SOURCE: Okumu, Charles. “Towards an Appraisal of Criticism on Okot p'Bitek's Poetry.” In Uganda: The Cultural Landscape, edited by Eckhard Breitinger, pp. 149-75. Kampala, Uganda: Fountain Publishers Ltd., 1999.

[In the following essay, Okumu presents an overview of criticism on p'Bitek's poetry.]

Since about 1966 there has been an on-going debate as to which of the following critical traditions is best suited for the literary criticism of African literature: formalism, socio-culturalism, Marxism or historical, psychological, anthropological or folkloristic criticism. Except for folkloristic criticism, most of the critical approaches owe their perception to the theories first propounded by Irving Howe and Northrop Frye. New Criticism and structuralism have not been popular with African critics. In the criticism of Okot's poetry, the dominant critical theories applied have been cultural-formalism and Marxism-Fanonism. Our hypothesis is that Okot's poetry is best understood through emphasis on the folklore and culture of the Acholi society which informs the written poetry. Our contention is that Okot's “Songs” owe their form to the Acholi orature and cultural tradition.

In the study of literary criticism of African literature, a helpful start is with Irving Howe's definition of criticism in Modern Literary Criticism (1957). Howe emphasises the need for a clearly measured critical judgement based on definite criteria. The judgement, he argues, is the subjective response of the critic as a reader. He stresses the need for the critic to be familiar with the cultural milieu in which the literary text is set. Howe's definition embodies two possible but separate approaches to literary criticism: the formalistic approach where the critic concentrates on the literary text and analyses the plot, structure, narrative technique, themes and ideas; and the socio-cultural approach, where the relevance of the social setting and human considerations preponderate in assessing the literary merit of the text. Critics of African literature have been debating which of the two approaches is the most suitable for the criticism of African literature. However, since the authors give approximately equal weight to the literary form and the socio-cultural elements of their particular societies, any solution is inevitably subjective.

Northrop Frye's critical perception does not differ radically from that of Howe. In The Critical Path (1971), he defines the operation of criticism as “trying to see what meaning could be discovered in works of literature from the context in literature” (p. 15). Hence, his criticism of all approaches which do not account for

… the literary form of what they are discussing … and the poetic and metaphorical language of the literary work but assume its primary meaning to be a non-poetic meaning.

(pp. 19-20)

Literature, Frye argues, is a

… coherent structure, historically conditioned but shaping its own history, responding to but not determined in its form by an external historical process.

(p. 24)

The ideal critical approach, Frye emphasises, is that which can create a balance between “the structure of literature” and “other cultural phenomena that form the social environment of literature” (p. 25). He rejects New Criticism which he defines as “a rhetorical form of criticism—a technique of explication” (p. 20) with emphasis on the explication of the poetic language without reference to the social context of the text. Howe and Frye share critical perceptions which emphasise the balance between formalism and socio-cultural criticism. It is only when this balance is achieved that the critic can discuss the social, economic and political issues inherent in the literary text.

Among African critics, Solomon Iyasere has striven for a critical approach with the balance Frye calls for. In “The Liberation of African Literature: A Reevaluation of the Socio-cultural Approach”, he rejects early expository criticism such as Gerald Moore's Seven African Writers (1962) and Eustace Palmer's Introduction to the African Novel (1972). These critics and anthropologically trained socio-cultural critics were concerned with the sociological and cultural aspects of African literature which non-Africans could not understand. At worst, they passed off socio-anthropological commentary as literary criticism. Iyasere classifies this as pre-criticism which is descriptive but no evaluative (p. 25). He argues that pre-criticism ‘helps the literary critic in tracing the genesis of a particular work … and locating what cultural influences have shaped the writer's imaginative vision’. Like Frye, Iyasere suggests that critics of African literature should combine the socio-cultural and formalist criticisms in a two-way approach. The practices of the socio-cultural critics should be used to judge the world within the novel against the world outside: and the practices of the formalist should serve to determine how well the elements so isolated function within the artistic unit of the literary text (p. 223). The compound critical term he suggests is ‘cultural-formalism’.

Iyasere's emphasis on cultural-formalism has been a moderating factor in his own critical evaluation of African literature. He has emphasised the importance of orature as an important influence on African writers in particular. Other critics such as O. R. Dathorne¹, Abiola Irele², Edgar Wright³ and Emmanuel Obiechina⁴ have identified orature as an important influencing factor on African creative writing but they have not clearly spelt out its role in creative writing or literary criticism. Dathorne, for example, states that the oral literature component in the literary text is the principal factor influencing the critic's judgement and classification of African literary works. He gives the example of the ritualistic framework of Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1958), as against the journalistic approach of Peter Abrahams' novels. Nevertheless, Dathorne gives no detailed guideline on how the critic should approach the work. Using a similar frame of reference, but with greater detail in its application, Obiechina has emphasised the importance of orature and culture in West African novels in particular. Orature, he argues, is found wherever the writer's use of language is interwoven with folklore genres such as prose narrative and the proverb. The writers draw on the folklore of their traditional culture which is a living culture, co-existing with modernity (p. 26). The function of folklore in the West African novel, he states, is to give it authenticity and cultural commitment even though the writing may become didactic (p. 17). The conclusion Obiechina draws is that the West African novel

reflects the peculiar cultural situation in West Africa, where elements of the oral kinship-orientated culture of old Africa exist side by side with elements of the world of technological contract-orientated culture.⁵

His conclusion is valid but he does not analyse the role of the oral literary genres which he deems an important component in the texts.

Obiechina's type of criticism has been expanded by Solomon Iyasere in “Oral Traditions in the Criticism of African Literature”.⁶ He proposes what he calls “a cultural-sensitive approach, informed by an intelligent understanding of the traditional background.”⁷ His proposal arises from the fact that the African writer's “root lies deep in the oral past” (p. 111). The critic, he argues, should show the function of the oral literary genres in the creative work in order to judge the author's artistry and discretion in using them.⁸ In practice, however, this criticism has remained descriptive but not analytical. The critic should use this knowledge not as an end in itself but an aid in the evaluation of the literary text. Pre-criticism, which we equate with the identification of folklore genres in the literary text, implies that the critic is familiar with generic classification as distinct from folk belief, material culture and the performing arts. For the non-folkloric literary critic, Richard Dorson has suggested three basic approaches: biographical, internal and corroberative evidences from within and outside the literary text⁹.

Dorson's definition of biographical evidence is distinct from what Frye classified as ‘biographical documentary criticism’, where the critic looks for external biographical materials which might serve to adjust it with preconceived ideas about the personal and social status of the creative writer in order to match it with his writing. In the study of folklore in literature, the critic must establish that the creative writer has ‘enjoyed direct contact with the oral lore’ of his society. The writer who knows the taxonomy, function and performing situation of the folklore, can consciously use them in his creative writing. He selects specific genres for specific purposes. Okot provides a striking example of this. In his poetry, he uses the form of Acholi oral songs, proverbs and similes, and draws his symbols and images from the traditional culture. The rhythm of the poem is derived from the tonal language of the Acholi and even in translation, he has retained some of the rhythmic patterning. He uses Acholi proverbs not merely to authenticate his poetry but as vehicles to convey his contemporary themes. While the proverbs are epigrammatically used, the similes are used to alleviate the whims and also as a ‘repository for their inventive boldness’.¹⁰ The best example is in Song of Lawino when Lawino uses similes to expose Clementine's vanity (pp. 41-48) and in her description of the atmosphere of the ballroom and the toilet (pp 52-58). The poet achieves his intended meaning through selective use of appropriate formulaic genres. A creative writer who has not enjoyed direct contact with folklore can obviously not achieve this natural creative style.

