Editing Benjamin Zephaniah (section)

==Early life and education==
Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah was born on 15 April 1958,<ref name="Gregory">{{cite book |last=Gregory |first=Andy |year=2002 |title=International Who's Who in Popular Music 2002 |publisher=Europa |page=562 |isbn=1-85743-161-8}}</ref><ref name="Guardian obituary">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/dec/07/benjamin-zephaniah-obituary|title=Benjamin Zephaniah obituary|first=Peter|last=Mason|author-link=Peter Mason (journalist and author)|newspaper=The Guardian|date=7 December 2023|access-date=8 December 2023|archive-date=8 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231208131249/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/dec/07/benjamin-zephaniah-obituary|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Telegraph-obit">{{cite news |title=Benjamin Zephaniah, poet treasured as 'The people's laureate' who performed to a reggae backbeat – obituary |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2023/12/07/benjamin-zephaniah-dub-poet-reggae-novelist-birmingham/ |access-date=8 December 2023 |newspaper=[[Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]] |date=7 December 2023|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}}</ref> in the [[Handsworth, West Midlands|Handsworth]] district of [[Birmingham, England]], where he was also raised.<ref name=bbc7dec/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth105  |title=Benjamin Zephaniah |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071003022123/http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth105 |archive-date=3 October 2007 |publisher=British Council}}</ref> He referred to this area as the "Jamaican capital of Europe".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/content/articles/2006/03/23/benjamin_feature.shtml|title=Handsworth Spirit|first=Mandisa|last=Gordon|publisher=BBC|date=28 October 2014|access-date=11 August 2021|archive-date=11 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210811072743/http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/content/articles/2006/03/23/benjamin_feature.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> The son of parents who had migrated from the Caribbean – Oswald Springer, a [[Barbados|Barbadian]] postman, and Leneve (née Honeyghan),<ref>{{cite book| last= Zephaniah| first= Benjamin|year= 2019| title= The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah| publisher= Scribner UK | page=22|isbn= 978-1-471-16895-6}}</ref> a [[Jamaicans|Jamaican]] nurse who came to Britain in 1956 and worked for the [[National Health Service]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-benjamin-zephaniah-scared-after-two-family-members-die-of-covid-19-12000752|title=Coronavirus: Benjamin Zephaniah 'scared' after two family members die of COVID-19|website=Sky News|date=5 June 2020|access-date=29 August 2024}}</ref> – he had a total of seven younger siblings, including his twin sister, Velda.<ref name="Guardian obituary" /><ref name="Telegraph-obit" /><ref name="Kellaway">{{cite news|last=Kellaway|first=Kate|author-link=Kate Kellaway|date=4 November 2001|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/nov/04/poetry.fiction|title=Dread poet's society|newspaper=[[The Observer]]|access-date=11 December 2016|archive-date=26 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161226071305/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/nov/04/poetry.fiction|url-status=live}}</ref> 

Zephaniah wrote that he was strongly influenced by the [[Music of Jamaica|music]] and poetry of [[Jamaica]] and what he called "street politics", and he said in a 2005 interview: {{blockquote|Well, for most of the early part of my life I thought poetry was an oral thing. We used to listen to tapes from Jamaica of [[Louise Bennett]], who we think of as the queen of all dub poets. For me, it was two things: it was words wanting to say something and words creating rhythm. Written poetry was a very strange thing that white people did.<ref name="High Profiles">{{cite web|url=https://highprofiles.info/interview/benjamin-zephaniah/|title=Dread Right?|first=Simon Joseph|last=Jones|website=High Profiles|date=24 May 2005|access-date=13 December 2023|archive-date=13 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231213012638/https://highprofiles.info/interview/benjamin-zephaniah/|url-status=live}}</ref>}} His first performance was in church when he was 11 years old, resulting in him adopting the name Zephaniah (after [[Zephaniah|the biblical prophet]]),<ref name="Guardian obituary" /> and by the age of 15, his poetry was already known among Handsworth's [[British African-Caribbean community|Afro-Caribbean]] and Asian communities.<ref name="Larkin">{{cite book |author-link=Colin Larkin (writer) |author-last=Larkin |author-first=Colin |date=1998 |title=The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae |publisher=Virgin Books |isbn=0-7535-0242-9}}</ref>

