A poetic protest for peace: An analysis of Benjamin Zephaniah‘s poetry

Abstract

Benjamin Zephaniah‘s poetry is deeply conscious of questions of racism, social injustice, and violence. He writes against these and demands solidarity among people of different backgrounds. This study is a qualitative approach to a detailed analysis of Benjamin Zephaniah‘s poetry. His autobiography, The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah (2018), contextualises our understanding of his poetry with experiences drawn from his life as a British Caribbean poet. With ancestral roots in Jamaica and Barbados, Zephaniah‘s poetic language is unconventional and this is a reflection of his Caribbean heritage. His subject matter of poetry is the rights of marginalised people, of people who face ostracization as a result of their racial and ethnic identity, mainly in Britain. He points out the discrepancies of institutions such as the political parties and the police in Britain that he argues, promote violence. Some of his poems also speak for animal rights. The aim of Zephaniah‘s poetic revolution is to demand peace and unity in people regardless of their ethnic or religious backgrounds.