Daniel Hoffman has criticised Dorson for his emphasis on biographical evidence which limits the critic to regional writers. He argues that writers are ‘interested in patterns of thought and the organisation of actions characteristic of folk expressions’.¹¹ The ‘folk expressions’ are transmitted as ‘symbols of universal significance’ of archetypes which are interwoven into the structural patterns of the creative writing. The function of the critic is not merely identification of folklore elements but evaluation of the author's creative use of these elements. Identification is taken as a form of pre-criticism which Alan Dundes rejects as a misguided anti-formalism in literary criticism.¹² Dundes' criticism is valid; nevertheless, the interpretation of the author's use of folkloristic elements depends on this necessary preliminary stop, the pre-critical approach.

This step was a pre-condition for the work of Bernth Lindfors, who has made a major contribution to the study of folklore in African literature in his book Folklore in Nigerian Literature (1973). Lindfors draws a distinction between impressionistic and critical evaluation, the former representing the level of precriticism which Dundes and Iyasere rejected. For a full evaluation, the critic must know both the cultural background of the author and the formal structure of the literary work. It is this dual knowledge which gives him coherent critical perception. Lindfors applies this approach in the study of Achebe's use of Ibo proverbs, ‘The Palm-Oil with which Achebe's Words are Eaten’.¹³ After an initial identification, he notes that Achebe uses the proverbs to lend authenticity to his novels but more significantly to ‘sound and reiterate themes, to sharpen characterization, to clarify conflict, and to focus on the values of the society he is portraying’ (pp. 50-51). His analysis of the proverbs shows that urban characters use proverbs drawn from their traditional setting as well as from their own urban setting. The reason for this is that most of them are immigrants from the tribal land and have only recently become urban dwellers. The rural characters use only proverbs drawn from their cultural tradition as they have not been exposed to the urban setting. Part of Achebe's literary achievement, Lindfors argues, is seen in his ‘instinct for appropriate metaphor and symbol, and his ability to present a thoroughly African world in thoroughly African terms’ (p. 65).

Lindfors' critical approach has been followed by other critics like Catherine Innes. She analyses the relationship between Achebe's narrative technique and the Ibo art of folk narrative performance.¹⁴ The model that Lindfors and Innes use in the study of Achebe has many advantages for the study of Okot's poetry. Both writers set out to restore the oral fictional tradition which had been trampled on by the missionaries and the colonial educational system. Okot combines the oral poetic form, the formulaic genre, the traditional symbols and images with his creative imagination to produce poetry which is uniquely African in style and form and yet contemporary in themes and ideas.

Criticism of Okot's poetry has appeared in many forms. These fall into two distinct groups: the cultural-formalistic and Marxist-socialist. Within the Marxist-socialist group, a distinction must be drawn between the more politically-orientated Marxist-Fanonist approach which is propagated by critics like Okot himself in his prose writing, and by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Grant Kamenju, Atieno-Odhiambo and Chris Wanjala. This approach has its genesis in the anti-colonialist and Pan-Africanist movement rather than the purely Marxist European orientated socialism. A more acceptable approach is the literary Marxist approach which tends towards a balance between social themes and the formal aspects of the literary work. Critics who follow this approach include Annemarie Heywood and Gerald Moore especially in his expository criticism of African literature. In his later criticism of Okot's poetry, Moore moves away form a simple expository approach to the cultural-formalism approach which he shares with George Heron and Elizabeth Knight. These three critics evaluate Okot's poetry as a work of creative imagination informed by the cultural and oral literary tradition of the Acholi. In contrast to the Marxist-socialist and cultural-formalist critics is Taban lo Liyong whose criticism is partly rooted in the traditions which Northrop Frye classified as biographical or documentary criticism, and his own more individualistic-cum-universalist approach. He uses biographical evidence (much of it inaccurate) to criticise Okot the man rather than his poetry as a product of cultural and intellectual creation. Despite his often erratic and obscure criticism, Taban deserves notice as the first East African critic to evaluate Okot's Song of Lawino in The Last Word (1969).

In his criticism of Song of Lawino, Taban uses his personal knowledge of the poet rather than literary criticism of the poem; what he presents is biographical documentary criticism. He begins by dismissing Lawino as uneducated and therefore unfit to be a spokesperson for her culture, and not justified in her criticism of Ocol. Taban's concept of education is inseparable from the western educational system and since Lawino has no schooling, she is dismissed as uneducated. Contrary to what Taban says, Lawino is the embodiment of Acholi cultural and aesthetic values. This qualifies her as a singer of those values from which Ocol has been alienated as a result of his wholesale acceptance of western values through the educational system.

Taban's biographical criticism is less scholarly in approach because of his inconsistent and unmethodical writing. He moves from one topic to another without resolving any of the critical issues he raises. From criticising Okot for his wrong choice of singer, he moves on to the issue of translation. Here he makes the valid point that cultural values conveyed through the use of the Acholi language are lost in translation. Okot admits this loss when states that he has

… clipped a bit of the eagle's wings and rendered the sharp edges of the warrior's sword rusty and blunt, and has also murdered rhythm and rhyme.¹⁵

The reason Taban suggests as Okot's motive for translation reveals his personal dislike of the poet's sudden success. It is ironic that he should be so critical of Okot's success when in 1965, he complained about the literary barrenness of East Africa. Okot did not translate the poem for the ‘literary honour’ or inclusion among East African writers as Taban claims (p. 140). Okot's aim was to reach a much wider audience as his Acholi novel Lak Tar could only be read by the Acholi and not even the neighbouring ethnic groups (the Langi and Alur) or the Luo of Kenya and Tansania.¹⁶Wer pa Lawino in its translation as Song of Lawino did reach a much wider audience and it was proclaimed by Ali Mazrui as a great literary event. Okot perfected his poetic style in the three ‘Songs’ which followed and he cannot therefore be accused of producing only one masterpiece by luck as Taban implies.

From his unresolved criticism of Okot's translation, Taban moves to the issue of politics and politicians before returning to translation. He criticises Okot's translation of Acholi proverbs into English. His criticism is that they are rendered light-heartedly and hence lose their meaning. Okot does not merely use Acholi proverbs to authenticate his poetry. He paraphrases them to suit his poetic diction. At times, he groups them together into epigrams, a literary technique Albert Lord found common in Yugoslavian epic poetry and exemplified in Homer's epics.¹⁷ Okot uses the proverbs to convey a particular message in the poem. For example, the central proverb—‘Do not uproot the pumpkin—Te Okono bong'luputu’—appears in a rephrased form as: ‘The pumpkin in the old homestead must not be uprooted’ (p. 48). This serves as a warning to Ocol when Lawino realises that he has acquired western cultural values and a modern Acholi girl who aspires to look like a European girl. The same proverb is rephrased and used at the end of the poem to express Lawino's and the poet's condemnation of cultural aliens. The grammatical change is indicative of the change of mood and the open hostility of the singer:

Let no one uproot the pumpkin.

