TELEPHONE CONVERSATION

Overview
Wole Soyinka’s “Telephone Conversation” satirizes racial prejudice by dramatizing an
ostensibly polite exchange between a Black tenant and a white landlady that unravels into absurd
interrogations of skin tone. Employing free‐verse dialogue, abrupt capitalized questions, and
strategic silences, the poem exposes how veneer-thin civility masks deep-seated bias and reduces
human identity to a shade on a scale. Through irony and vivid imagery—“Lipstick coated, long
gold-rolled / Cigarette-holder pipped”—Soyinka reveals the grotesque illogic of racism,
prompting readers to laugh at the landlady’s folly even as they confront its moral gravity

Summary of the Poem

“Telephone Conversation” opens with a pragmatic tenant noting that “The price seemed
reasonable, location / Indifferent,” setting a calm, transactional stage before tension arises When
the speaker confesses, “I hate a wasted journey – I am African,” the landlady’s response is a
stony silence, underscoring how racial disclosure can rupture polite discourse Her eventual reply
—described as “Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled / Cigarette-holder pipped”—juxtaposes
outward refinement with inner prejudice when she demands, “HOW DARK? … ARE YOU
LIGHT OR VERY DARK?”. The speaker’s measured answers—“like plain or milk chocolate?,”
“West African sepia,” “like brunette”—turn the conversation into a grotesque inventory of hues,
each comparison highlighting the absurdity of categorizing people by color. In the final ironic
flourish, he offers to prove his full tone—“Palm of my hand, soles of my feet / Are a peroxide
blonde”—thereby deflating the landlady’s bigotry and spotlighting the ridiculousness of her
criteria.

Satirical Techniques
Irony and Sarcasm

Soyinka’s speaker maintains a veneer of calm politeness even as the landlady’s questions grow
more invasive, transforming each polite inquiry into a stage for cruel satire The capitalized
questions—“HOW DARK?” and “THAT’S DARK, ISN’T IT?”—mock the pretension that such
blunt categorization could ever be acceptable, turning her civility inside out

Strategic Silences

Moments of silence—first after “I am African,” and later at each hesitant pause—function like
stage directions, dramatizing the landlady’s internalized prejudice and amplifying the discomfort
of both speaker and reader. These gaps in conversation satirize the polite façade that racism often
relies upon to persist under the guise of “good-breeding”.

Vivid Imagery and Metaphor

By likening skin tones to “plain or milk chocolate” and “West African sepia,” Soyinka employs
everyday metaphors to underscore how racism objectifies human beings as commodities to be
weighed, sampled, and classified. The final image of “peroxide blonde” palms and soles extends
this metaphor to absurdity, satirizing the illusion that any spectrum of human color can be neatly
contained

Line-by-Line Justification
Opening Stanza (Lines 1–4)

“The price seemed reasonable, location / Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived / Off
premises. Nothing remained / But self-confession.”

 The detached tone and “Indifferent” location emphasize a mundane beginning, lulling
readers into expecting a routine rental negotiation before prejudice intrudes

Self-Confession and Silence (Lines 5–8)

“’Madam,’ I warned, / ‘I hate a wasted journey – I am African.’ / Silence. Silenced transmission

of pressurized good-breeding. / Voice, when it came …”

 The speaker’s “warning” reframes honesty about race as a burden, while “Silence” and
“silenced transmission” depict racism as a pregnant pause, saturating civility with tension

Landlady’s Prejudice (Lines 9–14)

“Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled / Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was, foully. / ‘HOW
DARK?’ … ‘ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY DARK?’ / Button B. Button A.”

The lush description of the landlady’s voice (“Lipstick coated”) contrasts grotesquely with her
crude questions, satirizing how refinement and bigotry can coexist in the same person. The
“Button B. Button A.” mimicry of a phone menu lampoons the dehumanization of the speaker
into mere options on a dial

Negotiating Skin Tone (Lines 15–23)

“’You mean – like plain or milk chocolate?’ … ‘West African sepia’ … ‘Like brunette.’
 Each food and hair-color metaphor mocks the idea that complex human identities can be
reduced to simplistic categories, with the speaker’s calm corrections heightening the ironic
critique

Final Reversal (Lines 24–30)

“’Palm of my hand, soles of my feet. / Are a peroxide blonde. Friction, caused – / Foolishly
madam – by sitting down, has turned …’

 The speaker’s playful literalization of racism’s absurdity—offering proof of “blonde”

extremities—exposes the landlady’s questions as both baseless and demeaning

Conclusion
By transforming a routine rental inquiry into a series of absurd, racially charged interrogations,
Soyinka’s “Telephone Conversation” satirizes the irrationality and inhumanity of racial
prejudice. Through irony, strategic silences, and striking metaphors, the poem lays bare how
“civil” society perpetuates segregation under the guise of polite discourse, compelling readers to
recognize and reject the folly of judging people by skin tone. In doing so, Soyinka not only
indicts individual bigotry but also challenges systemic attitudes that render genuine human
connection impossible.

Language and Imagery

Soyinka’s language is deceptively simple yet laden with satirical force. He likens skin tones to
consumer goods—“plain or milk chocolate,” “brunette”—thereby mocking the absurdity of
reducing human identity to color labels Devika Panikar. The richly detailed portrayal of the
landlady—“Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled / Cigarette-holder pipped”—juxtaposes her
outward refinement with her crude racial curiosity, amplifying the poem’s ironic bite Owlcation.

Satirical Techniques
 Irony: The speaker’s calm, almost genteel responses to invasive questions underscore the
landlady’s folly, exposing the malicious undercurrent of her civility Medium.
 Strategic Silence: Moments of silence after statements like “I am African” dramatize the
discomfort racism imposes on ordinary interactions Literary Theory and Criticism.
 Grotesque Metaphor: The closing image—“Palm of my hand, soles of my feet / Are a
peroxide blonde”—ridicules any attempt to quantify race, revealing the arbitrary cruelty
of color-based discrimination litxpert.
Themes
Racism and Othering

The landlady’s fixation on skin tone reduces the speaker to an object of scrutiny, highlighting
how racism dehumanizes its victims Encyclopedia.com.

Power of Language

By using polite language to pose brutal questions, the poem reveals how discourse itself can
become a mechanism for enforcing social hierarchies Buzzsprout.

Identity and Humanity

Through the absurd categorization of color, Soyinka critiques any ideology that values physical
attributes above intrinsic human worth Poem Analysis.

Tone and Speaker

The speaker maintains a restrained, ironic tone, navigating the landlady’s prying questions with
courteous defiance Owlcation. This cool detachment contrasts with the landlady’s growing
agitation, positioning the speaker morally above her baseless prejudice