SOURCE: Ngara, Emmanuel. “Cultural Nationalism and Form in Okot p'Bitek.” In Ideology and Form in African Poetry: Implications for Communication, pp. 60-76. London: James Currey, 1990.

In the following essay, Ngara examines the literary devices p'Bitek uses to express his sense of African nationalism.

Okot P'bitek's Two Voices

Okot p'Bitek is one of the most widely acclaimed African poets. He has been lauded for his successful use of oral forms in his English-language poems. Okot published several major pieces before he died, and, except for Horn of My Love, all of them are called ‘songs’—Song of Lawino, Song of Ocol, Song of Prisoner and Song of Malaya. Perhaps the most successful of these are Song of Lawino¹ and Song of Prisoner². The former is not only the most well-known of his poems but also epitomizes two significant features of the Ugandan poet's work—a serious concern with African...