No Problem edexcel 4-The-Poetry-Anthology

No Problem

Your Edexcel GCSE English Literature Conflict Anthology includes 15 poems. In the poetry question in the exam you will be given one poem on the paper – printed in full – and asked to compare this given poem to one other from the anthology. As this is a “closed book” exam, you will not have access to the other poems, so you will have to know them very well from memory. Fifteen poems is a lot to learn. However, understanding four things about each poem will enable you to produce a top-mark response:

• The meaning of the poem

• The ideas and messages the poet wanted to convey

• How the poet conveys these ideas and messages through their methods

• How these ideas compare and contrast with the ideas and themes of other poems in the anthology

This revision guide to Benjamin Zephaniah’s ‘No Problem’, from the Conflict Anthology, includes:

• Overview: a breakdown of the poem, including its possible meanings and interpretations

• Writer’s methods: an exploration of the poet’s techniques and methods

• Context: an exploration of the context of the poem, relevant to its themes

• What to compare it to: ideas about which poems to compare it to in the exam

Overview

To answer an essay question on any poem, you need to be confident that you understand what it is about. This section includes:

• The poem in a nutshell

• An explanation of the poem, stanza-by-stanza

• A commentary of each of these stanzas, outlining Zephaniah’s intention and message

‘No Problem’ in a nutshell

‘No Problem’ is about Zephaniah’s personal experience of racism, and is written from a first-person perspective. The poem explores the racial discrimination and abuse the speaker (who represents Zephaniah) has encountered in his life. The speaker details the way that teachers and other students behaved in a prejudiced way. However, he makes it clear that he is “not de problem”; racial prejudice is the real problem. The speaker demonstrates his ability to overcome racist abuse by focusing on his strengths, such as being “versatile”. Finally, he acknowledges that he may have been psychologically damaged by the racism he’s experienced, but that this is not going to affect his whole outlook on life.

‘No Problem’ breakdown

Lines 1–4

“I am not de problem 

But I bear de brunt 

Of silly playground taunts 

An racist stunts,”

Explanation

• The speaker asserts that he is not the problem

• However, he suffers the effects (“bear the brunt”) of being mocked (“taunts”) in the playground and having racist “stunts”, or tricks, played on him

Zephaniah’s intention

• Opening the poem with the speaker’s main assertion – that he is “not de problem” – makes it clear that there is a problem

• This line is a repeated refrain in the first stanza, emphasising the fact that people with racist views are the problem, not the speaker

• The following lines clarify the nature of the problem: the racist abuse he suffers at school

• The use of formal English – “I am not” – suggests the speaker’s anger and his desire to get his point across to those who are responsible for the abuse

• The use of dialect – “de” instead of “the” – emphasises the speaker’s distinct identity as a person of Caribbean heritage

Lines 5–8

“I am not de problem 

I am born academic 

But dey got me on de run 

Now I am branded athletic” 

Explanation

• The speaker repeats that he is not the problem

• He has always been naturally intellectual, but his teachers – “dey” – make him do running

• Now, he is stereotyped as “athletic”

Zephaniah’s intention

• The repeated refrain “I am not de problem” introduces another way in which the racism of other people is the real problem

• The speaker is “born academic”, meaning that thinking is a natural part of his personality

• However, the teachers at his school display racial prejudice by making him run instead:

  • Their behaviour plays into racist stereotypes of Black men and boys being “naturally” good at sports

• The result is that the speaker’s real strengths are ignored and not valued

• The verb “branded” demonstrates the negative effects of this stereotyping and lack of choice:

  • “Branded” evokes slavery, as Black slaves were branded by white slave owners

• The overall meaning of these lines is “don’t judge a person by the colour of their skin”

Lines 9–12

“I am not de problem 

If yu give I a chance 

I can teach yu of Timbuktu 

I can do more dan dance,”

Explanation

• The speaker repeats that he is not the problem

• If people gave him a chance, he could teach them about Timbuktu

• He can do more than stereotypes of Black people (such as being good at dancing) suggest

Zephaniah’s intention

• The problem in these lines is shown to be further examples of racist stereotyping

• The people around the speaker don’t give him the opportunity to show them how much he knows

• “Timbuktu” is a symbolic choice of place to represent the speaker’s knowledge:

  • It’s a city that is famous for being a centre of learning and culture for hundreds of years

• Zephaniah is making the point that his intelligence and knowledge are constantly underestimated because of his racial identity

• The stereotype of Black people having “natural rhythm” and being good at dancing has been imposed on the speaker and shut him off from more intellectual pursuits

Lines 13–16

“I am not de problem 

I greet yu wid a smile 

Yu put me in a pigeon hole 

But I am versatile”

Explanation

• The speaker is not the problem; he has a positive attitude and smiles at people

• However, people still stereotype him – “put me in a pigeon hole” – despite the fact that he is adaptable and multitalented (“versatile”)

Zephaniah’s intention

• These lines sum up the way the speaker has been treated and how he has responded

• People try to “pigeonhole” him by making him do things that Black people are supposed to be good at, according to racist stereotypes

• This has restricted him from doing what he’s actually good at:

  • “Pigeon hole” is a metaphor for the way the speaker has been boxed in by racist expectations 

  • But it’s not just other people who do this; the line is addressed to “yu”, the reader

  • This makes us question our own views – do we also use stereotypes?

