{"id":4756,"date":"2026-11-12T20:23:02","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T20:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/?p=4756"},"modified":"2026-11-12T20:42:40","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T20:42:40","slug":"telephone-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/?p=4756","title":{"rendered":"Telephone Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Of course I\u2019ve heard of Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian playwright and poet who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. What I\u2019ve just recently discovered is his poem Telephone Conversation,<\/em> written and published for the first time sixty-three years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, Wole Soyinka did not include this poem in his 1967 own debut solo poetry collection, Idanre & Other Poems.<\/em> The Telephone Conversation<\/em> was first published in the anthology Modern Poetry from Africa,<\/em> edited by Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier (Publisher: Penguin Books (part of the Penguin African Library series), Year: 1963, Pages: 111-112. [*]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even I, as a beginner in African Literature, can see the importance and uniqueness of this \u2018modern poetical geography of Africa\u2019 as it is described in the book\u2019s back cover blurb. Twenty-nine poets from fourteen countries and a continent in turmoil, fundamentally reshaping a relatively young political map through rapid decolonisation, nation-building and Cold War rivalry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to our Nigerian poet now; I quote from the editors\u2019 introduction:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wole Soyinka, for instance, who studied at Ibadan before moving to Britain, is the only African poet to date who deploys a gift for light, sophisticated irony (Telephone Conversation, My Next-door Neighbour).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And the poem:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written more than sixty years ago, Telephone Conversation<\/em> remains sharp today, strikingly relevant as it sounds actual. The core mechanisms of racial prejudice, systemic bias and human absurdity that Soyinka targets have maybe evolved, but they did not disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is it relevant today?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least in my read, with European eyes, I identify several distinct dimensions of relevance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The disguise of racism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the poem, the landlady\u2019s racism is not expressed through violent or street-level shouting. This mirrors modern covert racism, institutional microaggressions and algorithmic or coded bias, often hidden behind polite corporate language, housing rejections masked as \u2018the property is no longer available\u2019<\/em> after a name or accent is revealed or automated hiring and lending systems that discriminate based on proxy data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The dehumanisation by reducing a human to a metric<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The landlady suddenly reduces the speaker into a single metric: skin colour. Does this not sound familiar in the mid-2020s? Rude reductionism persists in modern identity politics, tribalism and digital culture wars, where people are routinely stripped of their individuality and flattened into static demographic tick boxes or stereotypes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Fight against absurdity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than responding with outright rage or submission, the speaker uses brilliant satire and hyperbole to expose the sheer silliness of the landlady\u2019s racism. Today, humour, irony and meme-literacy are frequently used by marginalised groups to mock systemic ignorance without giving oppressors the satisfaction of a defensive emotional breakdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poem<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Telephone Conversation<\/em> is not merely a historical artefact of post-colonial literature. It is a timeless masterpiece in exposing how systemic prejudice functions in everyday encounters. It reminds us that ignorance is often rigid, uninterested in actual enlightenment and deeply entrenched in mundane, routine interactions, making Soyinka\u2019s biting wit just as urgent today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Telephone Conversation<\/em>

The price seemed reasonable, location
Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived
Off premises. Nothing remained
But self-confession. \u2018Madam\u2019 , I warned,
\u2018I hate a wasted journey - I am African.\u2019
Silence. Silenced transmission of pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled
Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was, foully.
\u2018HOW DARK?\u2019 ... I had not misheard. ... \u2018ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY DARK?\u2019 Button B. Button A. Stench
Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak.
Red booth. Red pillar-box. Red double-tiered
Omnibus squelching tar.
It was real! Shamed
By ill-mannered silence, surrender
Pushed dumbfounded to beg simplification.
Considerate she was, varying the emphasis-
\u2018ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT\u2019 Revelation came
\u2018You mean- like plain or milk chocolate?\u2019
Her accent was clinical, crushing in its light
Impersonality. Rapidly, wave-length adjusted
I chose. \u2018West African sepia\u2019 \u2013 and as afterthought.
\u2018Down in my passport.\u2019 Silence for spectroscopic
Flight of fancy, till truthfulness changed her accent  [**]<\/em>
Hard on the mouthpiece \u2018WHAT'S THAT?\u2019 conceding
\u2018DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS.\u2019 \u2018Like brunette.\u2019
\u2018THAT'S DARK, ISN'T IT?\u2019
\u2018Not altogether.
Facially, I am brunette, but madam you should see the rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet.
Are a peroxide blonde. Friction, caused \u2013
Foolishly madam \u2013 by sitting down, has turned
My bottom raven black \u2013 One moment madam!\u2019 \u2013 sensing
Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap
About my ears \u2013 \u2018Madam,\u2019 I pleaded, \u2018wouldn't you rather
See for yourself?\u2019

\u00a91963 Wole Soyinka; poem provided at no charge for educational purposes.<\/em><\/pre>\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Editor\u2019s Notes<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[*]<\/em> The link for the Internet Archive free access copy of the 1963 anthology: https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/ModernPoetryFromAfrica<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
[**]<\/em> In many online transcriptions of Wole Soyinka\u2019s Telephone Conversation,<\/em> including several otherwise reputable literary sites, the word \u2018changed\u2019 in the line \u2018till truthfulness changed her accent\u2019<\/em> is frequently misspelt as \u2018chaged\u2019. It is fascinating how the culture of copy-pasting perpetuates such errors without readers noticing. This small detail raises a broader question about how attentively we read the written word in the digital age.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nobel Prize in Literature 1986’s motivation: \u201c… who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[665,49,475,123,48,686,12],"tags":[398,346,139,687],"ppma_author":[579],"class_list":["post-4756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","category-essay","category-nobel-prize","category-picks","category-poetry","category-wole-soyinka","category-yore","tag-africa","tag-nobel","tag-poem","tag-wole-soyinka"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t