(p. 120)

The imposition of English proverbs, even if Okot or Taban could find exact equivalents, would not fit into the poetic form, which is derived from Acholi oral songs. Taban's criticism, that in carrying out the translation of the original into English, Okot has retained much of himself in the poem must be rejected. Rather, the uniqueness of his poetry lies in its compounding of individualism, traditional performing skill and creative imagination.

Taban is not only erratic in his criticism of Song of Lawino but also inaccurate in his biographical criticism. He erroneously accuses Okot of criticising the Democratic Party politicians and Catholic missionaries more than Uganda People's Congress members and their Protestant supporters (pp. 138 and 140). Okot's criticism of the DP is not out of personal political defeat as Taban claims (p. 136). George Heron and Colin Leys have corrected this claim.¹⁸ Okot's criticism of the Italian Catholic Fathers, which Taban objects to, is due to their dogmatic approach in the teaching of Christianity and their non-flexibility in matters connected with Acholi traditional religion and culture. In Religion of the Central Luo (pp. 41-56), Okot illustrates some of the misconceptions of the Fathers caused by their lack of proper understanding of the Acholi language and culture. What may therefore appear in Song of Lawino as the poet's one-sided criticism is fully documented and supported in Religion of the Central Luo. Okot is less critical of the Protestants because they were more tolerant and flexible in their method of teaching and in matters relating to Acholi traditional culture and religion. They were more keen on book learning—Kwan—which chief Awich had invited them to take up in 1904. In Africa's Cultural Revolution, Okot's analysis of Bishop Keith Russel's book Men Without God (1967), shows and supports the balance between secular and religious education achieved by the Protestants.

While it is difficult to assess Taban's critical evaluation of Song of Lawino, his criticism is valid and it has influenced later critics like George Heron and Elizabeth Knight. Whether or not his biographical documentary criticism had any direct effect on Okot's prose writing remains unproven. Okot's role as a critic has not been given weight commensurate with his role as a poet and cultural activist. Okot, unlike Ngugi, Atieno or Kamenju, is not a Marxist or Marxist-Fanonist socialist but he follows the critical tradition of the Pan-Africanist in his anti-colonialist sentiment. The genesis of this can be traced back to his Freshman year at Oxford which he vividly recounts in African Religions in Western Scholarship (1971).

His criticism of the missionaries and colonial administrators stems from his conviction that they were the root cause of cultural alienation through the introduction of the western educational system. In Africa's Cultural Revolution (1973), he restricts his criticism to an attack upon the discriminative educational policy which tended to separate the educated indigenous from his uneducated brothers and sisters:

The child that goes to school becomes an exile, physically, culturally. This is the first step on the path that leads to power, money and the good life. A life better than that of those who stay behind.

(p. 10)

In his poetry, this alienated individual is characterized as Ocol who rejects Lawino because she has not had a similar western education and acquired its values. At the political level, Okot criticises the educated class for their failure to bring about cultural, social and economic change which would have improved the status of the masses. His disillusionment with the middle-class educated East African politicians is a central theme in his poetry. Unlike Fanon and Ngugi, he did not suggest a socialist revolution but a cultural revolution. Through this he hoped the alienated East Africans including the political leaders, will learn morals from traditional culture and re-shape their attitude to the masses. His approach negates the radical anti-colonialist sentiment of Fanon which has influenced the younger generation of writers and critics.

The period following Okot's prose writing has seen the emergence of socialist attitudes deriving from Fanon, accompanied by the twindling importance of the romantic individualism which had been associated with Taban lo Liyong. The role of Fanon in the formation of East African criticism is of major importance. The Wretched of the Earth (1961) is in the background of all the writing of more recent critics such as Peter Nazareth, Grant Kamenju and Atieno-Odhiambo.

In Marxism and Literature (1977), Raymond Williams defines literature as a social and historical category. He refers to creative writing which reflects the historical, social, political and cultural attributes of a particular society (p. 53). This broad definition encompasses the preoccupation of most East African writers. Williams' Marxist concept of literature differs from the formalist's concept in which literature is defined as a work of creative imagination which shows distinct external aesthetics and universal form. Marxist critics, bent on emphasising historical, political, social and economic themes, repudiate the formalistic aspect of literature. Their view is open to the criticism that is unbalanced and unidirectional. It has nevertheless proved a fertile source. East African critics find Frantz Fanon's modifications of Marxism in The Wretched of the Earth more relevant to the East African situation than Marxism in its European form. The critics use Fanon's ideas as a yardstick for evaluating their chosen literary texts. The Wretched of the Earth and Black Skin, White Masks (1968) have become set texts in most East African universities.

Besides providing a stable background to the evaluation of social and literary events in post-colonial societies, Fanon was himself a participant in anti-colonialist struggles. His appeal to students and critics is based on the resemblance between his personal experience and that of colonial resistance in the late 50s and early 60s. The Mau Mau war in Kenya was in many ways similar to the Algerian war which influenced Fanon. His condemnation of neo-colonialists and their indigenous allies, ‘the little caste of get-rich-quick class’, influenced the stand taken by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Grant Kamenju and Atieno-Odhiambo. Fanon's emphasis on cultural consciousness corresponds to Okot's call for cultural revolution.

Fanon's militant stand penetrates Grant Kamenju's Marxist theoretical approach. Kamenju's criticism and perception of East African literature is apparent in his essay ‘Black Aesthetics and Pan-African Emancipation’¹⁹ which makes extensive reference to Okot's poetry. He begins with a restatement of Fanon's theory on decolonisation. The colonialists subjected the colonised people to a political, economic and cultural domination which must be rejected before a new society is formed. He examines Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol as representatives of the conflict between African and Western aesthetic values. Ocol, in his view, represents ‘the neo-colonial aesthetics of capitulation and subjugation’ while Lawino represents ‘the aesthetics of black pride, black affirmation, resistance and ultimate liberation’ (p. 177).

Ocol is comparable to Fanon's black man with a white mask or the ‘black Zombie’ as Kamenju calls him. The genesis of Ocol's inferiority complex is his acceptance of western domination through the educational system which brainwashed him into believing that everything black is harmful and should be destroyed. Ocol is an embodiment of what Fanon describes as the national bourgeoisie who is not as polished as its western counterpart. He is a member of

… a sort of little greedy caste, avid and voracious with the mind of a husker, only too glad to accept the dividends the former colonial power hands out. …

(Fanon, p. 144)

Kamenju recommends that this caricature be rehabilitated through cultural education so that he can take his place in the new society. He evaluates Song of Lawino as

… an injunction to the black bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie who may still have eyes to see and ears to hear to join the great masses of the African peasants and workers in the struggle against cultural as well as economic and political imperialism.²⁰

Okot, he says, supports black aesthetics everywhere and negates white supremacy.

Kamenju's evaluation of Okot's ‘Songs’ is unidirectional in that he selects only those aspects of the ‘Songs’ which support a particular part of Fanon's theory. There is no discussion of the poetic form, the rich imagery and symbols drawn from the stock of Acholi tradition which gives the poems their black aesthetic values. The reference to the characterization of Lawino as the voice of the African peasants and Ocol as a caricature is incidental: it serves only to illustrate the cultural conflict. Nevertheless, his positive evaluation of Lawino's values as an inherent part of the black aesthetics gives creditility to his one-sided criticism.

