ABSTRACT
The political nature of Benjamin Zephaniah’s poetry, especially the poems collected in City Pslams, are not only important in dealing with the political and social issues of Britain in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s but they also deeply resonate with the current moment. Issues such as racial inequality, the effects of colonialism, and climate change all find a place in his 1992 collection which shows that either Zephaniah was ahead of his time or that we have not learned or changed anything since that book was published. This chapter looks at the ways in which Zephaniah’s work in City Pslams can be read in terms of the present moment, the political underpinnings of his poetry, and the ways in which his West Indian heritage is interlinked with his British upbringing to deliver a rich and powerful poetry that sways aurally to the flow of West Indian intonation.
