SAVE OUR SONS (SOS) We Black men of England Too proud to cry for shame, Let's cry a sea Cry publicly, Expose our very pain, For Babylon the bandit Is on our sisters trail, The bad talk And the cool walk Will not keep us out of jail. We Black men of England Our guns are killing us, How dare we? Now hear me How great is dangerous? There's a fascist and a druggist Out to get our kith and kin, Let silent guns Save our sons The power is within. We Black men of England Excel as if in sport For our people, Because some people Want to see our face in court, When we Black men of England Look the mirror in the face, Through our sisters eyes We men shall rise As proud sons of our race.          MEDITATE AND COMMUNICATE A Sadhu Like a lotus Sits on India, Waiting for the truth To take him home, And India Is busy Getting busier, Trying to repay its World Bank Loan. The Sadhu Takes his ganja Like a Rastaman, He blesses it And burns it For the nation, And as the smoke arrives In central Pakistan, The Sadhu talks to God In meditation. One day They say Gods will return to India, And all our mixed up lives Will fall in place, But first the Gods Must deal with Bombay's Mafia, And the Mafia Control a lot of space. A Sadhu Like a lotus Sits on India, Waiting for the truth To take him home, He's a pure And dedicated Meditator, He's just meditating With his mobile phone.         APPEAL DISMISSED I can see your fearful tears Before me on your statement, From where I sit I can see your dark terrorised skin Shivering and barely holding your self together, I can see your gaping scars wide open Begging for compassion, And in addition to your evidence Both documentary and oral I have before me The encyclopaedia of your oppression, I have the names and addresses of your demons. I don't have to see you dance to know your suffering I don't have to hear you cry to know that you are crying, I saw your harassers on the news I saw your house on fire via satellite, I have no doubt that you are not tolerated by your neighbours. But let's face it You are not a dissident, You are not even a liar, You are what I would call a credible witness, But I have no reason to believe that your persecution was official. You were not raped because of your dark skin You were not raped because of your gypsy tongue, You were raped because you are a woman And rape is one of the things that can happen to A woman, So go home. You have been the victim of an act of depravity And you may never love again, Nevertheless you have only been raped And in the books that I have read Rape does not constitute torture, Not within the ordinary meaning of the word, So go home And take your exceptional circumstances with you.         WHITE COMEDY I waz whitemailed By a white witch, Wid white magic An white lies, Branded a white sheep I slaved as a whitesmith Near a white spot Where I suffered whitewater fever. Whitelisted as a white leg I waz in de white book As a master of de white art, It waz like white death. People called me white jack Some hailed me as white wog, So I joined de white watch Trained as a white guard Lived off de white economy. Caught an beaten by de whiteshirts I waz condemned to a white mass. Don't worry, I shall be writing to de Black House.         Interview with Benjamin Zephaniah Interview by Rheea Mukherjee   RM: You have traveled across the globe and lived in more than a couple of countries. Do you think travel is vital to eradicating boundaries and enhancing your writing? How so? BENJAMIN: The simple answer is yes and yes. Let me put it like this, people don’t like it when I say it –but I am completely uneducated. I left school at thirteen unable to read and write. But I was good at talking to people and I was a good listener. I could not sit in a classroom and take in information the way normal people do. But I was great talking on the streets with homeless people or in the palace talking to the king. For me traveling has been the most enlightening thing ever. When I started writing, I started to express my self all my ideas and my politics were formed by my immediate surroundings. Then I went to Africa and saw people in a different culture with the same concerns. Then I went to Asia and then Russia and it was all the same thing- even where we differed that was also very enlightening. So for me travel is the most important thing- I think it should be mandatory for education. For the government to pay for children, small children who are like eleven twelve years old when their ideas are just being formed –they should be sent to travel, I think it can be much more important than some academic lessons. We live in a world where some people’s views of a country are mediated by a politician or the media. RM: Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zepniah- Your name is cross religious/cultural. Is there a story behind this name that you would share with us? BENJAMIN: Actually I come from a tradition of Rastafarism where, when you are born people wait to see your character before they give you a name. I was always interested in all these religions. Some people say why don’t you have a Hindu name? I say I have the dreadlocks of Lord Shiva already. (He laughs) It does represent me, but the interesting thing is that I am critical of religion, I am critical of how people that misuse religion. I am not very religious but I am fascinated by religion and the traditions they come out of. But I think they get corrupted when people use it as a tool to get power. RM: I am sure you have been asked many a question about 2003 when you refused the Order of the British empire (OBE) award for your deep