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'Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought'

Relayed by Manos | 27.11.2003 12:08 | Analysis | Social Struggles | Cambridge

An invitation to the palace to accept an New Year honour... you must be joking. Benjamin Zephaniah won't be going. Here he explains why

'Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought'

An invitation to the palace to accept an New Year honour... you must be joking. Benjamin Zephaniah won't be going. Here he explains why

Thursday November 27, 2003
The Guardian
 http://books.guardian.co.uk/poetry/features/0,12887,1094009,00.html

Angry: Benjamin Zephaniah

I woke up on the morning of November 13 wondering how the government could be overthrown and what could replace it, and then I noticed a letter from the prime minister's office. It said: "The prime minister has asked me to inform you, in strict confidence, that he has in mind, on the occasion of the forthcoming list of New Year's honours to submit your name to the Queen with a recommendation that Her Majesty may be graciously pleased to approve that you be appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire."

Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought. I get angry when I hear that word "empire"; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised. It is because of this concept of empire that my British education led me to believe that the history of black people started with slavery and that we were born slaves, and should therefore be grateful that we were given freedom by our caring white masters. It is because of this idea of empire that black people like myself don't even know our true names or our true historical culture. I am not one of those who are obsessed with their roots, and I'm certainly not suffering from a crisis of identity; my obsession is about the future and the political rights of all people. Benjamin Zephaniah OBE - no way Mr Blair, no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire.

There's something very strange about receiving a letter from Tony Blair's office asking me if I want to accept this award. In the past couple of months I've been on Blair's doorstep a few times. I have begged him to come out and meet me; I have been longing for a conversation with him, but he won't come out, and now here he is asking me to meet him at the palace! I was there with a million people on February 15, and the last time I was there was just a couple of weeks ago. My cousin, Michael Powell, was arrested and taken to Thornhill Road police station in Birmingham where he died. Now, I know how he died. The whole of Birmingham knows how he died, but in order to get this article published and to be politically (or journalistically) correct, I have to say that he died in suspicious circumstances. The police will not give us any answers. We have not seen or heard anything of all the reports and investigations we were told were going to take place. Now, all that my family can do is join with all the other families who have lost members while in custody because no one in power is listening to us. Come on Mr Blair, I'll meet you anytime. Let's talk about your Home Office, let's talk about being tough on crime.

This OBE thing is supposed to be for my services to literature, but there are a whole lot of writers who are better than me, and they're not involved in the things that I'm involved in. All they do is write; I spend most of my time doing other things. If they want to give me one of these empire things, why can't they give me one for my work in animal rights? Why can't they give me one for my struggle against racism? What about giving me one for all the letters I write to innocent people in prisons who have been framed? I may just consider accepting some kind of award for my services on behalf of the millions of people who have stood up against the war in Iraq. It's such hard work - much harder than writing poems.

And hey, if Her Majesty may be graciously pleased to lay all that empire stuff on me, why can't she write to me herself. Let's cut out the middleman - she knows me. The last time we met, it was at a concert I was hosting. She came backstage to meet me. That didn't bother me; lots of people visit my dressing room after performances. Me and the South African performers I was working with that night thought it rather funny that we had a royal groupie. She's a bit stiff but she's a nice old lady. Let me make it clear: I have nothing against her or the royal family. It is the institution of the monarchy that I loathe so very much, the monarchy that still refuses to apologise for sanctioning slavery.

There is a part of me that hopes that after writing this article I shall never be considered as a Poet Laureate or an OBE sucker again. Let this put an end to it. This may lose me some of my writing friends; some people may never want to work with me again, but the truth is I think OBEs compromise writers and poets, and laureates suddenly go soft - in the past I've even written a poem, Bought and Sold, saying that.

There are many black writers who love OBEs, it makes them feel like they have made it. When it suits them, they embrace the struggle against the ruling class and the oppression they visit upon us, but then they join the oppressors' club. They are so easily seduced into the great house of Babylon known as the palace. For them, a wonderful time is meeting the Queen and bowing before her presence.

I was shocked to see how many of my fellow writers jumped at the opportunity to go to Buckingham Palace when the Queen had her "meet the writers day" on July 9 2002, and I laughed at the pathetic excuses writers gave for going. "I did it for my mum"; "I did it for my kids"; "I did it for the school"; "I did it for the people", etc. I have even heard black writers who have collected OBEs saying that it is "symbolic of how far we have come". Oh yes, I say, we've struggled so hard just to get a minute with the Queen and we are so very grateful - not.

I've never heard of a holder of the OBE openly criticising the monarchy. They are officially friends, and that's what this cool Britannia project is about. It gives OBEs to cool rock stars, successful businesswomen and blacks who would be militant in order to give the impression that it is inclusive. Then these rock stars, successful women, and ex-militants write to me with the OBE after their name as if I should be impressed. I'm not. Quite the opposite - you've been had.

