How Does Zephaniah Express Anger About Injustice
How does Zephaniah express feelings of anger about injustice in his poems?
Benjamin Zephaniah expresses feeling of injustice in a vast amount of his poems. Zephaniah does this through the techniques he uses; emotive language, facts and personal experiences. Zephaniah is a dub poet. Dub poetry is a form of performance of the West Indians. It is spoken over reggae rhythms and is mainly about political and social nature concerned with justice.
Zephaniah uses plenty of real life examples to support his poems. Using real life examples show that Zephaniah’s point is true because it shows that it happens in reality. ‘Biko the greatness’ is a title of one of Zephaniah’s poems. Already in the title there is a sense of support towards Biko because he is described as ‘greatness’. This makes the reader know that Biko is good and know the message of the poem before even starting it. Biko is a south African man who stood up for the blacks against the whites because …show more content…
‘No decent folk to hear me cry’ [25]. Zephaniah is signifying that there is no-one decent enough to sympathise for him. He then goes on to say ‘No god fearers or infidel/ can save me from this Lex Loci’ [26-27]. ‘No god fearers,’ Zephaniah is implying that they are senseless people with no heart to sympathise for him or even care about him at all. Zephaniah exposes the injustice imposed on him and on people who share the same race to both sympathy and empathy. He says ‘You call me nigga, scum and wog/ but i won’t call you master.’ this line implies that the white people deliberately used vulgar language to implement their racial supremacy. Zephaniah is trying to show the reader the harshness stressed upon him and goes onto say that he won’t give up, he will not admit defeat. This makes the reader feel like he/she can be a part of Zephaniah’s courage and even help
Benjamin Zephaniah expresses feeling of injustice in a vast amount of his poems. Zephaniah does this through the techniques he uses; emotive language, facts and personal experiences. Zephaniah is a dub poet. Dub poetry is a form of performance of the West Indians. It is spoken over reggae rhythms and is mainly about political and social nature concerned with justice.
Zephaniah uses plenty of real life examples to support his poems. Using real life examples show that Zephaniah’s point is true because it shows that it happens in reality. ‘Biko the greatness’ is a title of one of Zephaniah’s poems. Already in the title there is a sense of support towards Biko because he is described as ‘greatness’. This makes the reader know that Biko is good and know the message of the poem before even starting it. Biko is a south African man who stood up for the blacks against the whites because …show more content…
‘No decent folk to hear me cry’ [25]. Zephaniah is signifying that there is no-one decent enough to sympathise for him. He then goes on to say ‘No god fearers or infidel/ can save me from this Lex Loci’ [26-27]. ‘No god fearers,’ Zephaniah is implying that they are senseless people with no heart to sympathise for him or even care about him at all. Zephaniah exposes the injustice imposed on him and on people who share the same race to both sympathy and empathy. He says ‘You call me nigga, scum and wog/ but i won’t call you master.’ this line implies that the white people deliberately used vulgar language to implement their racial supremacy. Zephaniah is trying to show the reader the harshness stressed upon him and goes onto say that he won’t give up, he will not admit defeat. This makes the reader feel like he/she can be a part of Zephaniah’s courage and even help