Another critic, Atieno-Odhiambo, represents a more extreme group of East African socialist critics. Atieno's criticism of Okot's Song of Prisoner reads like a political essay on revolutionary leadership. He draws at length upon Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth to criticise Okot's failure to turn the prisoner into a revolutionary leader after he assassinated the Head of State. Fanon recommends that the corrupt national bourgeoisie must be removed and replaced by the proletariat who have not witnessed any change in their social and economic status since political independence. Atieno's main criticism depends heavily upon the last stanza of the whole poem where the prisoner, in his lowest mental perception, says:

I want to dance
And forget my smallness.
Let me dance and forget
For a small while
That I am a wretch
The reject of my country …

(p. 118)

The prisoner's desire to dance and forget for a while is an expression of his mental state. He has been tortured and his mind roams freely from topic to topic. At one stage, he takes us on a tour of his imaginary farm (p. 60) and the next moment he wants to go home for the traditional killer-mark ceremony (pp. 75-76). Lastly, he wants to go home and attend his father's last funeral rites (pp. 103-104). His raving mind and pent up energy need some form of action and the dance is a perfect solution. In Acholi traditional society, dancing is a form of physical release of pent up energy for the young and old. The Orak dance, described by Lawino in her ‘Song’ (pp. 49-52), is performed for two reasons: to release the energy of the youth and to give him the opportunity of expressing his burning love for a particular girl. In the case of the prisoner, the dance he wants to perform is in his subconscious mind. The prisoner's desire is a reflection of his mental state and not the poet's final word. Atieno's argument arises out of a misreading of the poem and a false identification of the poet with the prisoner.

Atieno's second criticism is a corollary to the first. He argues that Okot fails to provide a blue-print solution to the social ills of the East-African society. Nevertheless, Okot is not a partisan in his poetry at least. He does fulfil Atieno's demand that he writes a political polemic in his prose work Africa's Cultural Revolution. Here, his political stand is clarified, especially in the essay ‘Indigenous Social Ills’ (pp. 6-14) which earned him disfavour from many political leaders. In Song of Prisoner, Okot's emphasis on the social welfare of the masses is brought out through characterization. He confronts the national bourgeoisie with their own creations: the vagrant who was induced by Ocol to come to the new city; the assassin whose job as a Youth Winger and political stalwart ended on the night of Uhuru. He has been replaced by his ‘Uniformed Brothers’ who are more ruthless than him in their zeal to protect their political masters. These two singers are representative of the masses caught up in the whirlwind of Uhuru and unplanned urbanisation. They share one common concern with the ex-minister who represents the new group of political detainees. Their families are back home in the villages and are suffering together with the masses.

Atieno's rhetorical questions: ‘Couldn't we have done better? Where do we go from here?’ (p. 108) are, as he himself recognises, political and beyond the scope of the poem in which he expects to find the answers. Song of Prisoner is not a political revolutionary song. The poet is not duty bound to provide society with solutions to its problems as Atieno demands in the conclusion of his discussion:

The writer must know how to penetrate the working and peasant masses and how to turn bourgeois structure—inconveniences like shortage of milk, flour and vegetables—into revolutionary situations.

(p. 112)

Atieno's conclusion is directed at Okot but his demand that Okot be more actively involved in a social revolutionary party which does not exist in Uganda or even in Kenya, is a departure from the literary text to a point where it is no longer literary criticism.

Within the East African school of Marxist-Fanonist socialist criticism, a distinction must be made between the more radical political group and the culturally conscious socialist literary critics. The first group as we have seen, is represented by Grant Kamenju and Atieno-Odhiambo. Their critical evaluation lacks the formalist approach which Ngugi and Wanjala infuse in their criticism. Ngugi's commitment to African socialism is as important as that of Atieno and Kamenju but in his evaluation of Okot's poetry, he takes a general view which includes Okot's call for a cultural revolution as a preliminary step towards social equality. Wanjala's approach is through the study of alienation in East African creative writing with greater emphasis on the writings of Ngugi, Okot and Taban. It is the degree of these critics' commitment to Marxist-Fanonist socialist criticism which varies. Ali Mazrui and Ngugi are both critical of Okot's over-emphasis on cultural revolution as an end in itself and not as a cog in the wheel of social, economic and political revolution in East Africa in particular and the Third World in general.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o's critical evaluation of Song of Lawino in Homecoming (1972) is reflective of his general position in the cultural revolution in East Africa. He aptly summarizes Song of Lawino as

… an incisive critique of bourgeois mannerisms and colonial education and values. For it is Ocol's education, with the values it inculcates in him, that drives him away from the community.

(p. 75)

Ngugi's assertion that it is Ocol's western education which alienates him from the society, is supportive of Okot's criticism of those responsible for introducing this form of education. Ngugi arrives at his conclusion through a comparison of Acholi and western cultural values as manifested by Lawino and Ocol. Ngugi's comparative analysis emphasises the unity of author and his chosen ‘voice’, of poet and vehicle, as pointers to Ocol's alienation. Thus, Taban's dismissal of the cultural norms and oral literary genres which govern the life of the society, is clearly not justifiable. Okot is concerned with the revival of African culture through re-education of the educated class. Ali Mazrui makes the same point when he emphatically states that ‘All educated Africans are still captives of the West … we are all in bondage to western culture but the degree varies’.²¹ It is only by realising the degree of our dependence that we can begin the process of re-education through cultural revolution.

Ngugi has criticised Okot for over-emphasising cultural revolution as an end in itself. His criticism arises from his definition of culture which he argues is

… a way of life fashioned by a people in their collective endeavour to live and come to terms with their total environment. It is the sum of their art, their science, and all their social institutions, including their system of beliefs and rituals …²²

Ngugi's argument is that cultural revolution should be an integral part of the political, economic and social revolutions. It is through the interaction of these revolutionary forces that a new society with a new cultural pattern will be born. Ali Mazrui agrees with Ngugi when he emphatically states:

… cultural emancipation must not be used merely as an end in itself. It must also serve as a means of securing economic independence and consolidating political sovereignty.²³

While Mazrui argues from a political point of view (the anti-colonial sentiment) the genesis of Ngugi's argument is to be found in Jomo Kenyatta's Facing Mount Kenya (1938). The essence of Kenyatta's conviction is that without land, you are worthless. It is through the possession of land that your place in the society has a meaning. You are born on the land; you feed on what comes out of the land and when you die, you are buried in the same land. Your children will be in contact with you through the ancestral ritual performed on the land. These are the reasons why the Kikuyu formed the Mau Mau movement under the leadership of Kenyatta to regain the land taken from them by the colonial settlers. Ngugi uses Kenyatta's argument to fight those who took all the land when it was returned to the Kenyans after political independence in 1963. Ironically, it was the Kenyatta Government which imprisoned him for championing the cause of the dispossessed peasants and poor urban workers. Throughout his creative writing, Ngugi has emphasised social and economic revolution over cultural revolution. His criticism of Okot is positive and evaluative. He also points out that it is Okot's use of the Acholi oral song form with its cumulative details, imagery and symbols which gives the poems their Africanness and central place in East African creative writing.

