african literature

2. ABOUT THE POEM...
Name:- Ekta Jayswal
Class:- M.A.[SEM:- 3]
Roll No:- 11
Paper No.14:- The African Literature
Enrollment No:- PG2069108420180027
Batch:- 2017/19
Email Id:- ektajayswal12@gmail.com
Submitted to:- Dr. Dilip Barad
S.B.Gardi English Department [M.K.B.U.]

3. ABOUT AUTHOR...
 Born in 1934 in
Nigeria.
 Graduated from
leeds University
in 1957.
 Africa's premier
author, poet and
Playwright.

4. ACHIEVEMENTS...
 Has got honorary doctorates from Harvard and
Princeton Universities.
 Won the Nobel prize for literature in 1986.
 In 1994, Soyinka was appointed UNESCO
Goodwill Ambassador for the promotion of
African Culture, human rights, freedom of
expression.
 Soyinka has played a large part in shaping
Nigeria and helping it fight against dictators.

5. BACKGROUND OF THE
POEM ...
 This poem was inspired by
the experiences of the
poet in the 1960's when
he was trying to find a
house in Leeds.
 The poet encountered
racism in England and
thus later in his life
became inspired to write
down the poem.

6. RACISM...
 Racism is usually defined
as views and reflecting the
belief that members of a
certain race share certain
attributes which make that
group as a whole less
desirable, more desirable,
inferior or superior.

7. A BRIEF
EXPLANATION...

8. STRUCTURE OF THE
POEM...
 The poem has only 1 stanza and
no breaks..
 This lyric poem is written in free
verse, with lack of rhyme which is
appreciate because the poem is a
representation of a telephone
conversation.

9. TONE OF THE POEM...
 The tone of the poem is satirical and playful
throughout the poem, the narrator talks in an
apologetic tone, as if it his fault that he is black.
 Whole Soyinka emphasizes tones of fear,
disgust, anger and confusion by employing
punctuation line breaks, and typographical
elements to develop stress on the different
emotions.

10. LITERARY DEVICES USED IN THE
POEM...
 Alliteration...
 Repetition...
 Irony...

11. ALLITERATION...
 The poet use alliteration in describing the
woman as "Lipstick coated, long gold -
rolled cigarette - holder pipped".
 Through this the speaker emphasize his
own bias against the woman.
 These lines suggest that the speaker sees
the landlady as a wealthy woman with
pretentious airs, showing the theme of
bias.

12. REPETITION...
 The poet uses repetition to emphasize certain
points.
 He first uses repetition with "silence". Silenced
transmission of pressurized good-breeding to
emphasize the shock that occurs to the lady.
 It is then used again with "Are you light or very
dark?" And the word "Red" in order to
emphasize the question and anger respectively.

14. IRONY...
 The African says that he has to "self-confess",
when he reveals his skin colour to the lady.
 The Colour of his skin is something that he has
no control over, the fact that the man feels
ashamed and sorry for this is ironical and casts
light on how ridiculous racism is.
 It seems almost comical that anyone should be
so submissive when he has actually committed
no mistakes.

15. THEME...
 The poem deals with a foul subject, that of racism
and prejudice, in a lighthearted, almost comical
manner.
 A most important device which Soyinka has used to
highlight this sense of racism, which was previously
widespread in western society, is that of the
telephone.
 Thus, the telephone is used to make the issue of
racism clear and prove how nonsensical it really is.

16. TO WIND UP...
 The poem demonstrates to us the lack of education
and understanding some people might have.,
Though it seems that the landlady is well bred.
 She is racist due to her ignorance.
 The narrator shows himself to be better educated
than the woman as shown by him using words such
as ''spectroscopic'' and ''flight of fancy".
 The narrator is shown due to better educated thus
showing that looks are deceptive and that one's
character is more important that the color of one's
skin.

17. THANK YOU