THE EASTAFRICANPOET

p'Bitek is and will always be a timeless colossus in the east African literary scene; his sharp and examining mind has had him referred to as the writer with the Scorpion-tail tongue and razor-sharp pen . This is a fact. His works; some of which remain unfinished like the much anticipated 'Song of Soldier' and the classic 'Wer pa Lawino' - Song of Lawino , whose original 1956 version of only 32 pages is found at the University of Nairobi library and is only available for restricted use; are very much sought after. My favorite work from Okot is a collection of essays - 'Artist The Ruler' Heinemann Kenya 1986. In this collection; to which Okot attached great importance, is a collection of essays to which Okot contends that all foreign missions (whether christian or Islamic) and foreign political ideologies (whether Capitalism or Socialism) have failed and will never be living philosophies in the lives of black African peoples. He goes ahead to expound on...

In celebration of Okot p'Bitek who has been gone for a full 32 years today. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Okot p'Bitek (7 June 1931 – 20 July 1982) was a Ugandan poet, who achieved wide international recognition for Song of Lawino, a long poem dealing with the tribulations of a rural African wife whose husband has taken up urban life and wishes everything to be westernised. Song of Lawino was originally written in Acholi language, and self-translated to English, and published in 1966. It was a breakthrough work, creating an audience amongst anglophone Africans for direct, topical poetry in English; and incorporating traditional attitudes and thinking in an accessible yet faithful literary vehicle. It was followed by the pendant Song of Ocol (1970), the husband's reply. The East African Song School or Okot School poetry is now an academic identification of the work following his direction, also popularly called "comic singing": a forceful type of dra...