Chris Wanjala's critical approach in For Home and Exile (1980) is through the study of alienation in East African creative writing. He identifies alienation in Okot's poetry at two levels: Ocol's alienation from the traditional culture (p. 52) and Lawino's alienation which, he argues, “becomes a form of ignorance” (p. 75). What Wanjala calls Lawino's ‘form of ignorance’ is her inability to respond positively to western values and technology. Lawino is not totally ignorant of western culture and technology. She compares and contrasts Acholi cultural values with the western cultural values throughout her ‘Song’. It is this double knowledge which makes her a better singer than Ocol who only echoes what he learnt at school and university. Her knowledge of technology may be shaky, but she knows the function of each item she encounters. She makes fun of them, and in doing so, she underplays her knowledge. Okot achieves this effect through his mild satire directed at her. He exposes her as ignorant of what an average woman in modern Acholi society should know. Through her marriage to Ocol, Lawino is above average; he has introduced her to western culture. In section 6, Lawino compares and contrasts western technology and other artifacts with those of the Acholi, before passing her judgement. She has made attempts to come to terms with some foreign elements unlike Ocol, who bluntly rejects Lawino's world. Her criticism is that western technology is devoid of warmth and it imposes an order which oppresses rather than liberates man from ignorance. A case in point is Ocol's imposing clock which has become his master rather than the time-keeper it is meant to be (pp. 89-109).

Wanjala's analysis of Ocol and his modern girl, Tina, shows them as cultural aliens who have become slaves of their recently acquired western culture. Ocol's alienation from traditional society is as pathetic as Tina's abuse of her body in quest of a new concept of womanhood and beauty. Wanjala does not share Taban's view which is reflective of his own alienation and desire for a universal culture through cultural synthesis (The Last Word, pp. 143-144). He uses her to sharpen the contrast between the two women. Tina is not given a chance to defend herself against Lawino; she is a model of what some educated women in Uganda aspire to be. Okot's artistic achievement in creating Tina as a model was rewarded with a physical assault on himself by an Acholi woman who assumed that Okot had described her under the fictitious name Clementine.²⁴ The role of the poet as a prophet is an ambiguous one: he can please one group but he can also anger those who do not agree with him and at times he is punished for it. This had been Okot's role: singing praises where they were due and criticising those who are non-conformist to the cultural norms.²⁵

The foundation of East African criticism which we have examined lies in Marxism modified by Fanonism. It is the degree of adherence to these critical theories which differentiates the critics. In a recent article, Annemarie Heywood follows a similar critical approach but her criticism takes into account both the Marxist and formalist concept of literature. Through this combination, she evaluates Okot's poetry at two levels: the intellect and creative imagination. Literature is a product of the writer's intellect and creative imagination. This is the crucial point which Atieno misses when he criticises Okot's failure to use his intellect in writing socialist propaganda. Annemarie Heywood, unlike Atieno, discusses the form and themes in Okot's poetry in her essay ‘Modes of Freedom: the Songs of Okot p'Bitek’.²⁶ She classifies the Songs as Okot's public meditation upon the East African predicament. The poems, she argues, represent Okot's search for freedom. She examines this search at two levels: ‘freedom from’ in Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol; and ‘freedom to’ in Song of Prisoner and Song of Malaya. The conflict between Lawino and Ocol—the old and the new—is irreconcilable as they are poles apart.

She examines the interplay between the traditional cultural society of Lawino and Ocol's newly founded society. The function of this interplay is to allow the poet to

build up an extended lyrical celebration of a coherent dignity of life from which the African intellectual is in danger of alienation, and at the same time unrestrained mockery of the imitative urban consumer culture of the nascent black bourgeoisie which is replacing it.

(p. 72)

She uses a topology borrowed from Raymond Williams's The Long Revolution (1961) to explain the relationship between Lawino and Ocol in their respective societies. There are six models in Williams's topology: Member, Servant, Subject, Rebel, Vagrant and Exile. Using these models, Heywood places Lawino as a Member and Subject in the traditional society. Her subjectivity comes through her blind acceptance of the imposed social restraints. Though Heywood does not point this out, we know that Okot criticises her for this blind acceptance. She can only gain her ‘freedom from’ this society through rejection and rebellion, but she is too committed to do this, and hence her conflict with Ocol. Ocol has been a Rebel against the colonialists through his political activities. After political independence, he acquired the status of Servant of the new government as a Minister.

Williams' topology is inadequate in that it does not explain Ocol's exploitative tendency. Heywood turns to Fanon's theory to explain Ocol's ‘bourgeois’ values. She concludes that Ocol is a member of the national bourgeoisie who has traded his traditional cultural values for political power and economic exploitation of the masses. Ocol is a complex but arrogant singer who is aware of his alienation and the paradoxes inherent in his position but too proud to capitulate. Okot explains this arrogance in Africa's Cultural Revolution: “He consoles himself as small-minded men always do, by the thought that he thereby ‘impresses’ the less educated” (p. 13), but Lawino and the beggar who Ocol ridicules in his ‘Song’, are not impressed by him.

As a member of the national bourgeoisie, Ocol is partly responsible for shaping the new society in which the prisoner and Malaya in Two Songs are principal singers. In Williams' topology which Heywood uses to explore the poet's search for ‘freedom to’, they are both Vagrants with modes of rebellion against the society which has created them (Ocol's products). They have reached this status (Vagrants) from Servants through a radical process of transformation which gives them a new status of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ (p. 70), a concept borrowed from Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks. Fanon fashioned this concept to express the complexity of the black man's position. He must say ‘yes’ to the white master and yet behave differently. It is an interplay between good (love) and evil (rage). This concept applies particularly to the prisoner in his transformation from bodyguard and Youth Winger to assassin. The prisoner's quest for ‘freedom to’ can only be achieved by getting rid of his indigenous oppressor. He will never have the joy and love of familyhood until he frees himself through his heroic act of assassination and taking part in the building of a new socialist state.

The alternation between love and rage which leads to frustration and violence is absent in Song of Malaya which she evaluates as a synthesis between the old an new. Fanon regards the synthesis as ‘the seething pot’. Malaya is freed from the restraints of the cultural norms as well as the moral standards imposed by the new society. It is this ‘freedom to’ which elevates her above all the other singers. Heywood argues that Malaya has

… no prejudice and very little snobbishness …

… she shows herself wryly tolerant, wise, shrowd, joyous and humane. To condemn Malaya is to condemn vitality, fecundity, woman and nature herself.

(p. 81)

She agrees with Okot's point that Song of Malaya is a celebration of the freedom to have sex with whomsoever she wants without preconditions. Malaya, unlike Okello Oculi's Rosa in Prostitute (1968), rarely talks about money. She enjoys sexual intercourse as part of life. She condemns those hypocrites who want to deny her the fullness of life. According to Williams' topology, she is a Vagrant but, Heywood argues, ‘she has a sound base for the transvaluation of values leading to a political future which is worthy of humanity’ (p. 83).

This whole argument calls for disagreement at many points. Malaya's antisocial behaviour acts as a barrier between her and the society. She has no direct contact with the traditional society and has been rejected by the moral guardians of the new society. She is a strong character who can stand up to her critics but she cannot be accepted as Lawino and Ocol are accepted in their respective societies. Heywood has used Fanon, Williams and Marxism to support and clarify her argument more analytically than the other socialist critics. We have dealt with this analysis of Okot's search for ‘freedom to’ and ‘freedom from’ because it brings to focus the poet's characterization as a means of exposing the social ills in East African society. Okot emerges as a brooding poet who publicly meditates upon the predicament of the masses in East Africa. His poetic achievement, she argues, is based on his ability to lead ‘his reader fully into the human experience …’ (p. 69). Heywood's evaluation of Okot's poems is thematic but through the analysis of the characters (singers) and their complex relationship within the society in which they interact with other characters.