conviction that it only propagated monarchy and what the word empire has connotations to. It really got me thinking about our culture of celebrating art. Do you believe that we are living in a culture where artists today are being blind sighted d by certain honorary awards that could prove ironic to their work? BENJAMIN: I think the amount of awards we have for music, writing and film can be corrupt in our art As creative people are creating- they might be thinking- yes this can win me a certain type of award because it is in this style or because it is in fashion this year. Let me put it this way I am just sick of people introducing me to a “award winning poet” or a “award winning musician” –that doesn’t tell me anything about them, about their compassion or their humanity it doesn’t even really tell me anything about their art. It just tells me that they won a award-that four judges thought they were better than some other person. I know lots of examples of works that has been rejected by panels, but then when it gets to the people they have loved it and connected to it. I will give you an example that involves children but you can apply it to adults. There were two young girls I knew, both about eleven and twelve who participated in a newspaper competition. It was a poetry or short story computation. One of the girl’s one a prize and the other got nothing, not even a mention. The second girl was very upset, she said she looked at the other entrants work and she asked me what was wrong with hers? Her piece was also good she thought. She wrote a short story about how she became a vegetarian. The newspaper – one of the sponsors was McDonalds! I told her “she will never win that” you can have written the best story but you will never won it. I remember a few years ago in Brittan a Pakistani girl, a very interesting poet. But when you read her poetry you could not tell she was Asian because she wrote about a part of England and pat of London called Essex. Every time I helped her took to publishers the publishers would look at it and say “well can’t she write it more Indian” There was a trend at the time of Asians writing about arranged marriages, so she was completely out of step with the fashion. RM: You love to share your poetry in poetry performances with your audience. You power up your poetry with issues that are important to you – Animal rights, Racism, anti war sentiments to name a few. Could you talk a little about your personal social responsibility that is reflected in your writing? BENJAMIN: well I think it is the easiest thing in the world to write or sing about freedom, and earn a lot of money. I really believe you have to get out there and get really involved. I am patron of thirty five organizations. I am active in most of them; I understand all of them even though I cannot fully participate in all of them as a full time writer and poet. Even so I can tell you about each and every organization I am a patron of.. I believe we have a responsibility as musicians and writers. I really do believe that it is possible to change to the world but it is not possible if I personally Benjamin Zephaniah don’t get involved. We have so many people that are on TV ads where there are those people saying “please donate to this poor country” those are the very same people who wont get political when someone asks “lets stop this poverty in the first place, how do we stop that?” I want to do with doing away with charity in the first place, and they call me a radical. This may sound quite cynical but it’s all self promotion. RM: So even if you were not writing you would be concerned about these issues anyways..? BENJAMIN: Yes, I want to tell you a story, I hesitate to say it because it may sound stupid or sound very heavy. One of my uncles told me when I was young and had gotten in trouble with the police “you gotta settle down young boy” And I liked this uncle and I asked him how. What do I do? He says well you get an apprenticeship, because in those days Black people rarely went to college and so that what you did at the time. Then you get a job –car mechanic, painter, builder or something. Then you find a nice black girl you get the mortgage, the pension and then you die. I thought to my self “that’s it?” I walked away thinking, if there is nothing else, if this is what life is about then I am going to end my life right now. I thought about my poetry, started free styling in my head –when I was young and I thought I could do so much – I used to think I can free all, I can use my energy help people, get justice for balks people and Asians fighting the oppressor. Help Nelson Mandela! (Pauses to laugh) Very basic stuff like that. But it touched that nerve. when I say poetry keeps me alive – it really does. When I say poetry comes form me and goes through another person , and I really want to change things, I really mean it.. When I am at a reading and someone says the next act is Benjamin Zephaniah- I say don’t call me an act, I am not a bloody act. This is real. RM:What book or collection of poetry that you have written is closest to you and why? BENJAMIN: Like any writer I am going to say –the last one (laughs). The last couple of books have been novels but I call my self a poet. I know it’s a bit of a cliché but my books are like my children and I love them all equally. But there are some poems that when I read it again like a stranger and it touches me then I think- Yea I have done my job. So I discover new things when I reread my work. I can’t remember what I wrote in my second novel. I see different things in them all the time. RM: You write for