year-old refugee from Ethiopia and Eritrea. It was first...
family. Johnny Dogs works for Tommy. Jeremiah "Jimmy" Jesus (played by BenjaminZephaniah) is a Jamaican born street preacher, who is friends with Thomas Shelby...
example An example of a male speaker from Handsworth, Birmingham (BenjaminZephaniah). Problems playing this file? See media help. The Brummie dialect...
by the late BenjaminZephaniah as part of the segment celebrating the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush. Benjamin's 20th book, a...
further collaborations with Matt Helders from the Arctic Monkeys, BenjaminZephaniah, Roots Manuva, Tinchy Stryder, Joe Goddard, Conna "Three Chainz" Haines...
of the ballad, including their artists, titles, albums, and years: BenjaminZephaniah was awarded Best Original Song in the Hancocks 2008, Talkawhile Awards...
Young (born 1966), British industrial designer and creative director. BenjaminZephaniah (1958–2023), British writer and dub poet. Fitzsimmons, Emma G. (1...
having connection with the idea of the now-extinct British Empire. BenjaminZephaniah, a British poet of Jamaican and Barbadian descent, publicly rejected...
include Roi Kwabena, who was the city's sixth poet laureate, and BenjaminZephaniah, who was born in the city. The author J. R. R. Tolkien was brought...
dub poem, followed by Lillian Allen's Revolutionary Tea Party and BenjaminZephaniah's Rasta, both produced in 1983, and many others from the early 1980s...
He also regards American poet Langston Hughes and British writer BenjaminZephaniah as inspirations. As of January 2017, Carner lived in Croydon, South...
Since then, its stages have hosted such figures as Woody Harrelson, BenjaminZephaniah, Eddie Izzard, Roger McGough, Andy Serkis, Jenna Russell, Sir Trevor...
no longer support the Liberal Democrats". The Guardian. London. "BenjaminZephaniah 'airbrushed from Yes to AV leaflets'". BBC News. 3 April 2011. Endorsement...
vote for a better future by voting Green in the European elections "BenjaminZephaniah 'airbrushed from Yes to AV leaflets'". BBC News. 3 April 2011. Simon...
Leeds David Blunkett, Nigel Farage, Janet Street-Porter, Tim Yeo, BenjaminZephaniah [417] 716 34 30 November 2000 Birmingham Paul Boateng, Ann Widdecombe...
was invited to London to co-host, with British poet and activist BenjaminZephaniah, the Two Nations Concert at the Albert Hall to honor President Nelson...
Halliwell Meg Johnson Michael Jayston Ian Lavender Chance Perdomo BenjaminZephaniah Debbie Young Hannah Hawkins Eleanor Scoones Henry Sandon Tony Green...
Willard White Henry Sylvester Williams Bishop Wilfred Wood Ian Wright BenjaminZephaniah In 2019, the decision was taken to relaunch and update the 100 Great...
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