Another critic who has followed a similar approach but without a militant Fanonist theoretical background is Ken Goodwin in Understanding African Poetry (1982). Like Heywood, Goodwin concentrates on the social position of the characters in their fictional societies rather than discussing the formal and cultural aspects of the poems. He rejects George Heron's assessment that Song of Ocol is addressed to Lawino alone. His alternative interpretation is that the ‘Song’ is

an ironic lament for what has been lost (Lawino's values), interspersed with the hollow face-saving formulae appropriate to an intelligent and self-critical member of the new westernised elite. It hints constantly at an unstated self-disgust …

(p. 162)

Goodwin recognises the weakness of this argument when he lists the negative steps Ocol has taken to eradicate Lawino's past.²⁷ This argument can only be meaningfully understood and accepted if we look at Ocol as an alienated character who has set out to destroy what he is alienated from so that others (Lawino and her clansmen as well as the vagrant and assassin prisoners) do not become the inheritors. His deliberate destructive actions are symbols of his ‘unstated self-disgust’.

As we may expect in the context of Fanon's widespread acceptance, this approach has the author's approval. In Africa's Cultural Revolution Okot describes the Ocols as traditional cultural failures and poor mimic men:

A lost victim of the school system, he cannot dance the dance or play the music of his own people, but neither can he deeply and sincerely enjoy the foreign art forms.

(p. 13)

Ocol is a no-where man, the antithesis of Lawino, the culturally integrated Acholi woman. Tina is Ocol's perfect partner in the world of vanity and quest for western values. Both are neither replicas nor real but caricatures. They are not social types like the prisoner and Malaya. The prisoner, Goodwin argues, can be

… seen as a myth of the oppressed citizen, deprived of freedom and dignity in the unjust state … Once again he (Okot) has begun with a character and turned the character into a symbol.

(p. 168)

Malaya, according to Goodwin, is also a representative character but very much an individual. His analysis is much nearer to Annemarie Heywood's; both Malaya and prisoner are seen here as individuals seeking freedom to liberate themselves from their society and indigenous oppressors.

Goodwin's critical appraisal leaves much to be desired: he neither discusses the theme of cultural conflict nor the form of the poems. The positive side of his evaluation is that he examines the position of the characters in relation to their societies. Ocol is alienated and totally rejects the traditional society while the prisoner is the symbol of the oppressed majority, who have not benefited from political independence. Goodwin discusses the social welfare of the masses as portrayed by Okot through his characters and in his prose writing. This thematic approach is lacking in David Cook's introductory statements on the craft of Okot's poetry.²⁸ He identifies the Acholi oral forms used in the poems but does not discuss them in detail. The identification of literary poetic style such as double set of rhythms, complex emphases, repetitions …’ (p. 47) is not developed to include an evaluation of their literary use by the poet. Cook's impressionistic commentary acts as a useful pointer for other critics.

The poetic achievement of Okot lies in his creative combination of Acholi oral literary genres, cultural tradition and his imagination. His knowledge of Acholi folklore provided the poetic form which became the vehicle for contemporary themes. A critical evaluation of his poetry can best be achieved through more than one critical approach and our contention is that a combination of cultural-formalism and folkloristic approaches presents a balanced evaluation. Two critics who have effectively used this dual approach are Elizabeth Knight with her thesis, and George Heron in The Poetry of Okot p'Bitek (1976). Elizabeth Knight's thesis Earthsong, Wandering, Homecoming: A Study of East African Literature from 1968 to 1979 with Special Reference to the Emergence of New Fiction and Poetic Forms of Expression is an ambitious attempt to study the literature of this region. Her task is made more difficult by the inclusion of oral literature though she limits herself to collected published texts and two theses.²⁹ While Heron's book can be criticised for its profusion of Acholi oral songs drawn from Okot's thesis and Horn of My Love, Elizabeth Knight's thesis surveys literary works that have come out of East Africa over a ten year period. The sections which are of immediate relevance to us are ‘Earthsongs’ (pp. 7-30) and ‘The Song School’ (pp. 190-236). The compelling quality of Knight's thesis is its overall freshness achieved through her clear style and the integration of background materials into the body of her discussion.

Elizabeth Knight examines the influence of Acholi oral forms on Okot's creative imagination and poetic composition. She begins with a comparison between Acholi oral song genre and Okot's collection of oral songs in his thesis and Horn of My Love. The similarities between Okot's poetry and Acholi oral songs are not in terms of themes but the forms of the poems. The creative process of oral songs and Okot's poetic technique equates him with the oral composer-singer in Acholi. The composer-singer's role as the watchdog of the society is what Okot adopts in the East African society and not just Acholi. He combines the satirical song form of the Orak dance and the dirge of the funeral dance to give Song of Lawino its satirical and lament modes. The dominant mode, Knight correctly identifies, is satirical. Lawino, like the oral composer-singer of Orak dance songs, lampoons Ocol, Tina and Catholic fathers. Knight argues that Tina is the butt of Lawino's “most savage satire” (p. 7). We need not wholly agree with her if we consider the poem as a whole. Lawino lampoons Tina's vanity rather than her mental capacity. Ocol is the butt of the greater criticism since his apemanship is not merely a quest for personal beauty and an expression of vanity, but a mental defect which he cannot change. Lawino uses similes to achieve her ‘most savage satire’ on Tina but she turns to proverbs to give her satirical attack greater emphasis in criticising Ocol's alienation and western dependency. Tina does not influence political or economic events in the society as Ocol does. It is his mental enslavement which Lawino lampoons. The poet dispenses with Tina after showing her vanity and the abuse of her body to achieve what she regards as the western standard of female beauty. Ocol graduates as a middle class member of the national bourgeoisie bent on exploiting the peasants and urban workers. All these factors show Ocol as a willing subject within the framework of colonial manipulation and mental enslavement. At the personal level, Lawino's short lived satirical attack against Tina is sharpened by her use of similes. On the whole, her real subject of satire is Ocol.

Knight discusses Lawino's changing mood and attributes the literary success of the poet in transmitting Lawino's moods and tones to the use of the techniques of the oral singer. Knight notes that this is

… akin to the rapid composition of the singer of tales who deals with themes en bloc as they occur to him and has to pay more attention to the details of them … than to the structuring of the song in its entirety, hence the rambling quality.

