Happy Birthday, Wole Soyinka! | Poems Rethabile Likes
🎂 Happy Birthday, Wole Soyinka!
Nobel Laureate · Poet · Playwright · born 13 July 1934
Today we celebrate the 92nd birthday of Wole Soyinka — the first African to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. Here is his devastatingly satirical poem, “Telephone Conversation,” a masterclass in irony and resistance.
Telephone Conversation
The price seemed reasonable, location
Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived
Off premises. Nothing remained
But self-confession. "Madam", I warned,
"I hate a wasted journey—I am African."
Silence. Silenced transmission of
Pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
Lipstick coated, long gold rolled
Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was, foully.
"HOW DARK?"… I had not misheard. …"ARE YOU LIGHT
OR VERY DARK?" 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 dumbfoundment to beg simplification.
Considerate she was, varying the emphasis—
"ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?" Revelation came.
"You mean—like plain or milk chocolate?"
Her accent was clinical, crushing in its light
Impersonality. Rapidly, wave-length adjusted,
I chose. "West African sepia"—and as afterthought,
"Down in my passport." Silence for spectroscopic
Flight of fancy, till truthfulness changed her accent
Hard on the mouthpiece. "WHAT'S THAT?" conceding
"DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS." "Like brunette."
"THAT'S DARK, ISN'T IT?" "Not 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 blond. Friction, caused—
Foolishly madam—by sitting down, has turned
My bottom raven black—One moment madam!—sensing
Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap
About my ears—"Madam," I pleaded, "wouldn't you rather
See for yourself?"
Wole Soyinka (b. 1934) is a Nigerian playwright, poet, essayist, and the first African to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (1986). His work confronts political tyranny, racism, and the human condition with fierce wit, moral clarity, and unflinching honesty. “Telephone Conversation” remains one of his most widely taught and devastating satires of racial prejudice.
📖 Read more: Britannica • Nobel Prize • ThriftBooks
📖 Read more: Britannica • Nobel Prize • ThriftBooks
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