Who is okot pbitek

His background was Acholi, and he wrote first in Lwo, one of the Western Nilotic languages. At school he was noted as a singer, dancer, drummer and athlete; he composed and directed an opera while at college. He travelled abroad first as a player with the Ugandan national football team, in At this point he gave up on football as a possible career, staying on in Britain; he studied education at the University of Bristol, and then law at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

He then took a B. According to George Heron he lost his commitment to Christian belief during these years. This had major consequences for his attitude as a scholar of African tradition, which was by no means accepting of the general run of earlier work, or what he called "dirty gossip" in relation to tribal life.

His character Lawino also speaks for him, in some places, on these matters. It concerns the experiences of a young Acholi man moving away from home, to find work and so a wife. He organised an arts festival at Gulu, and then at Kisumu. About The Author Abdulqawi A. User Username Password Remember me.

Font Size. Notifications View Subscribe. Article Tools Print this article. Indexing metadata. How to cite item. Email this article Login required. Email the author Login required. Journal Help. Is he just advocating an idealization of the past and utterly rejecting the western culture and ways or is he one of those writers who are in favor of a realistic appraisal of the past and blending the modern with the traditional, the western with the African? While the song addresses many issues, this paper will focus on the two issues of Christianity and western education being the most important root causes of the cultural conflict depicted in the song.

Full Text: PDF. References Bowden, A. Comparative Approaches to African Literature. Together these books form a polemic, oratorical account of the changing times, dramatized through the accusing voices of marriage conflict.

Song of Ocol was directly written in English. The author himself belonged to the generation, that had absorbed early native culture during the colonial period, but then had received a British education. P'Bitek's own choice was to take a stand against Western infiltration and defend Acoli traditions and customs.

Two Songs included Song of a Prisoner , apparently born as a response to the assassination of the Kenyan politician Tom Mboya, and Song of Malaya , about hypocrisy and sexual morals malaya means "prostitute".

The book, dedicated to Patrice Lumumba , the murdered prime minister of the Republic of the Congo, was awarded the inaugural Kenyatta Prize for Literature in All these early collections were published by the East African Publishing House.

Idi Amin also known as Idi Amin Dada , the ruthless dictator of Uganda from to , is widely believed to be the "soldier" of the latter song. P'Bitek also published a collection of Acoli traditional songs, The Horn of My Love , and a collection of Acoli folktales and short stories, Hare and Hornbill P'Bitek was a frequent contributor to Transition , a journal published at Makerere, and other journals.

His essays varied from literary criticism, such as 'The Self in African Imagery,' to articles on anthropological, sociological, and philosophical topics. P'Bitek's direct poems and his academic works caused much debate. He attacked both reactionary modes of thought and the uncritical acceptance of modernization, and was criticised by British observers for his Afrocentric views and cultural nationalism, and by feminist observers, who had trouble in accepting p'Bitek's one-sided satirical portrayal of African women.

Uganda became an independent member of the Commonwealth in with Milton Obote as prime minister. After criticizing the government of Uganda in Zambia, p'Bitek became persona non grata in his own country and moved to Kenya.

Obote was overthrown in a miliary coup in , and Idi Amin seized power. During his reign a huge number of Ugandans were killed and the economy collapsed. He also lectured in sociology and literature at the university.