ZEPHANIAH CONVINCES JOURNO TO DROP BRITISH AWARD

On 7 December 2023, one of Britain's finest anti-colonial poets, Benjamin Zephaniah, passed away at 65, leaving behind a revolutionary and anti-imperialist legacy. He used his exceptional talent and voice to expose and campaign against the crimes committed by the British Empire across the Global South.

In this 2003 video clip, a journalist told Zephaniah that he had made her rethink holding onto her Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) medal, returning it afterwards. Zephaniah himself had turned it down because it indicated loyalty to the empire. For many in the Global South, British imperialism represents the indignity of occupation, the theft of natural resources as well as slavery. Therefore, accepting such an award would have betrayed Zephaniah's principles.

Britain still presents a sanitised image of its empire, which spanned the globe as the largest of its kind until the mid-20th century, when the United States overtook it. To date, many are knocking on the UK's door, calling for reparations for the impact of its slave trade and colonisation.