Benjamin Zephaniah: Contemporary Voice of Resistance in Black Britain

In an era where the postcolonial nations are dilige ntly “writing back”, it is indispensable to discuss the creative possibilities wrested by black poets from a combina tion of assimilation and resistance to English as a language and culture. Poetry becomes an effective instrument of protest b ecause it can circulate orally without the aid of t he print medium, and its performance is less susceptible to censorship than narrative. As a mode of resistance, black poets aba ndon the genteel European manners of their white contemporaries and write about their condition in plain and sometimes rough language, using rhythms close to native speech and music, bec ause protest becomes more effective when it finds m eans within language and form to match the force of outer reality.