"Telephone Conversation" is a racist satire written by Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka in 1963. The poem is about a phone call about renting an apartment between a landlady and the speaker, who is black. It was first published in a magazine called Our Corner in London. Soyinka wrote this poem after he had been refused accommodation because of his skin color. In Africa at that time, black people were not allowed to stay in white apartments or hotels. Also, they could not use some public facilities like restaurants or toilets. So, most of them lived in slums and tried to find work as servants or shop assistants. In Nigeria today, there are many cases where blacks are denied housing loans or apartment rentals because of their skin color. That's why Soyinka wrote this poem: to condemn this practice. Here is how the poem starts: "A telephone call from upcountry / Renting an apartment for a month". Upcountry at that time meant rural areas. So, the landlady calls him to ask if she can rent her apartment to someone else for one month. When he says yes, she asks if he is black and he replies no. That's it. The poem ends here too. Soyinka says in his introduction that this is a true story but he changed some names to protect the innocent.