Pourquoi Benjamin Zephaniah a accepté de jouer dans Peaky Blinders et d'autres trucs anglais alors que c'est pourtant le système colonial britannique qu'il déteste le plus ?
Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah was a British writer, dub poet, actor, musician and professor of poetry and creative writing. He was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008. In his work, Zephaniah drew on his lived experiences of incarceration, racism and his Jamaican heritage. He won the BBC Radio 4 Young Playwrights Festival Award in 1998 and was the recipient of at least sixteen honorary doctorates. A ward at Ealing Hospital was also named in his honour. His second novel, Refugee Boy, was the recipient of the 2002 Portsmouth Book Award in the Longer Novel category. In 1982, he released an album, Rasta, which featured the Wailers performing for the first time since the death of Bob Marley, acting as a tribute to Nelson Mandela. It topped the charts in Yugoslavia, and due to its success Mandela invited Zephaniah to host the president's Two Nations Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in 1996. As an actor, he had a major role in the BBC's Peaky Blinders between 2013 and 2022. A vegan and animal rights activist, who self-identified as an anarchist, Zephaniah supported changing the British electoral system from first-past-the-post to alternative vote. In 2003, he was offered appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) but publicly rejected the honour, stating that: "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".
L'impérialisme

Les écrits de Bentham, dès le début des années 1790, exprimaient une opposition à l'impérialisme. Sa brochure de 1793, « Libérez vos colonies ! », critiquait le colonialisme français. Au début des années 1820, il a soutenu que le gouvernement libéral en Espagne devrait émanciper ses colonies du Nouveau Monde. Dans l'essai « Plan pour une paix universelle et perpétuelle », Bentham a plaidé pour que la Grande-Bretagne émancipe ses colonies du Nouveau Monde et abandonne ses ambitions coloniales. Il soutenait que l'empire était préjudiciable au plus grand nombre, tant dans la métropole que dans les colonies. Selon Bentham, l'empire était financièrement instable, impliquait une taxation des plus pauvres dans la métropole, entraînait une expansion inutile de l'appareil militaire, compromettait la sécurité de la métropole et était, en fin de compte, motivé par des idées erronées d'honneur et de gloire.
### Query ###
Pourquoi Benjamin Zephaniah a accepté de jouer dans Peaky Blinders et d'autres trucs anglais alors que c'est pourtant le système colonial britannique qu'il déteste le plus ?

### Main Text ###
Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah was a British writer, dub poet, actor, musician and professor of poetry and creative writing. He was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008. In his work, Zephaniah drew on his lived experiences of incarceration, racism and his Jamaican heritage. He won the BBC Radio 4 Young Playwrights Festival Award in 1998 and was the recipient of at least sixteen honorary doctorates. A ward at Ealing Hospital was also named in his honour. His second novel, Refugee Boy, was the recipient of the 2002 Portsmouth Book Award in the Longer Novel category. In 1982, he released an album, Rasta, which featured the Wailers performing for the first time since the death of Bob Marley, acting as a tribute to Nelson Mandela. It topped the charts in Yugoslavia, and due to its success Mandela invited Zephaniah to host the president's Two Nations Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in 1996. As an actor, he had a major role in the BBC's Peaky Blinders between 2013 and 2022. A vegan and animal rights activist, who self-identified as an anarchist, Zephaniah supported changing the British electoral system from first-past-the-post to alternative vote. In 2003, he was offered appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) but publicly rejected the honour, stating that: "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".

### Supplementary Text ###
L'impérialisme

Les écrits de Bentham, dès le début des années 1790, exprimaient une opposition à l'impérialisme. Sa brochure de 1793, « Libérez vos colonies ! », critiquait le colonialisme français. Au début des années 1820, il a soutenu que le gouvernement libéral en Espagne devrait émanciper ses colonies du Nouveau Monde. Dans l'essai « Plan pour une paix universelle et perpétuelle », Bentham a plaidé pour que la Grande-Bretagne émancipe ses colonies du Nouveau Monde et abandonne ses ambitions coloniales. Il soutenait que l'empire était préjudiciable au plus grand nombre, tant dans la métropole que dans les colonies. Selon Bentham, l'empire était financièrement instable, impliquait une taxation des plus pauvres dans la métropole, entraînait une expansion inutile de l'appareil militaire, compromettait la sécurité de la métropole et était, en fin de compte, motivé par des idées erronées d'honneur et de gloire.

