Benjamin Zephaniah is an insprational black poet. Born to a Jamaican nurse and postman from Barbados Zephaniah became famous for his live performance of Dub poetry. Perhaps Zephaniah's most memorable and scandalous accolade was his decision to turn down an OBE in 2003. Zephaniah's poem 'The Men from Jamaica Are Settling Down' was published in his 2001 collection entitled 'Too Black, Too Strong'. The poem is about the men from Jamaica who came to England post-WW2 and the hostility they encountered from many British people.
Many of the men who came from Jamiaca had fought for the Motherland in WW2 and considered themselves Great British citizens. They believed that the streets of England were "paved with gold" and as Zephaniah said they came "wid countless dreams." The description of the Jamiacan men as "pioneers" is repeated in the 2nd and last stanza. Zephaniah uses this word because he believes the men from Jamiaca were adventurers, looking for a new place to build a community for future generations. This description of the men as "pioneers" is also related to the fact that came over to Britain via boat, most famously the Empire Windrush. The idea of the Jamaican men being explorers is related to Arthur Miller's play 'Death of a Salesman', where the main character Willy Loman's brother talks about "going into the jungle and coming out rich." The similarity being the idea of being adventurous and searching for a better way of life.
In 1948 the SS Windrush carried 500 Carribean immigrants to Britain. Zephaniah references this in the final stanza of his poem: "Black pioneers came on de empire Windrush." However the men who came as pioneers were not given the respect they expected in the country they had fought for. As immigration increased gangs of 'nigger hunting' racists dissaproved of the Jamaican men leading to violence. For example the Notting Hill Race Riots in 1958 consisting of 6 days of violence and the arrest of 140 people, mainly white youths. However Zephaniah takes an interesting view of these incidents when he says in the poem "De newspapers said it was dreadful and shameful/ But the men from Jamaica were settling down." Zephaniah talks about the violence as a way of helping the Jamaican men establish their British identity:"A new generation rose up from these fighters" by getting "radical" and creating "blue dances and carnival."
In the final stanza Zephaniah uses an interesting metaphor when describing the Jamaican men who came over to Britain. He says "There souls were titanic" and I think this has many connotations. For example it could be in reference to the enormity and passion of the Carribean souls. However it could also be related to how the RMS titanic set out from Southampton to New York in 1912 with such high hopes, only for those hopes to literally sink in the Atlantic ocean. Similarly the Jamaican souls were so optimistic, only to be steadily crushed by British racism.
Benjamin Zephaniah's poetry is extremely fluent, poetic and emotive. It is often comical when making a powerful political statement and I think he is successful in outlining the struggle of the Carribean culture attempting to settle in Great Britain.