Adults as well as children and all your books have important messages in them. Can you please tell me about the differences you experience as a writer while writing for each genre. BENJAMIN: All my novels are for teenagers. My poetry is for adults and some for children. Some are crossovers children’s poems in adult’s books. With the children I am a lot more playful, I have to be more creative about the political stuff in there, Can’t be so overtly political. I gotta be cleverer and wrap it in a story. One of my favorite ones is called over the moon, about the spaceman- (some of lines are,) There is a man on the moon he is skipping and stuff There is a man in moon and he looks really tough There’s a man on the moon and he is all alone He is dancing around to real Mooney music He carries his air; he knows how to use it He waves to his wife, he is on planet E ,she waves him back but he cannot see I am closer to the end now, but the last line is – There is a man on the moon,he has a spaceship there is a man on the moon, we paid for it. (We both pause to laugh) BENJAMIN: So you see, that last line will get the child to question- what do you mean we paid for it? So that starts to make them think, how did we pay for it? The government has money to send them up there? But it costs so much? More there are people here that are Hungary? Blah blah blah- so it is being political but without really being political. One line can get the reader to think. RM: You have a quote online that states “I started writing poetry because I didn’t like Poetry” Can you talk about that a little. BENJAMIN: Yea- I mean I said that, and what I meant was, there was a an image of poetry. The image was of a dead white man. I used to go to these readings where there was no life to the readings, like the poet didn’t even want to be there- a dull, solemn, funeral like event. A dead poet. I just thought if this is poetry then I don’t like it. For along time in my early years we called our selves rap poets, reggae poets, performance poets. Spoken word artists- all sorts of things, but not poets because the world conjured images of a dead white man. I was always playing with words, I was always a poet. Later I just became confident to reclaim the word – poet. RM:What are your new inspirations and topics of concern that we are likely to see in your future works? BENJAMIN: That is difficult to say, the thing that comes to mind is – this new world order we are approaching in, that I never thought I would see the day that there was a black American president. I never thought I thought I would see the day where there was peace with Russia, the states and Brittan. But we have new problems arising in the Middle East. I think the Palestinian children are amongst the worst affected. I also think the whole idea of, well I wouldn’t say women’s rights but feminism has been highjacked – a woman think its great because she can work at the same place a man can, can be in the boardroom, drink the same beer that a man can, that is true equality. But that’s not liberation. There is more to it. There are a little things milling around in my mind- Intellectual thoughts I want to put them into poetry and novels maybe. RM: Some writers that you admire and or read? BENJAMIN: I read much, not as much as I like to, I have an amazing library, and anytime anyone comes to visit I show them my books. Oh gosh I have many writers that I admire, I don’t know where to start – Tony Morrison, Martin Amis, Suheir Hammad, and Natali. I can’t get enough of Noam Chomsky, Zadie smith. RM: At Eleven Eleven we seek to create a cultural platform and exchange for writers and readers nationally and globally- is there any words of advice you have for aspiring writers or any thoughts you would like to leave us with? BENJAMIN: Be honest, and even if you write in fiction- be honest. You have to be able to wake up in the morning and look that piece of art in the face. You have to live with that art for the rest of your life especially if you are going to be published. Don’t go with the crowed, don’t write something because it is popular, dont write something because you are a man and these are the guys you hang out with or you’re a girl and these are the girls you hang out with, because when the guys and girls are gone you will have to live with your art. I cannot talk form and style of writing; apparently I break all types of forms and rules. ONE thing I know, my poetry is full of my passion and my honesty and sometimes it’s challenging to my self because I Have to be honest to my self. For it is the most important thing. You can find people who can crack wonderful poems, with the right technique and have done many writing classes but without passion and honesty their writing it doesn’t go anywhere.       - - - - - -

Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah was born and raised in Birmingham, England. His poetry is strongly influenced by the music and poetry of Jamaica and what he calls “street politics’. He moved to London in 1979 and published his first collection, Pen Rhythm, in 1980. He holds an honorary doctorate in Arts and Humanities from the University of North London (1998), was made a Doctor of Letters by the University of Central England (1999) and a Doctor of the University by the University of Staffordshire (2002).He is an accomplished novelist and children’s poet as well. Recent works by Zephaniah include, Gangsta Rap (2004) , J is for Jamaica (World Alphabet, 2006) , Teacher’s Dead (2007) and Face: The Play (with Richard Conlon) (2008). For more information on the author please visit www.benjaminzephaniah.com