(p. 23)

She backs her argument with well selected examples from Song of Lawino so as to progress towards the overall poetic technique that Okot uses.³⁰ Lawino's ‘Song’ differs from the singer of tales' patterns in one respect: there is no single dramatic situation (p. 2). Lawino, Knight argues, has ‘the freedom of an imaginative writer and her audience changes frequently through the vestigial oral technique of addressing them personally’ (p. 25). This is the main feature of her address and she uses names which are at times symbolic as in this example ‘Bull among men’—where ‘bull’ symbolises ‘leadership, power and shows the importance of cattle to the Acholi’ (p. 27). These explanations reveal Knight's understanding of Acholi oral genres and their function in Okot's poems. Knight's analysis of the symbols and images is both selective and detailed. She identifies the spear as a ‘phallic symbol’ and agrees with Laura Tanna's analysis as a symbol of the male penis rather than its traditional function for hunting. The spear's symbolic aspect is extended to cover Ocol's lack of faith in himself as a black man. Knight's argument is backed by Lawino's last appeal to Ocol to ask his ancestors to restore his manhood and faith in himself (p. 195). Lawino unashamedly expresses her sexual dissatisfaction with Ocol. The phallic symbol is a borrowing from an oral song which clansmen of the dead warrior sing in lamenting his death.³¹ Other phallic images which Knight identifies are the hoe, knife and horn. The horn is ‘a symbol of pride in oneself’ (p. 29). It is through the sound blown on an individual's horn that he is known, and hence its use during and after hunting expeditions. Okot uses this image as the title of his collection of Acholi oral songs Horn of My Love. On the whole, Knight concludes that Okot's style is

… made up of a number of features including proverbs, actual Acholi words and local allusions, overall Acholi oral forms and vestigial elements of oral techniques.

(p. 29)

Heron's inclusive study is an aid to the understanding of the poems. The biographical information is more factual than Taban's often inaccurate information which is geared towards discrediting Okot as a failed politician and cultural sceptic desirious to be seen as a cultural champion.³² A general criticism of Heron's book is its length and the overabundance of examples of oral songs cited from Okot's thesis and Horn of My Love. Heron goes to great lengths to trace the origin and growth of Song of Lawino in its final form from its 1956 and 1969 Acholi originals—Wer pa Lawino. The relevance of the comparison is to show the additional sections of the poem which Taban had pointed out in The Last Word (p. 139). Okot included the section on politics to update the poem so that he could include the contemporary political theme. It is worth noting that even this addition does not spare the poet from his critics, including Heron. They criticise him for his lack of interest in the economic plight of the masses. Lawino's lack of interest in money is construed as a reflection of her creator's inability to see that the cultural, social and economic life of his characters are integrated. The criticism is valid but largely irrelevant: Okot's argument is based on cultural conflict and not social or economic exploitation as in the case of Ngugi's creative writing. Okot is critical of the western educational system with its western values which have alienated the Ocols from their cultural roots: re-educate this class of educated political and civic leaders in the ways of their ancestors and you have partly solved the political and economic exploitation. Okot's hope is that this will abolish the class differences which were non-existent in pre-colonial Acholi society.

Heron's analysis of Okot's poetic technique, characterization and themes form the central part in which he evaluates the poems. The inclusion of the non-creative writing presents a complete analysis of Okot's writing and its place in East Africa. The chapters on ‘Lok pa Lukwan’ and ‘Myth Making’ cover the history and politics in Acholi and Okot's treatment of these subjects in his poetry. The analysis of Okot's novel in the Acholi language Lak Tar emphasises the poet's concern with the changes in social values which resulted from the introduction of the western educational system. In “Myth Making”, Heron discusses the relevance of the poems to Fanon's decolonisation theory in The Wretched of the Earth. Heron rejects Atieno Odhiambo's criticism of Okot for failing to use his intellect (pp. 130-132), and shows that it is not the poet but the prisoner on whose action Atieno's criticism is based. The chapter outlines the familiar theme of cultural conflict and the resultant alienation. The Poetry of Okot p'Bitek is an objective analysis of Okot's poems and non-creative writing.

Critical evaluations of Okot's poetry have been many and varied. Unlike most of his critics (Taban's upbringing was only partly Acholi), Okot himself was a master of complex cultural heritage. This mastery is central to the meaning of his literary texts. Acholi culture is a living culture in which folklore genres entertain and act as forms of social control through their educational values. In the day to day activities of Acholi society, the distinction between folklore and folklife is imperceptible since they are interrelated. For example, a folk narrative is often narrated to support and indeed reinforce a social custom. Thus, in a living traditional culture folklore genres are living genres which are transmitted through a communicative process involving the performer and an active audience. Acholi oral tradition contains a number of folklore genres: the folk narrative, the proverb, the riddle and the song. Each genre is performed to an audience at a particular place and time.

Okot's knowledge of the tradition is from the inside; in his thesis and the collection Horn of My Love, he approached his own tradition as a collector and analyst. The indigenous education from which he had been estranged, but to which he returned, is discussed by J. P. Ociti in African Indigenous Education as Practised by the Acholi of Uganda (1973). Education is achieved in this tradition through playing and working, oral literature, and ritual ceremonies as well as hunting (p. 96). As Ociti points out, this vast area of learning does not allow for specialisation but prepares the child to play his role in the society as expected of him. Any failure on his part is blamed on the parents who are responsible for preparing him in all aspects of traditional education. In Okot's case, his indigenous education began at home. His mother, Cerina Lacwaa, was a great composer-singer and leader of the girls in her village. He learnt a lot of the oral songs from her and included thirty of those songs in Horn of My Love. As a further tribute, he modelled Lawino on her character. From his father, he learnt the proverbs, folk narratives and traditional cultural elements associated with them. Okot's interest in Acholi oral literary genres which he learnt as he grew up was developed in his formal studies and field work on Acholi and Lango folklore. His folklore scholarship is westernised but the material of his studies is based on Acholi oral literary tradition and culture.

Okot's western education began in Gulu at the CMS School where his father had been a teacher. He attended the Primary and Junior Schools at Gulu High School before going to King's College, Budo, in 1952. Budo was at the time the most prestigious Protestant School in Uganda and only the best pupils went there. After Budo, he took a Teachers' Certificate Course at Kakoba Government Teacher Training Centre, Mbarara. On graduation from the College in 1955, he was posted to Gulu to teach at the only secondary school in Acholi, Sir Samuel Baker School, where he was choir-master and taught religious education as well. During this period, he started the composition of Wer pa Lawino after the great success of his only novel in the Acholi language Lak Tar Miyo Kinyero Wilobo (Are Your Teeth White? Then Laugh), 1953. Some of the songs that he composed at the College and School had been performed and spread throughout Uganda but even at this stage, the guiding hand of his mother was at work, as he tells Lindfors. In addition to teaching, he played football for the Northern Province Team and was selected to join the Uganda Team on a tour of England in 1958. While he was at Sir Samuel Baker School, he married his first wife, Mary Anek.

Okot's footballing interest brought him to England where he played for the Uganda Team. This trip provided him with a chance of furthering his education as he remained in Britain to read Education in Bristol and Law at Aberystwyth. However, his overridding interest was in the traditional culture and folklore of the Acholi. He therefore went to Oxford's Institute of Social Anthropology where he registered for a research degree and the title of his thesis was ‘Oral Literature and its Social Background Among the Acholi and Lango’. The fieldwork for the thesis provided him with the chance of re-establishing his interest in the oral literary genres which he found determine the social norms. In his study of and writing on the Acholi society, Okot's emphasis is on culture which he defines as the sum total of a people's way of life. This is a standard Durkheim concept but in Okot's study, he does not theorise. He participated as a performer, collector and analyist of Acholi folklore and eventually as a cultural activist.

