The Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka The Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka (born 1935) was one of the few African writers to denounce the slogan of Negritude as a tool of autocracy. He also was the first black African to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Wole Soyinka was born July 13‚ 1934 in Abeokuta a village on the banks of the River Ogun in the western area of Nigeria. His mother was a Christian convert so devout that he nicknamed her "Wild Christian" and he father was the scholarly
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Telephone conversation by Wole Soyinka is about‚ as the title suggests‚ a conversation over the telephone between two people – a West African man and a British landlady. The former was looking for a place to live in London. He felt that the ‘price seemed reasonable’ and the ‘location indifferent’ in the sense that it was impartial. The landlady claimed that she ‘lived off premises’ possibly indicating that it was a source of income for her. The poem is in free verse and appears like a conversation
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Wole Soyinka demonstrates the differences between two individuals‚ the speaker and the landlady of the apartment which he is trying to rent. Humanity has the awareness to recognize these differences and Soyinka uses the racism of the landlady to show her ignorance of the situation. We realize the differences between male and female‚ old and young‚ black and white‚ but never focus too strongly on them to cause conflict. The central conflict of this story is between the caller‚ the protagonist‚ and
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How is Prejudice Explored in the Poems ’Still I Rise’ and ’Telephone Conversation’? ’Telephone Conversation’ by Wole Soyinka and ’Still I Rise’ by Maya Angelou tackle the social injustice of discrimination. Both poems lack in similarities‚ the only one being theme‚ yet possess an abundance of differences. Although both poems convey the same theme‚ they differ in their means of conveyance. For instance they both explore prejudice and discrimination but through different types of language‚ imagery
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SUMMARY Telephone conversation is about an African man who wishes to rent an apartment and so has phoned the landlady to inquire. Once the landlady answers the man decides he must confess‚ as if he has committed a crime‚ about his nationality as the persona in the poem is well aware of the wide spread prejudice against people of African descent and feels he must get the fact out of the way. However‚ unaware of the extent of the landlady’s ignorance‚ he is shocked and annoyed by her cold‚ impersonal
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In ’Telephone Conversation’‚ the poet conveys his disappointment and anger about being discriminated by the Caucasian unfairly just because he is an African by portraying the telephone conversation between himself and the British landlady. The poem is in the form of free verse. It is because ’conversation’ isn’t something well-planned; instead‚ the speakers speak what they want during the conversation. Also‚ with the aid of end-stop lines and run-on lines‚ the outlook of the poem gives readers a
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Analysis and Commentary of “Telephone Conversation” by Wole Soyinka This poem is about the perceptions‚ attitudes and problems between the black and white skinned people/races. In this short poem of a telephone conversation between a dark skinned West African and a British landlady‚ the writer‚ Wole Soyinka‚ effectively makes others aware of the prejudice and tantrums thrown by the whites to the blacks. This poem emphasises the racism and criticism of Whites against the Blacks. In this poem
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Telephone Conversation was a poem concerning the racial discrimination between the Caucasian and African. In the poem‚ the poet wanted to rent a house from the landlady originally. However‚ after he stated that he was African‚ the conversation turned to discuss the poet’s skin color swiftly and it lasted till the end of the conversation.. Repetition was used to emphasize on the issue of racial discrimination. ’Dark’ was repeated to show how much did the landlady care about the poet’s color‚ because
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Wole Soyinka was born on 13 July 1934 at Abeokuta‚ near Ibadan in western Nigeria. After preparatory university studies in 1954 at Government College in Ibadan‚ he continued at the University of Leeds‚ where‚ later‚ in 1973‚ he took his doctorate. During the six years spent in England‚ he was a dramaturgist at the Royal Court Theatre in London 1958-1959. In 1960‚ he was awarded a Rockefeller bursary and returned to Nigeria to study African drama. At the same time‚ he taught drama and literature at
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Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka. Soyinka’s Telephone Conversation depicts a conversation between a white lady and an African American man which casts a harsh light on the racism and prejudice which grips society. The title reveals the fact that two people are talking on the phone‚ so the beginning of the poem is on a positive note: The man is searching for a house and the land lady has named a considerable price‚ and the area where it is located is an impartial and not racially prejudiced
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