Critical Book Review of Okot p'Bitek's Song of Lawino & Song of Ocol
By babu Odondi Okot p'Bitek an Oxford-educated anthropologist from Uganda, sought to capture the rear-ender of postcolonial African movements for Westernization with the Negritude embrace of truly African beauty. Writing his great Song of Lawino in both an Acholi and English doggerel, he hoped to create a new medium of poetry, one without open Western influence. P’Bitek hoped that his songs would put in a nutshell the world he came from, and he succeeded. Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol, partner songs, beautifully and provocatively discuss the conflict between the need to preserve one's tribe and identity with the need to modernize. The writing is absolutely beautiful -- though I have no knowledge of Acholi idioms, p'Bitek clearly has written (even in English) poetry embraces his native tongue. Although his self-translation lacks the straight rhythms and repetitions that defined the original (they were called songs for a reason -- their original mode is that ...