Benjamin Zephaniah (15 April 1958 / Birmingham)

Andrew James what can you possibly know about english culture, many of us accept that ours is a multi-cultural society, its shame people with an attitude like yours still have the use of a brain when really a spinal cord would suffice! All power to Benjamin

Thank you Ali! Also A. James - why even waste time reading these poems if you know you don't like them?

Iman xx

Andrew James why bother wiritng the same comment on every single poem by this man. Not only does he make politics accessible heuses language and rythm to add power and strength to the concepts behind it. Just because you are racist/ignorant, does not lessen this mans talent and control of language.

drivel... evidence that english culture is falling into a cesspool of illiterate dunderheads... zephaniah's ouvre is empty headed drivel... he has little to say other than preachy diatribes imparted with trivial insights slapped together for mass consumption and appeal...

sadly i agree with his politics and share concern for the realities facing the non-white world... i also respect his passion for his subject... that does not make him a good poet or me a good politician...

An ABSOLUTELY amazing poem that highlights how racist ideology is immersed in language and makes the reader see his point by playing with language. Zephaniah achieves his goal of both criticizing the dominant standard and at the same time empowering the languages spoken by those who once were colonized by the empire and one of its most efficient ways of depriving the colonized of their culture and nature: imposition of language. A masterpiece by one of the best poets of our times.

Just brilliant and to the point. Wisdom in white and black..

Pithy, wonderful, love it.