SOURCE: Ofuani, Ogo A. “Lexical Cohesion in Okot p'Bitek's A Song of Prisoner.” In The Language of African Literature, edited by Edmund L. Epstein, pp. 205-28. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, Inc., 1998.

In the following essay, Ofuani explores elements that add to the thematic unity of Song of Prisoner

Despite numerous studies by critics and literary scholars, the effectiveness and aesthetic use of language in Okot p'Bitek's Song of Prisoner (1971) have remained largely unexplored. Scholars have made contributions to our understanding of p'Bitek's themes, images, historical and biographical background, and traditional poetic devices, but have devoted little time to linguistic/stylistic analyzes of his language (see Ofuani 1985). The issue that tends to dominate all others has been the controversial one of the number of prisoners contained in this Song (see Ogunyemi 1982: Wanambisi 1984). The linguistic clues that should resolve this issue are often neglected, and critical analyzes have...