Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (15 April 1958 - 7 December 2023) was a British writer, dub poet and Rastafarian. Zephaniah was born and raised in the Handsworth district of Birmingham, which he had called the "Jamaican capital of Europe". He was the son of a Barbadian postman and a Jamaican nurse. A dyslexic, he attended an approved school but left aged 13 unable to read or write. He wrote that his poetry was strongly influenced by the music and poetry of Jamaica and what he called "street politics". His first performance was in church when he was eleven, and by the age of fifteen, his poetry was already known among Handsworth's Afro-Caribbean and Asian communities. He received a criminal record with the police as a young man and served a prison sentence for burglary. Tired of the limitations of being a black poet communicating with black people only, he decided to expand his audience, and headed to London at the age of twenty-two. (read more on wikipedia)
Links To Peel[]
In early 1983, Peel gave airtime to the Benjamin Zephaniah's debut 'Dub Ranting' EP and the performer recorded his only two sessions for the show.
In 1995, the DJ visited Zephaniah's house to interview him for the Offspring radio programme. According to Sheila on Margrave Of The Marshes, they were supposed to talk about infertility after Zephaniah wrote a piece about his experience of it, but due to his shyness, Peel did not raise the topic and instead talked to him about martial arts, until he was compelled to bring up the reason for his visit before he left Zephaniah's house.
On John Peel Tribute, a BBC2 programme broadcast one week after the DJ's death in 2004, Zephaniah mentioned that he first heard Misty In Roots on Peel's show:
'He didn't do any build up, like "now some reggae!" He just introduced it just like any other record on his show: "And this is Misty In Roots..." I thought, wow, white people like our music!'.
A year after Peel's death, listeners on BBC Radio One voted Zephaniah's 'Rong Radio Station' track at number 47 in the 2005 Festive Fifty.
Festive Fifty Entries[]
- 2005 Festive Fifty: Rong Radio Station #47
Sessions[]
1. Recorded: Unknown. First Broadcast: 10 January 1983.
- Problems / I Christmas Poem / Uganda's What I Mean
2. Recorded 1983-02-01. First Broadcast 07 February 1983. Repeated 23 February 1983.
- Dis Policeman / Riot In Progress / The Boat / Uprising Downtown / 13 Dead / Fight Them Not Me
Other Shows Played[]
Benjamin Zephaniah - Rong Radio
- 1983
- 12 January 1983: War (EP - Dub Ranting) Radical Wallpaper RAD WALL 005
- 07 February 1983 (BBC World Service): I Love (7" EP - Dub Ranting) Radical Wallpaper RAD WALL 005
- 14 February 1983 (BBC World Service): Fantasy Poem (7" EP - Dub Ranting) Radical Wallpaper RAD WALL 005
- 25 July 1983 (BBC World Service): Rasta (album - Rasta) Upright UP LP 2
- Stewart Tape Oct 1983: Free South Afrika (Illegal) (album - Rasta) Upright
1984
- 19 November 1984 (BBC World Service): Miss World (12" - Big Boys Don't Make Girls Cry) Upright UPT10
- 1986
- 15 July 1986: Free South Africa
- 1992
- 25 April 1992 (& Carlton Newman): Crisis - The Poor Can't Tek Nu More (12" - Crisis) Workers
- 2000
- 28 March 2000 (with Asian Dub Foundation): 'Riddim I Like (CD-Community Music)' (FFRR)
- 16 November 2000: We Are Tribes (LP - Heading For The Door) MP
- 2004
- 19 October 2004: Rong Radio Station