Benjamin Zephaniah, "Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought", The Guardian (27 November 2003)
“
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.
— Benjamin Zephaniah on British Empire
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "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." in the context of "Benjamin Zephaniah, "Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought", The Guardian (27 November 2003)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "British Empire" (Quotes, 21st century, 2000s)
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
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About Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (15 April 1958 – 7 December 2023) was a British writer, dub poet and Rastafarian. He was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008.
About Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (15 April 1958 – 7 December 2023) was a British writer, dub poet and Rastafarian. He was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008.
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