Okot p’Bitek

Okot p’Bitek (1931-1982), Ugandan poet, novelist, and social anthropologist, who dedicated his life to preserving his country’s traditional literature and culture. He wrote in both English and Acholi and is generally regarded as the finest East African poet of the 20th century. Born in Gulu, in northern Uganda, p’Bitek received his early education locally and went on to the prestigious King’s College Budo in Uganda. At age 22 he wrote his first book, Lak tar miyo kinyero wi lobo (1953; translated as White Teeth, 1989). This Acholi-language novel reflected his strong interests in music, song, literature, and traditional culture—concerns that surfaced in all his subsequent writing.

In the mid-1950s p’Bitek went to the United Kingdom as a member of Uganda’s national soccer team and stayed on to continue his education. He attended Bristol University, where he earned a diploma in education, and then the University of Oxford, where he earned a B.Litt. degree (bachelor of letters) in social anthropology. Returning to Uganda, he taught at Makerere University in the mid-1960s, then in the late 1960s at the University of Nairobi in Kenya, and again at Makerere University in the late 1970s. He later served as visiting professor or writer-in-residence at other universities in Africa and the United States.

p’Bitek produced his most important works in the mid- and late 1960s, beginning with Song of Lawino, A Lament (1966; published in the original Acholi as Wer pa Lawino, 1969), the finest of his narrative poems. Drawing on the form and content of traditional Acholi songs of abuse and praise, the poem is a song sung by an illiterate wife who complains about her relationship with her educated husband. Her persistent questioning of why she is abused simply for being African results in a sharp satire of Africans’ superficial acceptance of European culture. The husband then states his case in Song of Ocul (1970), but his own words condemn him.

p’Bitek also published several books that directly reflect his Acholi background. They include the poetry volume The Horn of My Love (1974), the folktale collection Hare and the Hornbill (1978), and such nonfiction works as Religion of the Central Luo (1971) and Africa’s Cultural Revolution (1973). The emphasis in all his work, both scholarly and creative, is on the idea that literature is a living social art that must be understood within the context of the culture in which it is produced and enjoyed.