TELEPHONIC CONVERSATION -WOLE SOYINKA

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                                TELEPHONIC CONVERSATION

                                                            -WOLE SOYINKA

Introduction:

Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Babatunde Soyinka was born on 13 July 1934 in Yoruba family in Abeokuta. He is a Nigerian playwright, poet and essayist. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first African to be honoured in that category. His famous works, The Lion and the Jewel (1959), The Road (1965).

Summary

The poem “Telephone Conversation” by Wole Soyinka depicts a telephone conversation between an African man and a white landlady who has an apartment to rent. The man inquiries for the price and the location of the apartment and, because he does not want to travel there in vain, he confesses that he is black. At this point, the landlady asks him what kind of “black” the man is, whether very light of very dark. Sensing racism behind her.

 

Characters and narrator

    The poem “Telephone Conversation” by Wole Soyinka introduces readers to the characters of the white landlady and the black African man. The African man is also the speaker/narrator in the poem.

The speaker

The speaker of the poem – its narrator – is actually one of the main characters involved in the telephone conversation. This is revealed by the use of the personal pronoun “I” or by the possessive “my”

Initially, the poem reveals that the man is looking for an apartment. He is glad that he finds a good location with a “reasonable” (l. 1) price. Note that his “self- confession” (l. 4), that he is black, comes only after discussing the issue of the rental with the landlady. This indicates that upon discussing with him, the woman had no idea that he was black. At the same time, this indicates that the man might have seemed very polite and kind over the phone:

The landlady

The landlady is the interlocutor of the African man. The colour of her skin is not indicated in the poem, but it is more than obvious that she is white. This is revealed through her racist and xenophobic attitude over the phone.Keep in mind that she is a landlady and that she has an apartment she wants to rent to somebody. Initially, she does not suspect the man she speaks with is black. Her racist behaviour is triggered when the man confesses that he is African. Her first reaction is to remain mute probably because of her surprise.

The previous lines indicate that the woman is of “good-breeding”, an expression which might be used ironically by the speaker. In fact, this idea is further reinforced when the man imagines her as being rather vulgar, as her voice reminds him of a smoker woman with red lipstick.

Language and style

To have a better grasp of “Telephone Conversation” by Wole Soyinka,

 

·         Playing with the language

·         Tense of the verbs

·         Type of words used

·         The style of the poem & mode of expression

·         The sentence structure

·         Repetition

·         Irony

·         The effect of the language and style


 Playing with the language

    

    Even though the poem is meant to mimic a real-life conversation, there are quite a few instances when the poet plays with language. First, we sense a sort of wordplay when the speaker uses irony to suggest the woman’s racist behaviour “You mean like plain or milk chocolate?” Secondly, besides irony, the poet also plays with language through repetition.


Tense of the verbs

The majority of the verbs employed in “Telephone Conversation” are in the past tense, an element which indicates that the speaker renders a conversation that has already happened in the past. Some of the most notable verbs are: “seemed” , “came”, “was” , “chose” (lor “pleaded” .

When the woman speaks, she uses verbs in the present tense to find out the answers to her inquiries:

“HOW DARK?” . . . I had not misheard . . . “ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY DARK?”

 

The sentence structure

In “Telephone Conversation”, the sentence structure is an important aspect you should pay attention to. You have probably noticed that some sentences lack verbs, such as in “Silenced transmission of pressurized good-breeding.” or “Red booth.”. At the same time, there are sentences composed of a single word: “Silence.”.

Repetition

Two instances of repetition are notable in the poem. First, the white landlady keeps on asking the man the same question and repeats the word “dark” four times:

 

“HOW DARK?” . . . I had not misheard . . . “ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY DARK?””

 

Imagery and metaphors

In “Telephone Conversation” by Wole Soyinka, imagery is mostly employed when the speaker depicts himself regarding colour, but also when he depicts the way he imagines the landlady looks like:

 

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— Foolishly, madam—by sitting down, has turned

My bottom raven black…

 

… Silenced transmission of

Pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came, Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled

Cigarette-holder pipped.

 

Metaphors

The metaphor of the “pressurized good-breeding” (l. 7) is supposed to suggest the fact that the woman initially came across as educated and elegant, but that her mask soon disappeared under pressure, when she revealed her racist attitude.

At the same time, the metaphor of the “stench of rancid breath” (ll. 11-12) suggests the fact that the woman wears a fetid mask behind...

Symbols

The color red is a very important symbol in the poem, as it symbolize the man’s growing anger upon hearing a racist question.The omnibus (which, in Latin, means “for all”) symbolize the white society which acts superior and with violence in front of the black minority. In the same way, the tar symbolize the black minority which is meant to feel inferior and which is almost always “squelched” by the whites:

 Red booth. Red pillar-box. Red double-tiered Omnibus squelching tar. It was real! Shamed…

Theme and message

The main theme explored by the poet in “Telephone Conversation” is that of racism and xenophobia. Through the poem, Wole Soyinka tries to raise awareness of the fact that skin colour should not matter in an open-minded and educated society. Issues like “light” or “dark” skin should not impede a person to carry on with daily life and should not represent milestones that cannot be crossed.The poem also subtly touches upon the motif of ghettoization, which is related to placing members of a certain racial group in an isolated place, such as in ghettoes.

Racism and xenophobia

Racism can be defined as a combined attitude of prejudice and discrimination of one race regarding the other, as well as the idea that one race (in this case, the white one) is superior to others (in this case, the black one). At the same time, xenophobia can be defined as prejudice regarding everything that's different.Both of these attitudes are explored through the character of the white landlady, whose mask of good-breeding and education is shattered once she finds out that she carries a conversation with a black.

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