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ARTICLE: Six of the best

Six of Benjamin Zephaniah's heroes

Muhammad Ali was more than a sportsman. For many of my generation the boxing wasn't that important, it was what he stood for. He realised that freedom, liberty, and justice were more important than sports. He was also quite a good poet. How I wish that our sports people today would stand up and speak out against illegal wars, how I wished that one of our athletes could join the black consciousness movement. Muhammad Ali hasn't boxed for years and he is still the most respected sports person in the world, which proves that if you have integrity, you can keep it real, and still be respected.

 

Angela Davis is an (S)hero that has almost been forgotten. But once upon a time, she was on the FBI list as America's most wanted. The ‘Free Angela Davis Movement' must have been the first political moment I became involved with. I was just 11 years old. Her Afro became the symbol of the struggle for millions of urban black people, but as I write these lines I wonder how many readers will remember or even know of her.

 

Bob Marley was more than just a musician. He was a poet, freedom fighter, and a creative intellectual. I remember lying in my prison cell and reciting the words of one his songs: This morning I woke up in a curfew, oh god I was a prisoner too, could not recognise the faces standing over me, all dressed in uniforms of brutality. Many people like the idea of liking Marley, he was an international icon from a very small island, he was cool, he was a rebel, but for me it was personal. I listened to every word he wrote, and I was convinced that we were connected, he was my bigger brother, and every time he said something I thought ‘you tell them brother.' Bob Marley is not just for liking, he's for listening to, with an open mind.

 

Every time I hear or read something from Naom Chomsky I'm amazed at how accessible he can make complex ideas about society and the way we are governed. He started as a linguist but was fascinated with the way that a child can learn six languages at once. He then started to think about the way that language is used in the adult world, and how corporations and governments manipulate language to manipulate us. Language is more than an academic subject; it is more than the building blocks for making poetry, it can also be used as a tool of oppression, or liberation.

 

When I started performing poetry I thought I was in a world of my own. I thought there was nobody doing what I do. Then I heard about this Jamaican/British poet called Linton Kewsi Johnson. When I first saw his performance I felt as if I'd found a great lost tribe of poets, but there were only two of us. Now there are more of us, and there are lots of debates about how it all began, I don't really know how it started but I do know that after discovering Linton Kewsi Johnson I realised I was not alone.

 

The black community has been desperate for black leadership. I don't want to start calling names but there is a general feeling that we are being let down. It is as if there is a race to become the first black Prime Minister at the expense of those who supported them. We never felt that with Bernie Grant, a rare example of a principled and dedicated politician, black or white. Even when he was in parliament he still sounded like a bloke from Tottenham who was in the house taking care of our business.