The poem "Telephone Conversation" is by Wole Soyinka
The poem is about a telephone conversation between a white lady and an african man and the poet shows the the racism in the society.
The african man is the speaker in the poem. The man is searching for a house and he finds one the price is good and the area where it is located is not very populated and not racist. Everything was fine but the man had not 'confessed' the told her that he would hate to waste his time and he is an african, it is sad that he has to feels like he is confessing for a crime when he said that he is african and we also get to know that the area he is in very racist and he has already met racist people there.
After his 'confession' he was greated with silence after some time the lady spoke through her 'lipstic coated lips' and he assumed she had a long gold cigarette holder, this tells that the lady was rich and well bread with manners. She asked 'how dark?' he was shocked at her forgotten manners so he did not answer, the lady thought that he had not understood the question so she asked again that is he was light or very dark as of asking him to choose option A or B.
He could literally smell the stench coming from her deceptive words and see red everywhere around him. Ironically he is the one who is ashamed by the tense and awkward silence which follows, and asks for clarification thinking sarcastically that the lady was really helpful by giving him options to choose from. He suddenly understands what she is trying to ask, and repeats her question to her stating if she would like him to compare himself with chocolate, dark or light? She dispassionately answers and his thoughts change as he describes himself as a West African Sepia as it says in his passport. The lady remains quite for a while, not wanting to admit to her ignorance, but then she gives in to curiosity and asks what that is. He replies that it is similar to brunette and she immediately clarifies that that’s dark.
Now the man had enough of her insensitiveness. He disregards all constraints of formality and mocks her outright, saying that he isn’t all black, the soles of his feet and the palms of his hands are completely white, but he is foolish enough to sit on his bottom so it has been rubbed black due to friction. But as he senses that she is about to slam the receiver on him, he asks her to is she would like to see the colour of his ears herself, pleading her to at least see for herself; only to have the phone slammed on him.
The poem is about a telephone conversation between a white lady and an african man and the poet shows the the racism in the society.
The african man is the speaker in the poem. The man is searching for a house and he finds one the price is good and the area where it is located is not very populated and not racist. Everything was fine but the man had not 'confessed' the told her that he would hate to waste his time and he is an african, it is sad that he has to feels like he is confessing for a crime when he said that he is african and we also get to know that the area he is in very racist and he has already met racist people there.
After his 'confession' he was greated with silence after some time the lady spoke through her 'lipstic coated lips' and he assumed she had a long gold cigarette holder, this tells that the lady was rich and well bread with manners. She asked 'how dark?' he was shocked at her forgotten manners so he did not answer, the lady thought that he had not understood the question so she asked again that is he was light or very dark as of asking him to choose option A or B.
He could literally smell the stench coming from her deceptive words and see red everywhere around him. Ironically he is the one who is ashamed by the tense and awkward silence which follows, and asks for clarification thinking sarcastically that the lady was really helpful by giving him options to choose from. He suddenly understands what she is trying to ask, and repeats her question to her stating if she would like him to compare himself with chocolate, dark or light? She dispassionately answers and his thoughts change as he describes himself as a West African Sepia as it says in his passport. The lady remains quite for a while, not wanting to admit to her ignorance, but then she gives in to curiosity and asks what that is. He replies that it is similar to brunette and she immediately clarifies that that’s dark.
Now the man had enough of her insensitiveness. He disregards all constraints of formality and mocks her outright, saying that he isn’t all black, the soles of his feet and the palms of his hands are completely white, but he is foolish enough to sit on his bottom so it has been rubbed black due to friction. But as he senses that she is about to slam the receiver on him, he asks her to is she would like to see the colour of his ears herself, pleading her to at least see for herself; only to have the phone slammed on him.
No comments:
Post a Comment