I am African

Wole Soyinka's poem 'Telephone Conversation' is about a phone call to rent a room in London. The rent is fine, the area is fine, and the landlady does not live in the house herself. Everything seems right.

To avoid a wasted journey, the speaker tells her honestly: 'I am African.'

There is a silence. She is shocked, but she tries to keep up her good manners.

Then she asks, loudly and bluntly: how dark is he? Is he light, or very dark?

The speaker is standing in a red public phone booth on a London street. He is stunned by the question, and feels ashamed, though he has done nothing wrong.

One honest sentence has revealed her prejudice.