Ackees, chapatties
 Dumplins an nan,
 Channa an rotis
 Onion uttapam,
 Masala dosa
 Green callaloo
 Bhel an samosa
 Corn an aloo.

 Yam an cassava
 Pepperpot stew,
 Rotlo an guava
 Rice an tofu,
 Puri, paratha
 Sesame casserole,
 Brown eggless pasta
 An brown bread rolls.

 Soya milked muesli
 Soya bean curd,
 Soya sweet sweeties
 Soya's de word,
 Soya bean margarine
 Soya bean sauce
 What can mek medicine?
 Soya of course.

 Soya meks yoghurt
 Soya ice-cream,
 Or soya sorbet
 Soya reigns supreme,
 Soya sticks liquoriced
 Soya salads
 Try any soya dish
 Soya is bad.

 Plantain an tabouli
 Cornmeal pudding
 Onion bhajee
 Wid plenty cumin,
 Breadfruit an coconuts
 Molasses tea
 Dairy free omelettes
 Very chilli.

 Ginger bread, nut roast
 Sorrell, paw paw,
 Cocoa an rye toast
 I tek dem on tour,
 Drinking cool maubi
 Meks me feel sweet,
 What was dat question now?
 What do we eat?

Found that Minstrels didn’t list any Zephaniahs. Watched the HARDtalk program with this outspoken poet when he refused the offer of OBE (in Nov 2003), by publishing an article in ‘The Guardian’.

Far from his political outcries, the above is a typical children’s poem with nice rhyming all along. What interested me is how much the Indian food has integrated into the British staple diet. (even onion uttappams! soon chutney & sambar will accompany it) No wonder then that Chicken Tikka Masala ranks as the No. 1 dish of England. [In particular, good vegetarian food is far more likely than not to be Indian - martin]

And two paragraphs for soya - makes one wonder why is he is so obsessed with it.

From ‘The Guardian’ article :

Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought. I get angry when I hear that word “empire”; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised.

The full article at :
http://books.guardian.co.uk/poetry/features/0,12887,1094009,00.html

— arvind

Links

Zephaniah’s home page: http://www.benjaminzephaniah.com/

Biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Zephaniah

See also the similar “Bleezer’s Ice Cream” [Poem #1055]