Benjamin Zephaniah

Poet and musician, Benjamin became a vegetarian at 11 and vegan at 13 to save animals. A patron of Viva!, this gentle, warm, vegan poet has been forced to view the world from a raw and at times harsh perspective. He had every right to turn his back on its failures and say stuff you. But in fact he's taken unto himself its most intractable problems and it is that which informs his poetry. He cares - he cares because everywhere he looks he sees ignorance and cruelty and he can't just walk away from it. Selfishness and exploitation are the constants which bolt together seemingly unrelated problems.
  
I was listening to a radio report by a female journalist on the way women are treated in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Girls are taken out of school as soon as they reach puberty and are kept locked away in the house. The men say that they are the spirits and the women are the animals - they're seen as dirty, they're not educated and aren't allowed to be anything apart from slaves to the men. And they quote the Koran to support it. It was horrible and I just related it back to the way animals are kept in factory farms. The same kind of attitude - utter exploitation .
 
One day when 1 was 11, I asked my mother where did meat come from and she said from the butcher and I said where did the butcher get if form and she said the farmer and I said where did the farmer get it from and she said the cow and I said where did the cow get it from and she said – it is the cow! A shudder went through me! I became vegetarian. When I was 13 I became vegan. I love Viva!