”Telephone Conversation” By Wole Soyinka

About the Author

Wole Soyinka Born in 1934 in Nigeria Graduated from Leeds University in 1957 Africa's premier author,poet and playwright Achievements For Africa Soyinka has played an active role in Nigeria's political history. In 1965, he made a broadcast demanding the cancellation of rigged Western Nigeria regional. He was arrested, but was later freed on an technicality.In 1967, during the Nigerian Civil War he was put in solitary confinement for his attempts at brokering a peace between the warring Nigerian and Biafran parties.

 Background of Poem

“Racism”-

Racism is usually defined as views and actions reflecting the belief that members of a certain race share certain attributes which make that group as a whole less desirable, more desirable, inferior or superior. Poem describes a white woman and an African-American man having a conversation on the telephone.The man is looking for a house to live in The woman is renting out the house.

The Tone of the poem is satirical and playful.Throughout the poem, the narrator talks in an apologetic tone, as if it is his fault that he is black. Wole Soyinka emphasizes tones of fear, disgust, anger and confusion by employing punctuation, line breaks, and typographical elements to develop stress on the different emotions. Structure of Poem This lyric poem is written in free verse, with lack of rhyme which is appropriate because the poem is a representation of a telephone conversation.

The poem has only 1 stanza and no breaks The poem deals with a foul subject, that of racism and prejudice, in a lighthearted, almost comical manner. A most important device which Soyinka has used to highlight this sense of racism, which was previously widespread in western society, is that of the telephone. Had the person been speaking face to face with the lady, this whole conversation would never have taken place. She would have either refused outright, or would have found a more subtle way of doing so. The whole back and forth about ‘how dark’ the man is wouldn’t have occurred. Thus the telephone is used to make the issue of racism clear and prove how nonsensical it really is.

The poem demonstrates to us the lack of education and understanding some people might have.Though it seems that the landlady is well bred, she is racist due to her ignorance.The narrator shows himself to be better educated than the woman as shown by him using words such as 'spectroscopic' and 'flight of fancy'. The narrator is shown due to better educated thus showing that looks are deceptive and that one's character is more important than the color of one's skin.