FEW people have turned their lives around with such remarkable determination as revered poet Benjamin Zephaniah.
Benjamin, who died yesterday aged 65, became a professor of poetry despite being dyslexic and leaving school unable to read or write and starred in TV hit Peaky Blinders as well as other shows.
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The family of the Birmingham born radical and campaigning writer, musician and actor were at his bedside as he passed away just eight weeks after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
The Rastafarian played Jeremiah “Jimmy” Jesus in the hit BBC gang drama for nine years.
Having been brought up in a violent home, he was expelled from school aged 13 and spent 18 months in prison for burglary.
Yet now Benjamin’s poems are studied by English GCSE students and he turned down an OBE in 2003.
Tributes last night poured in for the politically outspoken wordsmith.
Peaky Blinders lead actor Cillian Murphy said: “Benjamin was a truly gifted and beautiful human being – a generational poet, writer, musician and activist.”
Sun columnist Tony Parsons wrote: “Benjamin Zephaniah was a beautiful man – warm, funny, wise – a breath of fresh air and humanity, always a joy to be around, one of those working class kids who refused to stay in the box they put him in.”
Children’s author Michael Rosen commented on social media: “I’m devastated. I admired him, respected him, learnt from him, loved him.”
Born in Handsworth in 1958, to a nurse from Jamaica and a postman from Barbados, Benjamin had eight siblings.
He said: “Our early life was really poor, we had to share a tin bath and an outside toilet with the neighbours.”
Aged eight his mum whisked him away from the family home and went on the run, leaving his brothers and sisters behind with his dad.
A couple of years later his dad tracked them down and when he started attacking his mum, Benjamin tried to fend him off.
He recalled: “I had a little knife and I was trying to get at his vein. The police came and arrested me.”
He was eventually thrown out of school for causing too much trouble.
There were also fights with racist gangs on the streets of Birmingham.
He once said: “I had to fight skinheads on the streets. When I was a teenager going to clubs, you’d come out and they’d be lined up, and you had to fight them.”
With few job prospects available to him, Benjamin admitted to turning to petty crime.
I remember being in prison, thinking, ‘I want to change the world, and now I’m sitting in a cell. What am I doing?
Benjamin Zephaniah
But a spell inside convinced him that he needed to do something useful with his life.
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He said: “I remember being in prison, thinking, ‘I want to change the world, and now I’m sitting in a cell. What am I doing?’”
A lifelong gift for words offered Benjamin a way out.
He had been writing poems from the age of ten and started to perform them in front of audiences.
By the time he was 20 the budding writer had moved to Brixton, South London.
He had his first collection of poetry, Pen Rhythm, published in 1980.
At 22 he joined an adult education class to learn how to read.
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It was on stage that his distinctive brand of Dub Poetry caught the public’s attention.
Soon the ‘establishment’ he often berated in speeches at political demonstrations came calling.
He was shortlisted for a professorship at Oxford University, made it clear he didn’t want to be considered for the role of Poet Laureate and refused an OBE because he opposed “empire.”
But he did take up a role as a professor at Brunel University in London and accepted doctorates from countless others.
His musical career included forming the The Benjamin Zephaniah Band and performing with Sinead O’Connor.
Benjamin was often open and honest about the turmoil in his personal life, which included his first wife Amina leaving him after ten years together in 2001.
He was unable to have children and said: “I’d have loved kids, and I’ve tried and tried to have them.
I had to fight skinheads on the streets. When I was a teenager going to clubs, you’d come out and they’d be lined up, and you had to fight them.
Benjamin Zephaniah
“I was on the verge of adopting once, but they wouldn’t let me because my police records had gone missing.”
Benjamin also confessed to hitting one of his former girlfriends, something he said “burned my conscience so badly.”
In 2006 he moved to a bungalow in a small village near Spalding, Lincs, and focused on his writing.
Despite all his criticism of the government he never wanted to leave Britain.
Benjamin said: “I gotta say I love this country, though I rail against it all the time.”
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