• Despite all the ways he has been stereotyped, the speaker maintains his self-belief:

  • He knows he is “versatile” enough to overcome the restrictions other people have placed on him

Lines 17–24

“These conditions may affect me 

As I get older, 

An I am positively sure 

I have no chips on me shoulders, 

Black is not de problem 

Mother country get it right 

An juss fe de record, 

Sum of me best friends are white.”

Explanation

• The speaker feels that the negative effects of the racism he’s experienced may affect him later in life

• However, he is absolutely certain he doesn’t hold any grudges or have a sense of inferiority to others 

• Black people are not the problem, but England gets that wrong and must try harder

• Just for the record, some of the speaker’s best friends are white people

Zephaniah’s intention

• By acknowledging that the racism he’s experienced might affect him “As I get older”, the speaker recognises the traumatic nature of his experiences

• However, he shows his resilience by stating that he has no “chips on my shoulders”:

  • He does not feel bitter or inferior to the people who have racially abused him

• However, there is a sense that this idiom reflects back on his abusers:

  • Perhaps they are the ones with a sense of inferiority 

• The refrain returns with a slight change, from “I” to “Black”, expanding Zephaniah’s argument from the personal level to a wider social level:

  • The speaker is referring to stereotypical representations of Black people, historically and in the media, in order to challenge them

• England is the speaker’s “Mother country”, which means it’s his home and he is a part of it, just as much as white people

• The speaker demands “get it right” to show that racial attitudes in England are wrong and need fixing

• The final statement can be read as the speaker stating that he has no resentment against white people for the abuse he’s suffered

• However, it can also be read as sarcastic, because it’s an inversion of a typical (but problematic) assertion: “I can’t be racist – I have Black friends”:

  • This way of judging a whole group of people on the basis of knowing a few individuals creates stereotypes, so the speaker is echoing the stereotypical thinking he has encountered

  • The fact that Zephaniah ends the poem with a joke shows his ability to overcome the cruelty and restrictions of racial prejudice

  • It also undermines racism at a fundamental level by laughing at it 

Writer’s methods

This section is split into three separate areas: form, structure and language. It is crucial to link these technical areas of Zephaniah’s writing together, in order to understand how he is presenting his ideas and why he has made the choices he has. Think about how Zephaniah’s language, structure and form contribute to his theme and message in ‘No Problem’. 

You will gain far more marks by focusing on Zephaniah’s themes than on individual poetic techniques. Therefore, the analysis in the following sections is arranged by theme, and examines the intentions behind Zephaniah’s decisions about:

• Form

• Structure

• Language

Form

Benjamin Zephaniah is a dub poet, and ‘No Problem’ takes the form of a dub poem. Dub poetry developed out of dub reggae in the West Indies. It is a form of spoken-word poetry, which means it is written to be performed live. The strong rhythms and regular rhyme scheme of ‘No Problem’ emphasise these origins. ‘No Problem’ is split into two stanzas, each containing a series of regular quatrains. Dub poetry often focuses on issues of social conflict and injustice, and Zephaniah’s rejection of a series of Black stereotypes in ‘No Problem’ is typical of the form.

Structure

The first stanza of ‘No Problem’ focuses on the speaker’s experiences of being subjected to racist abuse and stereotyping at school, and the second stanza reflects on how this has affected him. Zephaniah employs a regular ABCB rhyme scheme and an even beat, which drives the poem’s strong rhythm. Combined with Zephaniah’s use of repetition, phonetic spelling and direct address (to “yu”, the reader/listener), this makes the insistent tone of the poem match the urgency of its message about racism.

Language

Zephaniah’s use of phonetic spelling, such as “de” and “yu”, reflects Afro-Caribbean speech patterns. His rejection of standard English expression illustrates his pride in his identity as a Black man and his determination to speak to ordinary people directly. He uses single words, such as “athletic”, to represent distinct racist attitudes and stereotypes. The sounds of his language, such as his use of alliteration, emphasises the emotions he is expressing, and adds to the speech-like qualities of the poem.