Song of Lawino & Song of Ocol

During his lifetime, Okot p'Bitek was concerned that African nations, including his native Uganda, be built on African and not European foundations. Traditional African songs became a regular feature in his work, including this pair of poems, originally written in Acholi and translated into English. Lawino's words in the first poem are not fancy, but their creative patterns convey compelling images that reveal her dismay over encroaching Western traditions and her Westernized husband's behavior. Ocol's poem underlines Lawino's points and confirms her view of him as a demeaning and arrogant person whose political energies and obsession with wasting time are destructive to his family and his community.

The gripping poems of Lawino and Ocol capture two opposing approaches to the cultural future of Africa at the time and paint a picture that belongs in every modern reader's cognitive gallery.

Other titles by African writers from Waveland Press:

Amadi, The Concubine (ISBN 9781478634607)

Andreas, The Purple Violet of Oshaantu (ISBN 9781478634584)

Ba, So Long a Letter (ISBN 9781577668060)

Campbell, My Children Have Faces (ISBN 13 9781478635017)

Head, The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales (ISBN 9781478607601)

Head, Maru (ISBN 9781478607618)

Head, A Question of Power (ISBN 9781478634690)

Head, When Rain Clouds Gather (ISBN 9781478607595)

Kubuitsile, The Scattering (ISBN 9781478634591)

Nwapa, Efuru (ISBN 9781478611011)

Plaatje, Mhudi (ISBN 9781478609575)

Rifaat, Distant Views of a Minaret and Other Short Stories (ISBN 9781478611288)