British writer and poet, Benjamin Zephaniah, has died at the age of 65 eight weeks after he was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
A statement posted on his Instagram account confirmed he died in the early hours of Thursday Dec. 7.
The statement said Zephaniah’s wife “was with him throughout and was by his side when he passed”.
“We shared him with the world and we know many will be shocked and saddened by this news,” it added.
Zephaniah, the son of a Barbadian postman and a Jamaican nurse was born and raised in Handsworth, Birmingham.
He moved to London aged 22 and published his first book, Pen Rhythm.
His early work used dub poetry, a Jamaican style of work that has evolved into the music genre of the same name, and he would also perform with the group The Benjamin Zephaniah Band.
As Zephaniah’s profile grew, he became a familiar face on television and was credited with bringing Dub Poetry into British living rooms.
He also wrote five novels as well as poetry for children, and his first book for younger readers, Talking Turkeys, was a huge success upon its publication in 1994.
On top of his writing work, Zephaniah was an actor and appeared in the BBC drama series Peaky Blinders between 2013 and 2022.
He played Jeremiah “Jimmy” Jesus, appearing in 14 episodes across the six series.
Zephaniah famously rejected an OBE in 2003 due to the association of such an honour with the British Empire and its history of slavery.
“I’ve been fighting against empire all my life, fighting against slavery and colonialism all my life,” he told The Big Narstie Show in 2020.
“I’ve been writing to connect with people, not to impress governments and monarchy. So I could I then accept an honour that puts the word Empire on to my name? That would be hypocritical.
He often spoke out about issues such as racial abuse and education.
When he was younger, Zephaniah served a prison sentence for burglary and received a criminal record.
In 1982, Zephaniah released an album called Rasta, which featured the Wailers’ first recording since the death of Bob Marley.
It also included a tribute to the then-political prisoner Nelson Mandela, who would later become South African president.
In an interview in 2005, Zephaniah said growing up in a violent household led to him assuming that was the norm.
He recalled: “I once asked a friend of mine, ‘What do you do when your dad beats your mum?’ And he went: ‘He doesn’t.’
“I said, ‘Ah, you come from one of those, like, feminist houses. So, what do you do when your mum beats your dad?'”
Zephaniah was nominated for autobiography of the year at the National Book Awards for his work, The Life And Rhymes Of Benjamin Zephaniah, which was also shortlisted for the Costa Book Award in 2018.
