Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin Zephaniah was born in Wrexham, Wales, United Kingdom on April 15th, 1958 and is the Poet. At the age of 66, Benjamin Zephaniah biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
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Benjamin Obadiah Zephaniah (born 15 April 1958) is a British writer, dub poet, and Rastafarian.
In 2008, he was included in the Times list of Britain's top 50 war writers.
Early life and education
Zephaniah was born and raised in Birmingham, England, which he has described as the "Jamaican capital of Europe." He is the son of a Barbadian postman and a Jamaican nurse. He attended an accredited academy, but he was left unable to read or write at 13 years old. He was given an old, manual typewriter who, according to him, inspired him to become a writer. It is now in the Birmingham Museums Trust's collection.
His poetry is heavily inspired by Jamaica's music and poetry, as well as "street politics," according to him. His first performance was in church at the age of 11, and his poetry by the age of 15 was already well-known in Handsworth's Afro-Caribbean and Asian groups.
He had a criminal record and served a prison term for burglary as a youth. Tired of the limitations of being a black poet working with black people exclusively, he decided to expand his audience and landed in London at the age of 22.
Zephaniah was caught up in the 1980s racial riots and experienced bigotry on a daily basis while living in London:
Personal life
Zephaniah lived for many years in East London, but in 2008, he began dividing his time between a village near Spalding, Lincolnshire, and Beijing, China. He is a voracious language learner and has been studying Mandarin Chinese for more than a decade.
He was married for ten years to Amina, a theatre administrator who died in 2001.
Zephaniah admitted to being violent toward a former girlfriend in an interview with BBC Radio Five Live in May 2018.During the admission, he said:
Zephaniah's family were Catholic, but he became a Rastafari at a young age. In his thirties, he quit smoking cigarettes.
He is a fan of Aston Villa F.C. Aston Villa supporters' website has been on display, and the patron is the patron.