{"id":15944,"date":"2023-12-11T12:28:42","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T12:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/bought-and-sold\/"},"modified":"2023-12-11T12:28:42","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T12:28:42","slug":"bought-and-sold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/bought-and-sold\/","title":{"rendered":"Bought and Sold"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-15939\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/09356c3db5f9b51f6485e3dca973f583.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/09356c3db5f9b51f6485e3dca973f583.jpg 780w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/09356c3db5f9b51f6485e3dca973f583-600x337.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/09356c3db5f9b51f6485e3dca973f583-300x168.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/09356c3db5f9b51f6485e3dca973f583-441x248.jpg 441w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/09356c3db5f9b51f6485e3dca973f583-768x431.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/09356c3db5f9b51f6485e3dca973f583-1x1.jpg 1w, http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/09356c3db5f9b51f6485e3dca973f583-10x6.jpg 10w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/this-britain\/benjamin-zephaniah-declines-an-obe-in-protest-against-colonialism-80247.html\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Bought and Sold<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>by Benjamin Zephaniah<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Smart big awards and prize money<br \/>Is killing off black poetry<br \/>It\u2019s not censors or dictators that are cutting up our art.<br \/>The lure of meeting royalty<br \/>And touching high society<br \/>Is damping creativity and eating at our heart.<\/p>\n<p>The ancestors would turn in graves<br \/>Those poor black folk that once were slaves would wonder<br \/>How our souls were sold<br \/>And check our strategies,<br \/>The empire strikes back and waves<br \/>Tamed warriors bow on parades<br \/>When they have done what they\u2019ve been told<br \/>They get their OBE\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t take my word, go check the verse<br \/>Cause every laureate gets worse<br \/>A family that you cannot fault as muse will mess your mind,<br \/>And yeah, you may fatten your purse<br \/>And surely they will check you first when subjects need to be amused<br \/>With paid for prose and rhymes.<\/p>\n<p>Take your prize, now write more,<br \/>Faster,<br \/>Fuck the truth<br \/>Now you\u2019re an actor do not fault your benefactor<br \/>Write, publish and review,<br \/>You look like a dreadlocks Rasta,<br \/>You look like a ghetto blaster,<br \/>But you can\u2019t diss your paymaster<br \/>And bite the hand that feeds you.<\/p>\n<p>What happened to the verse of fire<br \/>Cursing cool the empire<br \/>What happened to the soul rebel that Marley had in mind,<br \/>This bloodstained, stolen empire rewards you and you conspire,<br \/>(Yes Marley said that time will tell)<br \/>Now look they\u2019ve gone and joined.<\/p>\n<p>We keep getting this beating<br \/>It\u2019s bad history repeating<br \/>It reminds me of those capitalists that say<br \/>\u2018Look you have a choice,\u2019<br \/>It\u2019s sick and self-defeating if our dispossessed keep weeping<br \/>And we give these awards meaning<br \/>But we end up with no voice.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/d2PSoa8o3ps?si=1sKajjJhj_6Q_Mjc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bought and Sold by Benjamin Zephaniah Smart big awards and prize moneyIs killing off black poetryIt\u2019s not censors or dictators that are cutting up our art.The lure&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":679,"featured_media":15939,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1660],"tags":[2902],"class_list":["post-15944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-2","tag-benjamin-obadiah-iqbal-zephaniah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/679"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}