Benjamin Zephaniah
Author, poet, activist and musician Benjamin Zephaniah has long been one of Britain’s most distinct voices. “I write to connect with people… I have no interest in impressing government,” he tells Ruth Seavers.
Benjamin Zephaniah has spent much of his life being busy. He’s recently put out an autobiography, which he is currently touring to promote, and he’s lived across Birmingham, Jamaica, Newham, Egypt, Yugoslavia, and South Africa. How has he found it so easy to move around?
“It’s interesting because my last couple of novels – nearly all my novels, actually – are written about the East End of London, but they were all written in China. People can struggle with identity when it comes to nationhood. Once you’re a writer you’ve kind of got this in your head but I know very few people who are purely ‘one thing’.
“And I used to struggle with this. My mother’s from Jamaica, my father’s from Barbados and I was born in England. They all came from Africa. So am I African? Am I Caribbean? Am I British? The British don’t welcome me. And they don’t recognise me as Jamaican when I go back to Jamaica. This thing that people have to understand is that the idea of a nation state, the idea of a passport and a flag, is a very modern one. Once you get rid of that, you realise that we’re just human beings.”
For Benjamin then, is the notion of identity as a singular and inflexible thing damaging to the human psyche? “Yes – I think we are spirits that have a body. It’s colourless. It knows no colour at all. And I think the moment we start digging down too deeply in terms of who we are in terms of nationality and even in terms of race…there’s a danger that you think you are special to a certain extent.”
It’s a common theme amongst artists, this sense of identity disturbance. Is that conducive to creativity? “Yes. If people are going through that and need to explore that for their own mental health. Especially when you’re young. I mean, I’ve been through it. But actually, it’s all kind of chance. There’s a moment in my autobiography where I talk about my mum in Jamaica and she looks at a poster with her sister that says “Come to England where the streets are paved with Gold,” and she says; “I think I’ll go.” And she turned to her sister who said “No it’s too bloody cold, I’m not going there.” And that’s the difference. Between me and my cousins, who live in quite poverty and who die because of hurricanes or go out fishing and get caught in the sea. And I live comfortably in England.”
The Life and Rhymes Of Benjamin Zephaniah, his autobiography, was a challenge for the veteran author to write. “It was like three times bigger than it had to be, and I had to edit it down. That was a little bit difficult. In the writing process, you submit it and edit it down and then you get the uncorrected proof. Then I got the finished thing on a PDF and I read it as a reader.”
Did he find it difficult sitting down with his own work like that? “It wasn’t so much difficult, it was really moving. I was the main character. And I thought ‘OK, if I’m moved by it, it should move other people’.”
Zephaniah rejected an OBE in 2003, saying he “didn’t want to take crumbs from the white man’s table”. 15 years later, this spring has brought both the Windrush scandal and the addition of Meghan Markle, a mixed-race woman, into the royal family. How much does Zephaniah think things have changed?
“Well, I think in many ways we’ve moved on. My thing wasn’t just about race, it was about empire. This Order Of The British Empire was originally given to people for killing people. People like me. And they wanted to make it a bit more civilian, so they started giving it to cleaners and poets. I don’t want the word ‘empire’ attached to my name. I write to connect with people, to move people at the real grassroots level. I have no interest in impressing government or monarchy.”
With the rise in racially-motivated hate crimes in the UK after the Brexit vote and the presence of Donald Trump in the White House, are things moving forward at all for tolerance and diversity? “I think that we have to be careful, people that write. We have to be a little bit careful because people have voted for these things. I don’t know if you’ve heard but the Flat Earth Movement in Britain, they were on the news the other day, sitting down, having a respectable conversation… and they’re growing.
“Somebody said to me years ago that he didn’t think people should be allowed to vote unless they could prove they had a certain understanding of politics and I just rubbished him, but there’s a part of me that’s leaning that way now.” A perhaps controversial statement for some, but evidence of the malleability of democracy.
“A woman living locally to me, who voted to leave, she said to me the other day, ‘It’s not going good, is it?’ I said, ‘Well, no. No, it’s not.’ And then she said, ‘Next year when they have the vote I’m gonna vote to remain…’ It’s scary because this is the free world.”
And finally, what’s Benjamin’s main piece of advice for young writers today? “To really be honest. And to understand that success is not about how many books you sell. Some of the greatest writers, and musicians only got success after they died. Writing is important because it’s telling your story, or re-interpreting the world the way you see it. And to keep doing it. Because if you don’t, somebody’s going to do it on your behalf and say they represent you. The important thing is to not go with the fashions and the fads, whatever the latest thing is. To be true to yourself. I know sometimes people struggle for a living and that kind of thing but I always say that if you really stay true to yourself and you’re a good writer. it will come true in the end.”
Benjamin Zephaniah, Glee Club, Cardiff Bay, Sun 17 June. Tickets: £22. Info: 0871 4720400 / www.glee.co.uk
The Life And Rhymes Of Benjamin Zephaniah is available now. Price: £20. Info: www.simonandschuster.co.uk
