Does the theme of the poem say something about culture around the world?

In the poem “Telephone Conversation” the theme that the poem is focused on is racism. Even when the person is not physically in front of him, the issue of race is still apart of how a person communicates with one another. When the writer talks about how the African man is colored he uses a lot of imagery and he wants the reader to get a good mental image of the man on the telephone. He uses words like sepia to describes the reddish brown color of his skin. What does this show the reader about the writer and what he wants to get across? Soyinka uses phrases like “I am African” to tell the reader right off that the poem will be something about race. Do you think this was a good approach when trying to grab the reader’s attention? I believe that no matter where you are in the world that racism exists everywhere, whether you live in America or you live on the other side of the world. What do you think about this issue? Do you think it exist in other places other than America? The writer also describes the landlady’s voice as “lipstick-coated, long gold-rolled cigarette-holder pipped” what does this description tell you about the landlady’s personality or attitude towards the African man?