Generalitat de Catalunya
Departament d’Ensenyament
Escoles Oficials d’Idiomes
“Telephone Conversation” by Wole Soyinka
Introduction
This text can be linked to discussing the topics of finding accommodation and
racism. It can also be used as a starting point for a simulation of ‘negotiating over
the telephone’. It is intended for use with 5th level students.
The poem was written by the Nigerian poet Wole Soyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1986, and has been included in many anthologies and collections. It
is possibly based on his own personal experiences as a newly-arrived immigrant in
London in the 1950s/1960s. (there are specific references to that place and time:
the red London buses and the public telephone boxes with their button A and B).
Materials elaborats pel grup de treball Brit-lit – Departament d’Ensenyament / British Council
Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka. Introduction Page1