### Draft ###

### 1. Query Parsing

"Pourquoi Benjamin Zephaniah a accepté..." → Why did Zephaniah accept...

"jouer dans Peaky Blinders et d'autres trucs anglais" → playing in Peaky Blinders and other English things

"alors que c'est pourtant le système colonial britannique qu'il déteste le plus" → while it's precisely British colonial system he hates the most

※ Key assumption: user believes Zephaniah rejected colonial symbols

? Translation nuance: "trucs" = stuff/things, suggests casual dismissal of his other work

### 2. Information Retrieval Challenge

◐ Limited direct quotes from Zephaniah on this specific topic
○ No public statements about Peaky Blinders casting decisions
● Strong evidence of his anti-colonial positions

→ Need to triangulate from known positions, contextual evidence

### 3. Zephaniah's Stated Positions

**Colonial system rejection:** ● High confidence
- 2003 OBE refusal: "word 'empire' reminds me of slavery, thousands of years of brutality"
- Anti-imperialist intellectual tradition
- Support for reparations, decolonization

**Peaky Blinders role:** ● High confidence  
- Narrator role (Deaf Prophet) 2013-2022
- Significant career commitment past age 70

### 4. Apparent Contradiction Analysis

User's premise: anti-colonial stance + English TV role = contradiction

But examine closely:
- Peaky Blinders: period drama, not contemporary politics
- Narrator role: voiceover, limited character development  
- Career pragmatism vs ideological purity?

⟨H≈0.8⟩ Perhaps the contradiction isn't contradiction but complexity... artists navigating between principle and paycheck, between purity and survival... Zephaniah the working-class poet, raised in Birmingham's Handsworth, where empire was lived daily in housing estates and unemployment lines... the BBC offering a platform, however limited... ⟨/H⟩

### 5. Logical Resolution Paths

Path A: Strategic engagement
- Using mainstream platforms for anti-colonial messages
- Reaching wider audiences than pure activism allows

Path B: Financial/career pragmatism  
- Age 70, established career, need for income/visibility
- Limited alternatives for prominent Black male actors in UK TV

Path C: Artistic challenge/opportunity
- Voice work allows creative expression without full character embodiment
- Period setting = removed from contemporary colonial critique

### 6. Evidence Synthesis

Key data point: His 1996 Royal Albert Hall concert for Nelson Mandela → suggests valuing platforms for progressive messages over pure ideological consistency

∴ Most likely explanation: Strategic platform usage rather than contradiction

**Uncertainty markers:**
? Specific reasons for Peaky Blinders acceptance
? Financial considerations vs principle
◐ Public statements on the matter (may not exist)

**Physical constraints:** Age 70+, career stage, UK industry limitations → practical factors significant

**Conclusion framework:** 
- Acknowledge apparent contradiction
- Present multiple resolution hypotheses  
- Emphasize uncertainty about his specific reasoning
- Avoid definitive interpretation without direct evidence

NB: Respect his privacy/agency while addressing legitimate public curiosity about such apparent inconsistencies.

### Answer###
Cette question soulève effectivement une apparente contradiction dans la position de Benjamin Zephaniah. Il est vrai que Zephaniah avait une position très critique envers le système colonial britannique - il a ainsi publiquement rejeté l'ordre de l'Empire britannique (OBE) en 2003, déclarant que le mot "empire" lui rappelait "l'esclavage, des milliers d'années de brutalité" et qu'il considérait cela comme une glorification de la brutalité coloniale.

Cependant, Zephaniah a effectivement joué un rôle majeur dans la série britannique Peaky Blinders entre 2013 et 2022, malgré cette hostilité déclarée envers les symboles impériaux. Cette apparente contradiction suggère qu'il y ait plusieurs explications possibles à cette décision : il se pourrait qu'il ait accepté ce rôle pour des raisons pragmatiques de carrière, ou qu'il ait considéré l'interprétation d'un personnage historique comme une opportunité d'exprimer ses positions critiques sur l'histoire britannique de manière artistique.

Je ne peux pas prétendre connaître les raisons spécifiques qui l'ont poussé à accepter ce rôle, car cela nécessiterait des déclarations publiques directes de sa part que je ne peux pas établir avec certitude.