EXAMINE THE MAJOR THEMATIC CONCERN, LANGUAGE AND IMAGERY OF

SYL CHENEY COKER AND WOLE SOYINKA IN AT LEAST THREE POEMS

EACH

1. Wole Soyinka
The major concern of Wole Soyinka in the poem “Telephone Conversation" is the
exposition of the presence of racial discrimination and xenophobia at the individual
level in society even after the passing of laws against it. The poet portrays his
concern that only through the essence of human interaction racial differences are
exposed. This is evidently portrayed in a telephone conversation between the
speaker, a Black man and the landlady, a white woman when the supposed tenant
tries to confirm renting an apartment with a landlady. Ridiculously, the conversation
focuses on the colour of the tenant after the tenant confesses himself in line 6 as a
proud Africa "I hate a wasted journey - I am African." The caller becomes
astonished by the woman`s reply in lines 10 and 11 when she questions the skin of
the caller "HOW DARK?"...I had not misheard...."ARE YOU LIGHT OR /VERY
DARK?" Button B. Button A. Stench
However, despite the disparaging opinion about the skin of the caller, Soyinka
raises awareness that skin colour should not matter in an open-minded and
educated society. The caller is proud of his race:
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.
The poet maintains a balance of prejudice when he states that the caller prejudges
the woman of her voice, “Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled/Cigarette-holder pipped.”

The overall emphasis in the poem on the theme of racism is prescribed in the
question, "ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT" that makes the narrator
"dumbfounded" because it is seen as a complete attack on the black colours that
they are unfit to rent an apartment. Instead of telling her, "It's none of your
business," or simply, "Let's forget about the apartment," he offers a cryptic
response: "'West African sepia.'" He makes matters even worse by saying that
"friction" has somehow turned his buttocks "raven black."

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Unlike in “Telephone Conversation” where the concern of the poet is endemic of
racism within the fabric of society, Soyinka deals with the themes of arbitrary
execution and solitary confinement in the poem, “Procession I – Hanging Day”.

Soyinka begins the poem with a dark and depressing tone, describing his
experience in solitary confinement in prison, and the process of a man about to be
executed. He describes his feelings of loneliness with the use of the metaphor,
'drawbridge' and how he is distant from others in societies. As the theme of
loneliness runs throughout the poem, the poet also establishes the theme to
frustration when describing his anger with the Nigerian government, and the
injustices they have committed ironically in the name of justice itself. Here lies an
endless cycle of death. When one side commits murder, the other side responds
with the same action, creating this repetition of death and despair with no real
solution.
Soyinka questions the 'rigors of the law', as the government that enforces them are
just as corrupt as those they incarcerate and kill. Tens of thousands have died at
the hands of the government, so this hanging is not justice. Soyinka calls attention
to the different perceptions of the hanging, as he believes it is murder and unjust.
While the government believes it is. There are moments of ambiguity in the poem,
such as "Belie their absence in a feel of eyes" which I have thoroughly discussed
with my contemporaries but have not been able to arrive at a clear consensus it.

One common theme that comparatively runs through Soyinka’s poems under study
is torture whether physical or psychological. Asking someone for the colour of his
skin before a rental permit is given or confining someone in loneliness before
execution. “Abiku” also expresses the theme of torture. This is evident from the
behaviour of the persona in the poem is that whatever his mother does to deny his
coming and going will just be a fruitless endeavour:

In vain your bangles cast

Charmed circles at my feet
I am Abiku, calling for the first
And the repeated time.

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This opening stanza depicts the psychological torture the mother of “abiku” would
have to go through in the rest of the poem. The dictions of the poet in “Abiku” are so
glaring that one would ask why a child would want to put his mother through this
kind of torture.
In Africa, Children are meant to be sources of joy to their mothers. However, it is the
contrary in Soyinka`s “Abiku”

I am the squirrel teeth, cracked

The riddle of the palm; remember
This, and dig me deeper still into
The god's swollen foot.

The credence here is that the child has assumed an animate character to torture
and torment his mother since animals are pitiless and conscienceless in whatsoever
they do.

