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...