Telephone Conversation - Poem - by Wole Soyinka - Notes - SUMMARY

Telephone Conversation 

                                                                              --- Wole Soyinka

“Telephone Conversation” by Wole Soyinka reflects the racial discrimination against blacks.  The poem is a telephone conversation between a black tenant and a while land lady.  

The poet agrees to take the house at any ‘cost’ and at any location.  But the land lady demands his colour.  The tenant confesses, “I am African”. Suddenly he encounters an ill-mannered silence.  At last she asks, “How Dark?” The tenant becomes dumb found.  The interrogation deepens, “Are you dark? or very dark?”  He reveals his native colour.  

The lady discourteously probes whether he is “Plain or milk chocolate”.  He quotes from his passport that he is “West African Sepia”.  He clarifies further that “not completely black but only facially.”  But it makes no difference to the lady.  The poem ends with the tenant’s appeal for a personal inspection.

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Noojilla Srinivas

Lecturer in English

Govt. Degree College - Alamuru

M: 7981862200

email: noojillasrinivas@gmail.com