Month: March 2022

The British

Benjamin Zephaniah is a fascinating and exciting writer, singer, actor who holds provocative views for some and inspiring for others. He is one of those people who you can’t just ignore.
Born in Birmingham, he wrote poetry from an early age and was attracted to music which drew its influence from the music and street politics of Jamaica.

Of his many writings, his poetry and novels are aimed at children and young people though there is a wider context in that adults are encouraged to engage with the realism of the subjects. Nowhere does he ‘talk down’ to his audience and he tackles the issues of the real world and its conflicts and struggles at a local level.

Outside poetry and writing, he has recorded music which, like his writing, deals with gritty issues. He was responsible for an early tribute to Nelson Mandela and appeared in Peaky Blinders as the preacher Jeremiah, “Jimmy” Jesus. He has what some would think of as radical political views but which spring from a desire for justice, equality and reform in our society that many feel is vital if we are to become a harmonious and homogenous multi-cultural society.

It’s worth following him on his own website https://benjaminzephaniah.com/ which gives you an amazing insight into who he is and what he believes as well as access to his writings.

His picture of our multi-cultural and diverse society is expressed particularly in his poem The British. At a time when we are faced with an unprecedented influx of people from other parts of the world, especially Syria and now the Ukraine, it’s good to be reminded that Britain is shaped by people of diverse ethnicity stretching back to the Indo-European migration way back in the mists of time.

Very few of us could claim to be descended from the original British people (except, perhaps, the Welsh and Cornish). Even our Home Secretary, deeply involved in immigration matters, has a non-British background which brought her parents from Uganda to Hertfordshire. Her paternal grandparents came from Gujarat in India. I myself have some Irish ancestry which brought my great grandparents from West Cork to Glossop in Derbyshire.

This is one of the great components of our diverse and multi-cultural society.
It’s probably what really makes us ‘Great’.
Our story from pre-Celtic and Roman times is one of assimilation which brings enrichment, occasional tension, but there is always the possibility of celebrating difference by sharing common ground.

This is a big debate but Benjamin Zephaniah opens a window for us in his poem. It has humour which is always a good way of presenting complex matters but its message is powerful.
As he says himself, at the end, enjoy

Take some Picts, Celts and Silures
And let them settle,
Then overrun them with Roman conquerors.

Remove the Romans after approximately 400 years
Add lots of Norman French to some
Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings, then stir vigorously.

Mix some hot Chileans, cool Jamaicans, Dominicans,
Trinidadians and Bajans with some Ethiopians, Chinese,
Vietnamese and Sudanese.

Then take a blend of Somalians, Sri Lankans, Nigerians
And Pakistanis,
Combine with some Guyanese
And turn up the heat.

Sprinkle some fresh Indians, Malaysians, Bosnians,
Iraqis and Bangladeshis together with some
Afghans, Spanish, Turkish, Kurdish, Japanese
And Palestinians
Then add to the melting pot.

Leave the ingredients to simmer.

As they mix and blend allow their languages to flourish
Binding them together with English.

Allow time to be cool.

Add some unity, understanding, and respect for the future,
Serve with justice
And enjoy.

Note: All the ingredients are equally important. Treating one ingredient better than another will leave a bitter unpleasant taste.
Warning: An unequal spread of justice will damage the people and cause pain. Give justice and equality to all.

Benjamin Zephaniah

[Mr G]

Love remains

My friend, Joyce, has sent me this photo of two companionable swans, making gentle progress in the canal waters. They are contendedly together as love flows between them. The Caption from St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is well known but perhaps less pondered because of that.
Joyce says that :
In these dark times, these words of love bring light and hope.
That light and hope comes to us through God.

During Lent we Christians are invited by God to understand more deeply that the Victory of Christ on the cross is really life-changing and that this change comes about not because of something we do but of realizing that God has done, and goes on doing, something so powerful in our lives through Christ on the Cross.
He has loved us totally and completely and through that Love he has drawn us into himself so that, as Paul tells the Galatians (2:20)

It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.

In order to die to self and live for, and in, Christ we are, says Jesus, to take up our Cross and follow him.
He is not asking for heroics. He is not asking us to search for some impossible burden to carry, some suffering to undergo.
He is asking us to commit ourselves to carry the sign of God’s love in our lives. It is the power of that love to transform that makes the real difference
For that to happen, the Love of Christ must rule our hearts, our lives – come what may.