Writers and artists who see themselves as working outside the establishment are constantly being accused of selling out as soon as they have any kind of success. I've been called a sell-out for selling too many books, for writing books for children, for performing at the Royal Albert Hall, for going on Desert Island Discs, and for appearing on the Parkinson show. But I want to reach as many people as possible without compromising the content of my work.

What continues to be my biggest deal with the establishment must be my work with the British Council, of which, ironically, the Queen is patron. I have no problem with this. It has never told me what to say, or what not to say. I have always been free to criticise the government and even the council itself. This is what being a poet is about. Most importantly, through my work with the council I am able to show the world what Britain is really about in terms of our arts, and I am able to partake in the type of political and cultural intercourse which is not possible in the mainstream political arena. I have no problem representing the reality of our multiculturalism, which may sometimes mean speaking about the way my cousin Michael died in a police station. But then, I am also at ease letting people know that our music scene is more than what they hear in the charts, and that British poetry is more than Wordsworth, or even Motion. I have no problem with all of this because this is about us and what we do. It is about what happens on the streets of our country and not in the palace or at No 10.

Me, OBE? Whoever is behind this offer can never have read any of my work. Why don't they just give me some of those great African works of art that were taken in the name of the empire and let me return them to their rightful place? You can't fool me, Mr Blair. You want to privatise us all; you want to send us to war. You stay silent when we need you to speak for us, preferring to be the voice of the US. You have lied to us, and you continue to lie to us, and you have poured the working-class dream of a fair, compassionate, caring society down the dirty drain of empire. Stick it, Mr Blair - and Mrs Queen, stop going on about the empire. Let's do something else.

Bought and Sold

Smart big awards and prize money
Is killing off black poetry
It's not censors or dictators that are cutting up our art.
The lure of meeting royalty
And touching high society
Is damping creativity and eating at our heart.

The ancestors would turn in graves
Those poor black folk that once were slaves would wonder
How our souls were sold
And check our strategies,
The empire strikes back and waves
Tamed warriors bow on parades
When they have done what they've been told
They get their OBEs.

Don't take my word, go check the verse
Cause every laureate gets worse
A family that you cannot fault as muse will mess your mind,
And yeah, you may fatten your purse
And surely they will check you first when subjects need to be amused
With paid for prose and rhymes.

Take your prize, now write more,
Faster,
Fuck the truth
Now you're an actor do not fault your benefactor
Write, publish and review,
You look like a dreadlocks Rasta,
You look like a ghetto blaster,
But you can't diss your paymaster
And bite the hand that feeds you.

What happened to the verse of fire
Cursing cool the empire
What happened to the soul rebel that Marley had in mind,
This bloodstained, stolen empire rewards you and you conspire,
(Yes Marley said that time will tell)
Now look they've gone and joined.

We keep getting this beating
It's bad history repeating
It reminds me of those capitalists that say
'Look you have a choice,'
It's sick and self-defeating if our dispossessed keep weeping
And we give these awards meaning
But we end up with no voice.

· Taken from Too Black, Too Strong. Published by Bloodaxe Books (2001)

Relayed by Manos


Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

beat me to it

27.11.2003 13:27

ya beat me to it manos by 15 mins
so here is the good mans website
 http://www.benjaminzephaniah.com/
and a little peotry of my own
on the spur of the moment

For BZ hope it makes you laugh
cause you made me laugh (and cry)
at times


Benjamin a man.

he be well known in brixton here
where I do live for 20 odd year
he recite in many place and time
I remember very well his rhyme

I seen him with punks and dreads
in the pub around the corner
from Gazza, South Africa to India
China, Jamaca, Etheiopa and Lybia
(he gets about)

he spread a msessage of hope
with reggae, and performance
dub, rap and oral poetry
and a message of resistance.

many diferent people he meet
and with his words he fights
and with his deeds also
for many, for their RIGHTS
(peolpe and animals)

he is a champion of the oppressed
he not drawn in by the powerful
and he prove it by not coming dressed
in their finery medals and glitter
he says stick it up your shitter.
AGJ

OK one of his that i like

Talking Turkeys

Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas
Cos' turkeys just wanna hav fun
Turkeys are cool, turkeys are wicked
An every turkey has a Mum.
Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas,
Don't eat it, keep it alive,
It could be yu mate, an not on your plate
Say, Yo! Turkey I'm on your side.
I got lots of friends who are turkeys
An all of dem fear christmas time,
Dey wanna enjoy it, dey say humans destroyed it
An humans are out of dere mind,
Yeah, I got lots of friends who are turkeys
Dey all hav a right to a life,
Not to be caged up an genetically made up
By any farmer an his wife

zcat


It's Simple

27.11.2003 16:11

The Royal Cult needs a token Rastaman to become a "Knight of the Masonic Empire" and prove they are not filthy racists, when they are... and to promote 'tolerance' in a society where racism is institutional.