He was educated at [[Broadway Academy|Broadway School]], Birmingham, from which he was expelled aged 13, unable to read or write due to [[dyslexia]].<ref name="Kellaway" /><ref name="Telegraph-obit" /><ref name="Guardian obituary" /> He was sent to Boreatton Park [[approved school]] in [[Baschurch]], Shropshire.<ref name="BBC-c0324816ny0o">{{cite news |title=Benjamin Zephaniah: Shrewsbury ex-teacher remembers 'star' pupil |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0324816ny0o |access-date=8 December 2023 |work=BBC News |date=8 December 2023}}</ref>

The gift, during his childhood, of an old, manual [[typewriter]] inspired him to become a writer. It is now in the collection of [[Birmingham Museums Trust]].<ref name="AR">{{Cite episode |title=Aston Hall 1 |series=Antiques Roadshow |series-link=Antiques Roadshow |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0011g6p/ |access-date=11 November 2021 |network= [[BBC Television]]|date=7 November 2021 |series-no=44 |number=4 }}</ref>

As a youth, he spent time in [[borstal]] and in his late teens received a criminal record and served a prison sentence for burglary.<ref name="Guardian obituary" /><ref name="Kellaway" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/28/benjamin-zephaniah-abuse-crime-peoples-poet-autobiography|title='I went off the rails': how Benjamin Zephaniah went from borstal to poet|first=Dalya|last=Alberge|newspaper=The Observer |date=28 January 2018|via=The Guardian|access-date=7 December 2023|archive-date=31 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331095603/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/28/benjamin-zephaniah-abuse-crime-peoples-poet-autobiography|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.benjaminzephaniah.com/content/182.php |title=Interview with ''Raw Edge Magazine'': Benjamin talks about how life in prison helped change his future as a poet |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090520171430/http://www.benjaminzephaniah.com/content/182.php |archive-date=20 May 2009 |magazine=Raw Edge |issue=5 |date=Autumn–Winter 1997}}</ref> Tired of the limitations of being a black poet communicating with black people only, he decided to expand his audience, and in 1979, at the age of 22, he headed to London, where his first book would be published the next year.<ref name=bio>{{cite web |url=https://benjaminzephaniah.com/biography/ |title=Biography |publisher=Benjamin Zephaniah|access-date=16 December 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/zephaniah-benjamin-1958/|title=Benjamin Zephaniah (1958– )|website=[[Blackpast.org]]|first=Emily|last=Cousins|date=7 June 2010|access-date=17 December 2023}}</ref>

While living in London, Zephaniah was assaulted during the [[1981 Brixton riot]]s and chronicled his experiences on his 1982 album ''Rasta''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.redpepper.org.uk/culture-media/stage-screen/reforming-has-done-nothing-thats-why-im-an-anarchist/|title=' Reforming has done nothing. That's why I'm an anarchist.' An interview with Benjamin Zephaniah|website=[[Red Pepper (newspaper)|Red Pepper]]|first=Anu S|last=hukla|date=10 April 2018|access-date=17 December 2023}}</ref> He experienced racism on a regular basis:<ref name="Maciuca">{{Cite web|last=Maciuca|first=Andra|date=29 October 2019|title=Benjamin Zephaniah on Nelson Mandela, Bob Marley and race riots|url=https://www.saffronwaldenreporter.co.uk/things-to-do/benjamin-zephaniah-about-his-life-at-saffron-hall-5427336|access-date=29 April 2021|website=Saffron Walden Reporter|language=en-UK|archive-date=29 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429185702/https://www.saffronwaldenreporter.co.uk/things-to-do/benjamin-zephaniah-about-his-life-at-saffron-hall-5427336|url-status=live}}</ref>

{{blockquote|They happened around me. Back then, racism was very in your face. There was the [[National Front (UK)|National Front]] against black and foreign people, and the police were also very racist. I got stopped four times after I bought a [[BMW]] when I became successful with poetry. I kept getting stopped by the police, so I sold it.}}

In a session with [[John Peel]] on 1 February 1983 – one of two [[John Peel#Peel sessions|Peel sessions]] he recorded that year – Zephaniah's responses were recorded in such poems as "Dis Policeman", "The Boat", "Riot in Progress" and "Uprising Downtown".<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWRwaXNcr-c|title= BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH John Peel 1st February 1983|date= 6 April 2018|via=YouTube|access-date=17 December 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00ky24y|title=6 Music Live Hour {{!}} Benjamin Zephaniah - Archive session (1994)|website=BBC Radio 6|access-date=17 December 2023}}</ref>