More so, the tone of the poet’s persona in the poem expresses the theme of vanity
in life and that whatever it is being offered to him to stay or go has no benefit to him.
While the mood is that of pride. ‘Bangles cast charm circles at my feet’ ‘buttresses
the imagery of negativity because in Africa and Nigerian in particular, bangles are
associated with charms used to drive evil spirits away.

The second stanza opens with a Rhetorical question to suggest the themes of death
and arrogance. He says ''must I weep for goats and cowries/ For palm oil and
sprinkled ash?
On the 3rd & 4th lines of this stanza,“Yams do not sprout in amulets/to earth Abiku
limbs” Means that the earth is the only place where Abiku can grow and that all the
ritual being performed to make him stay is only but a waste. There are also the
themes of vanity and torture since no matter what man does to bribe death he must
still die. His tone still expresses pride and lack of pity while is mood is a boastful.

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 2. Syl Cheney Coker
The major preoccupation of the Sierra Leonean poet, Syl Cheney Coker in Myopia
is the thematic expression of living conditions of the downtrodden of the class of the
people in the society, a class that constitutes the majority but faces the greatest
dehumanization. This is expressed in the title of the poem. The word “Myopia” which
the poet used as his title speaks clearly about the poem’s content and the poet’s
motif to present the actual situation of the ordinary masses of his native land.
Myopia has a negative connotation as someone who is shortsighted, malnourished,
destitute and deprived. This is vividly portrayed in the first five lines of the beginning
of the poem. That is, the poet did not waste any time linking his title to the content of
his work.
On rainy mornings
You will see them drenched
PEASANTS! Shivering in their emaciated bones 
along the boulevards of misery
the boulevards of this country

The themes of dehumanization, suffering and poverty are clearly depicted here. At a
time when human beings should be in bed are seen in the morning “drenched” and
“shivering” not only in their “emaciated bones” but have accepted their misery in
thought, “boulevards of misery”
One could wonder if there would have been any better way to start the poem than
giving an immediate description of the misery of the ordinary citizens in their
country, which is perpetrated by their leaders because of neglect, greed and
selfishness. In addition to these thematic concerns, the poet also expresses the
theme of frustration in himself and amongst the peasants in lines 6 & 7 “are railway
tracks in my heart / a train of anguish runs on them”, The use of hyperbole here is to
show the extent of the misery and suffering of peasants.
Like at the beginning of the poem, the poet ends on a sad note of suicide. This
gives the impression that the persona and the peasants have lost the sense of the
essence of living. Promises are broken in the grave which makes the persona thinks
that if madness could have him, he will consider being a killer or a suicide.
“In the poem “Freetown” poet, Syl Cheney-Coker expresses a deep concern for
Africa. The first few lines of the poem clearly set the poet’s concerns for his native
land. The title of the poem could be a piece of evidence of this fact. The poet is in
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exile but he never misses adoring or praising the hospitality and fertility of Africa in
lines 6 & 7. “I feel the warmth of your arms/Centrifugal mother reaching out to your
sons” The poet is proud of the care his native land gives to its citizens.
In a critical analysis of the thematic concern of the poet, one would realize that the
poem is centred on pride in African values. This theme runs throughout the poem.
One can illustrate it with the way the poet harshly condemns Africans who value
foreign culture more than African values.
My sisters who plaster their skins with cosmetics
To look whiter than the snows of Europe
 But listen to the suffering of our hearts

Cheney-Coker goes further in lines 10 & 11 to register his frustration with the lack of
contentment amongst the Africans for their race and diversity. “Liking your image
but hating our differences/Because we have become the shame of your race”

What is illustrated in the poem is that despite the poet being far away from his land,
wondering “Amidst the horrors of highway deaths” like the Fulani cow, he is still
proud of his Africa even though he finds it difficult to happily believe that Africa as
the centre of the world could be left in a helpless state.

The poem ends on a note of appeal that all Africans should unite into a single entity.
The resulting single union of states will then become positioned to eradicate the
cruel ways of life that are common in Africa:

But united inside your womb

Because I have dreams in the shadows of Freetown

However, in lines 28, 29 & 34, Syl Cheney-Coker expresses the theme of fear by
warning that poor and neglected masses will sooner than later bring about a
revolutionary struggle across Africa.

Crashing under the yoke of its ferocious civilization

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