LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1.   Mum’s (British) passport to England.

2.   Mother and son, across the decades.

3.   The oldest photo I have of myself: a ten-year-old poet, just waiting for a gig.

4.   Gangsta style in pinstripe, circa late 1970s.

5.   My friend Paul Davis, who was killed in the Birmingham pub bombings in 1974.

6.   Hanging with Peter Tosh in London, 1979. Dread times.

7.   A classic Anti Nazi League poster advertising one of their era-defining gigs and marches against fascism and racism in 1978.

8.   Hand-drawn poster advertising my first official gig at The Whole Thing in 1981.

9.   The wholefood store, café and alternative bookshop in Stratford, east London, where I became part of the housing co-operative movement in the early 1980s.

10.   Cover photo of my first EP, Dub Ranting, featuring my mum and Jay Jay. He’s hiding behind the sofa. The slogan on the back reads: ‘Stand Firm in the Downturn’. And it’s still relevant now.

11.   Photographs on the Rasta album cover. I’d just set up home in Peckham and invited my friend Anita around for a drink.

12.   Me and Labour politician Tony Banks (now deceased) with a vegan cake, opening a literature festival at the Royal Festival Hall. He went on to become Labour’s Sports Minister in the 1990s.

13.   Striking miners benefit poster, 1985, featuring yours truly and couple of soon-to-be famous comedians.

14.   The tabloid press conspired to keep a Rasta out of Trinity College, Cambridge in 1987.

15.   The Chairman’s call to arms. Fundraising and compering at the Hackney Empire in the late 1980s.

16.   I was the first reggae artist to play in Yugoslavia in the late 1980s, where the Rasta album went to number one.

17.   With the legend that is Prince Buster, late 1990s, Jamaica.

18.   With my grandmother and extended family in JA, 1985.

19.   With my grandfather in JA, 1987.

20.   A still from the TV film Dread Poets’ Society, 1992.

21.   On tour in Zimbabwe with the British Council in 1993.

22.   Delivering truth to power, Zimbabwe, 1993.

23.   Speaking in Gugulethu Township, South Africa, 1998.

24.   After a concert in Berlin, 1996, with Jamaican poet Mutabaruka. We’re looking to the future.

25.   A photo taken, but not used, for my album Us an Dem. I call this me in the red light district.

26.   With Linton Kwesi Johnson, one of the pioneers of dub poetry.

27.   Dressed for Pakistan, in Liverpool 8, when all the street signs were painted with the Ethiopian colours of red, gold and green.

28.   Just hanging over a wall for no reason at all.

29.   Me and Pastor Burris on one of his visits to England after he’d moved to the USA.

30.   Mum and me return to Deykin Avenue Primary School in 2003.

31.   The first time I met Madiba, as he is known in parts of Africa, he said, ‘Thank you.’ I said, ‘Thank you.’ He said, ‘Thank you.’ I said, ‘Thank you.’ And then we talked about elephants.

32.   After the concert celebrating the end of Apartheid, 1990.

33.   With writers and poets (clockwise from top left) Michael Rosen, Allan Ahlberg, Brian Patten and Roger McGough.

34.   With author and broadcaster Lemn Sissay, who adapted my book Refugee Boy for the stage.

35.   With my old friend and political mentor, Tony Benn, 2008.

36.   With the brilliant Maya Angelou at the 2002 Hay Festival.

37.   Sharing a smile with Sinéad O’Connor.

38.   Nightclubbing with the wonderful Toni Morrison in Brazil, and chilling with Doreen Lawrence in Leicester.

39.   Protecting animal and human rights.

40.   Jeremiah Jesus and Tommy Shelby (aka me and Cillian Murphy) talking about our favourite bands on the set of Peaky Blinders.

41.   Me and Jon Snow – two ‘no O B Es’ hiding from the press in Columbia.

42.   Practising t’ai chi in the temple in Henan with Grand Master Chen Zhaosen.

43.   The family (from left to right): me, Joyce, Mille, Mum, Velda, Paul, David, Mark, Trevor, Kern (low on the left) and Tippa (low on the right).

44.   Locks fly at Oxford Brookes University, 2002.

45.   Accepting my honorary doctorate from Exeter University, 2006.

46.   My fans in the school in Chen Jia Gou, China. They like my poetry too.