You famously turned down the OBE and now every interview that I read has that in the introduction.
It does, yes. My poem Bought and Sold [an attack on black artists who had accepted honours], was written a long time before that, so it's kind of insulting that the OBE was even offered to me in the first place. It shows that they probably hadn't read my poetry. With most interviews I say, "Let's try and not talk about it." And then I see the interview and they've mentioned it. On the day I should have received the OBE I was with a lot of deprived kids; I did that to say: this is where my heart is. I don't want to do government or monarchy-approved poetry. We need the freedom to be critical of these institutions and once you become part of them, that's very difficult. I like to root myself with everyday people. And to a certain extent I like to blend into the background.
Are you shy?
I don't think I'm shy, but I don't like being the centre of attention.
That sounds like a strange thing to say for someone whose profession is to perform.
When I'm on stage, of course I want people to look at me. But when newspaper headlines highlight the fact I got into trouble with the police before, or turning down the OBE, when people start the conversation with that, I find it really difficult. I'm not brave. I was just being true to myself.
Your cousin, Michael Powell, died in police custody. Where are you with the campaign?
The police got found not guilty, so we're waiting for the findings of the inquest, but I'm very pessimistic about it. We keep fighting. Even if we had Joanna Lumley I don't think we'd get very far. Because the opposition are so well organised. The police gave a flawless performance: every moment, every minute was well timed.
You live in a small village in Lincolnshire. I'm always confused by black people who choose to live in the English countryside. Why do it to yourself?
Because it's great, and we're British and we can live anywhere we want to. This is our country, and if we keep living in inner cities people will stereotype us as inner-city people.
Are you trying to prove something by living there?
No. I love jogging and the outdoor life. That's why I went there. This is what I say to black people in Britain: do what you want to do. Don't think you can't live in the countryside because you're black. We need black people to do everything. All these people that say multiculturalism is bad, it's too late. It has happened. Live with it. We are here and we have to create something new. So, if you're Ethiopian in Britain and you want be a farmer, do it.
We hear a lot about the lack of black role models. Do you think the black community is in crisis?
The black community has always been in crisis, it's just at different levels. When I was young we used to have sound-system wars. People got shot. My friend's ear got cut off and he went and murdered somebody; he was doing a life sentence when he was 14. When I was 15 I was sleeping with a gun underneath my pillow. The white community has always been in crisis as well, but when a white person shoots a white person it's just a gun crime. When it's a black person it's "black on black". It's got to be given a name. I know that within the West Indian community we have a kind of crisis with men and their attitudes towards women, attitudes towards other people's sexuality, even their own sexuality. We've got to learn to talk to each other.
What are you most proud of: the novels, the poetry or the campaigning?
What I'm proudest of is waking up one day in a house in Birmingham, having slept that night with a gun under my pillow, and saying, "I don't want to do that any more." That changed my life around. I wouldn't have done any of those novels if I hadn't done that. Within an hour, I'd left, and I was in a car, on my way to a different life. That's my greatest achievement, but no one sees that. And just making my mother feel proud of me. Although sometimes she complains that I don't go and see her enough.
• Benjamin Zephaniah is a judge on Off By Heart, which will be screened on 25 May at 9pm on BBC2. He is currently touring the UK.