Okot returned to Uganda in 1964. Makerere University College posted him to Gulu as the Resident Tutor of the Department of Extra Mural Studies. One of the ironies in Okot's life occurred at this time: he divorced his first wife and married Karlina Auma, who was better educated. It is ironic that Okot, whose change of attitude was partly sparked by his higher educational standard, should be so critical of Ocol who acted in similar manner towards Lawino. There is no comparison between Clementine and Karlina, just as there is no comparison between Okot and Ocol in terms of cultural alienation. Okot, the practical culturalist, began to organise cultural festivals from 1964 which later became known as the Gulu Cultural Festivals. He brought together musicians, dancers and other creative and performing artists. It is important to note that it was in the atmosphere of the festivals that Okot says he rediscovered the lost manuscript of Wer pa Lawino and started recomposing it.

Okot's call for cultural revolution and his involvement in the debate did not always earn him favour but he stuck to his calling until his death in July, 1982. At the time of his death, he had been involved in organising the Makerere University Writers Conference to coincide with the University's golden jubilee.

On his return to Uganda in 1979, he, together with other cultural activists like Francis Odida, Lawoko wod Okello and Lubwa p'Chong, founded The Centre as an alternative venue for cultural activities. The popularity of The Centre was measured by the high number of cultural events which took place. Like his written texts, Okot's practical work implies a fusion of the traditional genres with the contemporary situation to which they are applied.

Notes

1. Dathorne, O. R.: African Literature in the Twentieth Century. Minneapolis 1975

2. Irele, Abiola: “The Criticism of Modern African Literature”, in: Christopher Heywood (ed.): Perspectives in African Literature. London: Heinemann 1971, pp. 9-24

3. Wright, Edgar: The Critical Evaluation of African Literature. London 1973

4. Obiechina, Emmanuel: Culture, Tradition and Society in the West African Novel. Cambridge 1975

5. Ibid., pp. 35-36

6. Iyasere, Solomon: ‘Oral Tradition in the Criticism of African Literature’, in: Journal of Modern African Studies 13/1 (1975), pp. 167-179

7. Ibid., p. 109

8. Iyasere, Solomon: “African Critics on African Literature: A Study on Misplace Hostility”, in: E. D. Jones (ed.): African Literature Today 7 (1976), pp. 20-27 (here: p. 24)

9. Dorson, Richard M.: “The Identification of Folklore in American Literature”, in: Journal of American Folklore 70 (Jan. 1957), p. 5

10. Scot, Clive: “Simile”, in: A Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms. Ed. by Roger Fowler. London: Routledge & Paul Kegan 1973, p. 173

11. Hoffmann, Daniel G.: “Folklore in Literature: Notes Toward a Theory of Interpretation”, in: Journal of American Folklore 787 (1957), p. 15

12. Dundes, Alan: “The Study of Folklore in Literature and Culture: Identification and Interpretation”, in: Journal of American Folklore 78 (1965), p. 136

13. Lindfors, Bernth: “The Palm-Oil with which Achebe's Words are Eaten”, in: Bernth Lindfors and C. L. Linnes (eds.): Critical Perspectives on Chinua Achebe. London: HEB 1978, pp. 47-66

14. Innes, Catherine L.: “Language, Poetry and Doctrine in Things Fall Apart”, in: ibid., pp. 111-125

15. Okot p'Bitek: Song of Lawino. Inner cover of the 1966 edition

16. ———: Interview with Bernth Lindfors. Nairobi, 6. August 1976

17. Lord, Albert: The Singer of Tales. Harvard: Harvard University Press 1960

18. Heron, George: The Poetry of Okot p'Bitek. London: HEB 1976, p. 111; Leys, Colin: Politicians and Policies: An Essay on Politics in Acholi, Uganda 1962-65. Nairobi: East African Publishing House 1967, p. 26

19. Kamenju, Grant: “Black Aesthetics and Pan-African Emancipation”, in: Pio Zirimu and Andrew Gurr (eds.): Black Aesthetics. Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau 1973, pp. 175-194

20. Ibid., p. 193

21. Mazrui, Ali: Political Values and the Educated Class in Africa. London: HEB 1978, p. 13

22. Ngugi wa Thiong'o: Homecoming. London: HEB 1972, p. 4

23. Mazrui, Political Values, p. 15

24. Okot p'Bitek, interview with Bernth Lindfors, p. 286

25. Okot p'Bitek, interview with Lee Nichols, in: Conversations with African Writers. Washington D.C.: Voice of America 1981, p. 250

26. See above, note 22

27. Goodwin, Ken: Understanding African Poetry. London: Heinemann 1982, p. 163

28. Cook, David: African Literature: A Critical View. London: Longmann 1977

29. Okot p'Bitek: Oral Literature and its Social Background Among the Acholi and Lango. B. Lit. Thesis, Oxford 1963; Okumu, Charles N.: The Genres of Acholi Oral Literature. M.A. Thesis, Makerere University 1975

30. Okot p'Bitek: Song of Lawino, pp. 122 and 199-200

31. Okot p'Bitek: Horn of My Love. London: HEB 1979, p. 128

32. Taban lo Liyong: The Last Word. Nairobi: East African Publishing House 1969, pp. 138-139

Works Cited

Cook, David: African Literature: A Critical View. London: Longmann 1977.

Dathorne, O. R.: African Literature in the Twentieth Century. Minneapolis 1975.

Dorson, Richard M.: “The Identification of Folklore in American Literature”, in: Journal of American Folklore 70 (Jan. 1957), p. 5.

Dundes, Alan: “The Study of Folklore in Literature and Culture: Identification and Interpretation”, in: Journal of American Folklore 78 (1965), p. 136.

Goodwin, Ken: Understanding African Poetry. London: Heinemann 1982.

Heron, George: The Poetry of Okot p'Bitek. London: HEB 1976.

Hoffmann, Daniel G.: “Folklore in Literature: Notes Toward a Theory of Interpretation”, in: Journal of American Folklore 787 (1957), p. 15.

Innes, Catherine L.: “Language, Poetry and Doctrine in Things Fall Apart”, in: Bernth Lindfors and C. L. Linnes (eds.): Critical Perspectives on Chinua Achebe. London: HEB 1978, pp. 111-125.

Irele, Abiola: “The Criticism of Modern African Literature”, in: Christopher Heywood (ed.): Perspectives in African Literature. London: Heinemann 1971, pp. 9-24.

Iyasere, Solomon: ‘Oral Tradition in the Criticism of African Literature’, in: Journal of Modern African Studies 13/1 (1975), pp. 167-179.

———: “African Critics on African Literature: A Study on Misplace Hostility”, in E. D. Jones (ed.): African Literature Today 7 (1976), pp. 20-27.

Kamenju, Grant: “Black Aesthetics and Pan-African Emancipation”, in: Pio Zirimu and Andrew Gurr (eds.): Black Aesthetics. Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau 1973, pp. 175-194.

Leys, Colin: Politicians and Policies: An Essay on Politics in Acholi, Uganda 1962-65. Nairobi: East African Publishing House 1967, p. 26.

Lindfors, Bernth: “The Palm-Oil with which Achebe's Words are Eaten”, in: Bernth Lindfors and C. L. Linnes (eds.): Critical Perspectives on Chinua Achebe. London: HEB 1978, pp. 47-66.

Lord, Albert: The Singer of Tales. Harvard: Harvard University Press 1960.

Mazrui, Ali: Political Values and the Educated Class in Africa. London: HEB 1978.

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———: Horn of my Love. London: HEB 1979.

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