WE REFUGEES by Benjamin Zephaniah 

1)Why does he use WE in the title?

I come from a musical place
Where they shoot me for my song
And my brother has been tortured
By my brother in my land.

2)Why does the first stanza begin with I?

3)What’s the meaning of the expression brother’ torturing ‘brother’?

4)In the second stanza he uses ‘dont like, ban, hate’. Why?

I come from a beautiful place
Where they hate my shade of skin
They don't like the way I pray
And they ban free poetry.

5)What does he tell us about his country in stanza 3?

I come from a beautiful place
Where girls cannot go to school
There you are told what to believe
And even young boys must grow beards.

6)What problem does he deal with in stanza four?

I come from a great old forest
I think it is now a field
And the people I once knew
Are not there now.

7)What’s  strange with stanza five?

We can all be refugees
Nobody is safe,
All it takes is a mad leader
Or no rain to bring forth food,
We can all be refugees
We can all be told to go,
We can be hated by someone
For being someone.

8)What’s the meaning of stanza 5?

9)What does stanza 6 focus on?

I come from a beautiful place
Where the valley floods each year
And each year the hurricane tells us
That we must keep moving on.

10)What does he explore in stanza 7?

I come from an ancient place
All my family were born there
And I would like to go there
But I really want to live.

11)What does it seem disgusting in stanza 8?

I come from a sunny, sandy place
Where tourists go to darken skin
And dealers like to sell guns there
I just can't tell you what's the price.

12)Why does he use a passive form in stanza 9?

I am told I have no country now
I am told I am a lie
I am told that modern history books
May forget my name.

13)What’s the meaning of stanza 10?

We can all be refugees
Sometimes it only takes a day,
Sometimes it only takes a handshake
Or a paper that is signed.
We all came from refugees
Nobody simply just appeared,
Nobody's here without a struggle,
And why should we live in fear
Of the weather or the troubles?
We all came here from somewhere.