Don't do it!

Sis


ELITISM

27.11.2003 23:36

Mr Benjamin Zephaniah a man of principal...
I bow to you...


the nazis:
So we have a bunch of elite bankers and government officials who
made money and gained power from a death machine and wanted a pure racial world to control...

who else thrives on the notion of purity of bloodline? on it's heritage and splendour?


All I know is, that any people who beleive in ULTIMATE POWER

and elitism through racial purity are not nice people to be around...

to me it is unbeleivable that supposedly adult human beings

can be taken in by this propaganda machinery: that certain people who have just the

right kind of bloodline and breeding can rule over the poor unwashed hoards

[that's us, baby!!!]

they wave and adore...fillup hours admiring this ridiculous shite!!!

I mean, it's just blood, we've all got it...These people want control over it...

in order to have control over us...

"In 1500 B.C., there were around 600,000 autonomous polities on the planet. Today, after many mergers and acquisitions, there are 193 autonomous polities. At this rate, the planet should have a single government any day now."

NEW WORLD ORDER
Chapter 15 of NONZERO -THE LOGIC OF HUMAN DESTINY By ROBERT WRIGHT
 http://www.nonzero.org/chap15.htm



and boy they are controlling and spilling an awful lot of blood,

blundering around planet earth, causing mayhem and destruction...

The groups that seem to be making the big decisions regarding

the future of this planet are a tribe...though they would argue, no doubt,

from their elitist puritanical perspective that they are a 'culture' far more

advanced than some tribal ideology.

"Tribe, a concept that has endeared itself to Western scholars and journalists for a century, is primarily a means to reduce for readers the complexity of the non-Western societies of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the American plains. It is no accident that the contemporary uses of the term tribe were developed during the 19th-century rise of evolutionary and racist theories to designate alien non-white peoples as inferior or less civilized and as having not yet evolved from a simpler, primal state."
"Tribe" and "Tribalism" David Wiley
 http://www.africa.upenn.edu/K-12/Tribe.html

These bloodlines of white supremecists have been trying to prove ownership

of the 'culture' of progressive enlightenment, for so many years from the

'discovery' of new lands...to the subsequent empire building

that I fear sadly continues to this day. The morphing of The Queen and her commonwealth

into the shadowy economic control of the World Bank and the IMF...

Such ordering [see buzzwords : CIVILISED, MODERNITY, CULTURE, MORALITY, HERITAGE, HONOUR]

of chaos [see buzzwords : UNCIVILISED, PRIMAL, MYSTIC, UNKNOWN, SAVAGERY]

provides us with an insight into a tradition of royal / elitist / Fascistic global

control and barbarity...

or to put it another way...

'dat shit is wack'!!!



much love to all
captain wardrobe

Captain Wardrobe


Babble On, Babylon

28.11.2003 13:54

Just because we are all a part of Babylon, doesn't mean we have to like it, does it?

Just because we are all a part of Babylon, doesn't mean we have to buy into it, does it?

Just because we are all a part of Babylon, doesn't mean we believe in it, does it?

Just because we are all a part of Babylon, doesn't mean we all consider ourselves 'subjects' of it, does it?

Just because we are all a part of Babylon, doesn't mean we want things to stay this way, does it?

Just because we are all a part of Babylon, doesn't mean we accept the meagre 'rewards' that it dangles in front of us, does it?

Just because we are all a part of Babylon, doesn't mean we think it's right, does it?

One day, the people will once again see that Babylon is an illusion, that they've been living a lie.

When that day comes, Bredren, Babylon WILL burn!!

Blood & Fire!!


All power to those who resist the seductive Chupa-Chup.

29.11.2003 02:36

What a refreshing thing it is to hear someone do what they think. So many of us are so, so sick of the sychophancy of all those who claim to be in possesion of a superior morality, especially after having rubbed themselves up against the Queen Bee. Be careful though, too many would be republicans feel the need to not cast aspersions against the character of these monarchs. What sort of person willingly would want to be a monarch? Presumably someone of somewhat dubious character I would have thought. The British lot claim to defend the common wealth and yet spung of it by the safe load. They perpetuate a system of inequality, that they of course prosper from. Also, they have appalling family relations. One way or another most of us would not want her for a mother, let alone suck on her Chuppa-Chup. I suspect she really is probably a very, very nasty person; judging by what she does anyway, and how else can we judge? By the company they keep?

Anyway congrats on your stand, there are probably millions who support you.
In the Spirit of Spartucus.

Peter Curtis
mail e-mail: ordep@alphalink.com.au


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