Telephone ConversationBy: Wole Soyinka This one stanza poem clearly elaborates on the idea of color prejudice that is common among most of middle class society. It

        The poet is "caught" by the question he is asked about "how dark" he really is. The poet inverts the sentence structure to put caught at the beginning as it is more important. Still in disbelief, the poet is assured he hasn't "misheard" as the landlady repeats the question in a slightly different form "are you light or very dark?" He compares her question to two buttons from which he is to choose "Button B" or "Button A." The poet also compares the situation to a foul smelling game of hide and seek as he says, the "stench of rancid breath of public hide and speak". Not knowing what to say in response to her question, the poet starts to look around at the "red booth, red pillar box, red double-tiered omni-bus squelching tar. We notice that everything seems to be red except for the tar which is black.

        The poet then explains how he feels shame and rage for this "ill-mannered silence", which is very ironic as the landlady is the one who should feel such shame for asking this obscene question. This reveals the politeness of the black man even though he is being questioned about his color. He also explains that although he feels a sense of "dumbfoundment" he wanted to ask for simplification. Proving his politeness once more he says that the landlady was "considerate" in restating the question once more till finally "revelation came". He then replies in a sort of mocking way "you mean like plain or milk chocolate".

Finally, and in answer to her question, he says "West African sepia" and certifies it by saying that it is written down in his passport. The diction he uses in the description of his color truly reveals how well educated he is. On the other hand, it is revealed that the landlady is not as well educated as she doesn't understand and asks "what's that?" This is quite ironic as although he has a higher education she is pretending to be superior to him. Afterwards, she guesses that it is dark but asks him to clarify so he says that it is "not altogether" black. He then explains this as he says the palms of his hand and the soles of his feet are"peroxide blond", and his bottom is also "raven black". By mentioning his "bottom" Soyinka reveals the bad-breeding of the black man in contrast with that of the landlady, who chooses to hang up. Wishing she would just wait for a moment and as a final plea he asks if she wouldn't rather see for herself?

This poem shows that although the black man has a better education the landlady seems to have the upper hand due to racial prejudice. He uses alliteration on the "s" and inversion to emphasize certain points like "considerate she was". In this free verse poem Soyinka uses advanced diction for the black man to show his education, while he uses comparatively basic wording for the landlady to show how poor her education is. Moreover, he uses a telegrammed style to get his point across using the minimum number of words. Finally, I think this poem succeeds in showing what racist middle class women are really like.