Heartfelt tributes flowed in for the British poet and "Peaky Blinders" actor, Benjamin Zephaniah after he passed away in the early hours of last Thursday, Dec. 7, at 65 years old. According to an Instagram post on his official page, Zephaniah's passing followed an eight-week-long battle with a recently diagnosed brain tumor, with his wife staying by the poet's side "throughout."
The post read: "Benjamin was a true pioneer and innovator, he gave the world so much. Through an amazing career including a huge body of poems, literature, music, television, and radio, Benjamin leaves us with a joyful and fantastic legacy."
Zephaniah's foray into television included a role in the hit UK show Peaky Blinders, where he co-starred in 14 episodes with fellow cast member Cillian Murphy, as reported by Deadline. The Irish actor said in a statement that he was utterly "saddened" by the announcement of the poet's death, saying, "Benjamin was a truly gifted and beautiful human being - a generational poet, writer, musician, and activist."
Benjamin Zephaniah's Lifelong Passion and Career
Bereaved colleagues of Zephaniah's flocked to X, formerly known as Twitter, to say their piece honoring the poet. For one, the author Bernardine Evaristo described Zephaniah as a "trailblazing poet," while fellow Labor Party member and then-leader Jeremy Corbyn recounted the poet as "a devoted friend of the marginalized and dispossessed" and "a beacon of hope."
Born in April of 1958 in one of Birmingham's inner-city wards, Handsworth, it wasn't until Zephaniah had turned 14 that he began to perform poetry in his locality. Coincidentally, he also had to leave school during the same year due to being dyslexic.
After moving to London in 1979, he published his first poetry collection dubbed "Pen Rhythm," re-centering the essence of his poetic performances on the theme of protesting against racial injustices such as apartheid. This sort of thematic focus on political and historical subjects would continue in his 1985 poetry collection "The Dread Affair," wherein he repeatedly berated the British legal system using "sharp jabs" expressed through poetry.
Come 1999, he penned "What Stephen Lawrence Has Taught Us," which served as his contribution to the efforts to find the killers of its namesake and then-18-year-old South-East Londoner. Zephaniah also possessed great musical ability, being among the first acts to record with Bob Marley's band, The Wailers, shortly after his passing.
Consequently, Nelson Mandela heard Zephaniah's tribute to Marley and requested to converse with the poet, which led to the organization of a concert that would later be performed at the Royal Alber Hall in 1966, hosted by Zephaniah as per Mandela's request.
To celebrate the poet's 60th birthday. his penultimate work called "Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah" was published.