Many years ago, a young Russian priest was imprisoned at the beginning of the Russian Revolution.
Years later he was released from prison. He was a broken man.
His friends asked him, “What is left of you?”
“Nothing” he replied, “nothing is left. They have burnt out everything. Only love remains.”

That priest had discovered the one thing that changes every human situation and disarms every human conflict – sacrificial love.
Only Love remains – that is what is necessary for Christ to change the world – and he does it through us. When we abide in God’s love, totally, then, as we walk around the area where we live, it will become a changed and different place. Our approach to others will be different, generous, kind and joyful.

The darkness of our present situation in the world can easily lead to despair and a sense of futility but we are called to be, increasingly, signs of God’s amazing, long suffering and transforming love. We are called, in fact, to carry that love into all the world’s dark places and into hearts that have turned away from love.
On the Cross the victory of Jesus was the triumph of love over all that is not love. It was a cosmic battle to proclaim God’s power over demonic and destructive forces which threaten to swamp the world with evil, hatred, self absorbtion and oppression.
Against this darkness and evil we are to love and go on loving for, as the great mystic, St John of the Cross, put it so powerfully:

“Where there is no love, pour love in, and you will draw love out.”

[Mr G]

Cartoon by Charlie Mackesy who speaks profoundly through humour

Thank you Joyce for your inspirational photo & text

Damn the War

A Heart in pain reaches out to the people of Ukraine

Shamsia Hassani is from Afghanistan. She is an artist who believes strongly that art changes peoples’ minds and people change the world.

Over the time since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, that idea might not be as easy to believe in. It has remained, however, a strong belief and her art has intensified. It brought colour and appreciation into the lives of women who began to believe in themselves.

Prior to the Taliban take-over she was part of a movement in Afghanistan who were dedicated to inspire women in a male-dominated society, and, indeed, throughout the world. As a result women in repressed societies found a new hope. She taught creative use of art and her works, often expressed as graffiti or street art, is both proud and loud. Through it she and associates gave Afghan women a sense of worth and a depth of purpose. She taught in Kabul University and she has exhibited her work in many countries. Her message is motivational and challenging.

The Taliban takeover seemed to take all that away but as they moved into Kabul, Shamsai painted deeply provocative and defiant images which pushed the boundaries of her work into a highly dangerous confrontation.
As a result she has moved from Kabul to a safe location.

She has no idea what the future holds for women in Afghanistan or even for Afghanistan itself. Evidence suggests that, amidst the chaos and devastation of people’s lives and the crumbling infrastructure everything is moving backwards and women are losing the freedom to be themselves.

All is bleak and whilst Shamsia continues to paint her art as an expression of freedom and creativity, she is aware that the way ahead is far from easy.

As the escalation of war in Ukraine has touched her heart, what she has written below comes therefore from one who truly understands about the pain and violence and futility of what is happening in their lives. It has happened in hers.

No one can describe the moment, when the world suddenly collapses on you.
Ukraine, I feel your pain, I am also hit hard by the war. I feel the pain of your displaced and homeless people. I feel the pain of your children. I am sorry for what your people have lost and are about to lose. I am sorry that you are experiencing war and the endless pain that comes with it.
When I hear the word War I tremble. One cannot describe the word War.

I understand the current state of the Ukrainian people very well, I see myself among them. Escape,fear,displacement,hopelessness…
The loss of peace and short beautiful moments of life cannot be explained when suddenly your world is destroyed and taken from you.

For years, the word “War” has filled moments of my life. For years, I and my people have experienced the loss of friends, family and loved ones. We have experienced losing our homes and our homeland. We have felt the pain of migration, the loss of home, family and our homeland. The good days that we hoped for, never came.
Our beautiful past memories that will never come back, but will haunt our present forever.

Shamsai

She is currently working on a series of paintings which she is calling Damn the war/ لعنت به جنگ
The painting above is from the series.

Hope is in short supply right now but Shamsia is doing all she can to keep its flame glowing in herself and in the world. We can take inspiration from her and we can paint the same hope with our prayers.

Prayer is never something we should do because there is nothing else. Prayer should be the first thing we do because it brings us into the heart of God and therefore shapes all other responses. It opens us to a reservoir of true hope which feeds our actions for others who are in desperate need.

[Mr G]