18th of June 2020

I Have a Scheme by Benjamin Zephaniah

I am here today my friends to tell you there is hope

As high as that mountain may seem

I must tell you

I have a dream

And my friends

There is a tunnel at the end of the light.

And beyond that tunnel I see a future

I see a time

When angry white men

Will sit down with angry black women

And talk about the weather,

Black employers will display notice-boards proclaiming,

‘Me nu care wea yu come from yu know

So long as yu can do a good day’s work, dat cool wid me.’

 

I see a time

When words like affirmative action

Will have sexual connotations

And black people all over this blessed country of ours

Will play golf,

Yes my friends that time is coming

And in that time

Afro-Caribbean and Asian youth

Will spend big money on English takeaways

And all police officers will be armed

With a dumplin,

I see a time

A time when the President of the United States of America

will stand up and say,

‘I inhaled

And it did kinda nice

So rewind and cum again.’

Immigration officers will just check that you are all right

And all black people will speak Welsh.

I may not get there my friends

But I have seen that time

I see thousands of muscular black men on Hampstead Heath walking their poodles

And hundreds of black female Formula 1 drivers

Racing around Birmingham in pursuit of a truly British way of life.

I have a dream

That one day from all the churches of this land we will hear the sound of that great old

English spiritual,

Here we go, Here we go, Here we go.

One day all great songs will be made that way.

 

I am here today my friends to tell you

That the time is coming

When all people, regardless of colour or class, will have

at least one Barry Manilow record

And vending-machines throughout the continent of Europe

Will flow with sour sap and sugarcane juice,

For it is written in the great book of multiculturalism

That the curry will blend with the shepherd’s pie

and the Afro hairstyle will return.

 

Le me hear you say

Multiculture

Amen

Let me hear you say

Roti, Roti

A women.

 

The time is coming

I may not get there with you

But I have seen that time,

And as an Equal Opportunities poet

It pleases me

To give you this opportunity

To share my vision of hope

And I just hope you can cope

With a future as black as this.

 

‘Propa Propaganda’ Bloodaxe Books, 1996

 

Benjamin Zephaniah was born in Birmingham, and grew up in Jamaica and in Handsworth, where he was sent to an approved school for being rebellious and ‘a born failure’, ending up in jail for burglary. After prison he turned from crime to music and poetry. In 1989 he was nominated for Oxford Professor of Poetry.