Chapter 7
The Dialectics of Okot p’Bitek’s Poetry
This essay examines the structures and the interrelationships between Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol, Okot p’Bitek’s two major poetic works. The conclusions drawn from the study illuminate and elucidate the poet’s aesthetic corpus. The essay is organized in three parts: the first part discusses Song of Lawino; the second part focuses on Song of Ocol; while the third or final section not only draws a comparison and contrast between the two works, but arrives at significant conclusions based on the study.
Born of Gulu ancestry in Ugunda, Okot p’Bitek was a progenitor and “animator” of early East African writers and their works.1 More than that, he early discovered the intrinsic virtue of writing his verse, first, in the indigenous Acoli language, and then translating it into English. The dynamic structures of his verse, particularly as reflected in Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol, two major poems2 whose thematic developments are antithetical to each other, are what this essay sets out to address.
I
The persona of Song of Lawino, whose name highlights the poem’s title, is a wife who rails against the actions of her husband, for what she describes as his acts of misbehavior and indiscretion, which center on his wanton disrespect for her personality; his infidelity; and his disregard for the indigenous African culture. In the African cultural tradition, husbands get a great deal of respect from their wives, much as women are expected to be treated fairly and kindly by their husbands. That Lawino should be treated so badly to the extent of her mother being frequently insulted by Ocol is very unfortunate. Let us hear Lawino’s side of the story:
Husband, now you despise me \
Now you treat me with spite
And say I have inherited the
stupidity of my aunt;
Son of the Chief
Now you compare me
With the rubbish in the rubbish pit.
(S.L., p. 34)
Later on, as if she is complaining to a third party, she remonstrates:
All I ask
Is that my husband should stop the insults
My husband should refrain
From heaping abuses on my head
He should stop being half-crazy,
And saying terrible things about my mother
(S.L., p. 41)
In the quoted passages above, the particular images which suggest Ocol’s propensity to denigrate Lawino, include “spite,” “stupidity,” and “rubbish pit.” Others are “insults,” “abuses,” and “terrible things.” Despite her mistreatment, the fact that Lawino repeatedly addresses her husband with the epithet “my husband,” suggests the fact that she still has a great deal of respect for him. Turning now to the subject of marital infidelity, which is Lawino’s second source of grievance, we are introduced to Clementina, Ocol’s mistress. She is arrogant, classy and flamboyant by Western socio-cultural standards. She wears “heavy make ups” and has a reckless air of vanity and hypocrisy. This is how Lawino describes her:
Brother, when you see
Clementine!
The beautiful one aspires
To look like a white woman;
Her lips are red-hot
Like glowing charcoal,
She resembles the wild cat
That has dipped its mouth in
blood,
Her mouth is like raw yaws
It looks like an open ulcer,
Like the mouth of a field!
Tina dusts powder on her face
And it looks so pale;
She resembles the wizard
Getting ready for the midnight
dance.
(S.L., p. 37)
In a note of despair and disappointment, Lawino recounts vividly the negative effect which artificial make-up would have on her, were she to engage in it. She explains:
The smell of carbonic soap
Makes me sick,
And the smell of powder
Provokes the ghosts in my head
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I do not like dusting myself
with powder
The thing is good on pink skin
Because it is already pale,
But when a black woman has
used it
She looks as if she has
dysentery;
(S.L., p. 37)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
She continues:
The beautiful woman
With whom I share my husband
Smears black shoe polish
On her hair
To blacken it
And to make it shine
She washes her hair
With black ink.
(S.L., p. 55)
The references above to “carbonic soap,” “dusting myself with powder,” and “black shoe polish/On her hair” are all allusions to the “culture of bleaching” which Clementina has engaged herself in in order to look more beautiful and attractive. In the African cultural setting, it is generally believed that most men prefer a fair-complexioned woman to a dark-skinned woman. Consequently, many African women indulge in bleaching practices in order to be admired or to gain the favour of men. Women who engage in the bleaching behavior are generally viewed as “sophisticated” or “westernized.” The negative aspect of bleaching -- which is the reason why some people dislike the practice -- is the fact that the bleached skin color soon returns to its original dark complexion if the bleaching process is stopped or discontinued. Here, there is a satiral, veiled sarcasm against the practice by Lawino. Thinness or slimness in womanhood is often considered a remarkable quality by men in the Western society. Women with such features are said to be more romantic because they radiate less bodily fatness; and thus they are more flexible, athletic and pliant in bed. Lawino reflects:
The woman with whom I share
my husband
Walks as if her shadow
Has been captured,
You can never hear
Her footsteps;
She looks as if
She has been ill for a long time!
Actually she is starving
She does not eat,
She says she fears getting fat,
That the doctor has prevented
her
From eating,
She says a beautiful woman
Must be slim like a white
woman;
(S.L., p. 40)
In the African cultural tradition, women are trained in loyalty and obedience to their husband. Furthermore, they are expected to show respect and responsibility in matters relating to cultural behavior. The air of vanity, ostentation and waywardness, which Clementina displays, is widely condemned in the indigenous African culture, yet it is quite acceptable to Ocol. Lawino complains.
The wife who jokes freely
Who eats in the open
Not in the bedroom,
One who is not dull
Like stale beer
Such is the woman who becomes
The headdress keeper.
(S.L., p. 41)
Other Western ways which Ocol expects Lawino to cultivate or accommodate, include: the Western habit of food or diet (“He rejects me because I do not appreciate/White men’s foods,” S.L., p. 56); time consciousness (“My husband is angry because he says/ I cannot keep time,” S.L., p. 63); and the adoption of Western names (“And I do not have/A Christian name / Ocol dislikes me” S.L., p. 73). We shall now turn to the last section of the first part of this essay, which centers on Ocol’s disrespect for the indigenous African culture. Africans, by nature, are very prideful and respectful in matters relating to their culture, religious beliefs, and institutional values. Consequently anything that defiles or denigrates any of their indigenous beliefs and values is highly resisted and, if possible, severly condemned or punished. In Song of Lawino, the persona remarks in a vivid, solemn tone:
Listen, Ocol, my old friend,
The ways of your ancestors
Are good,
Their customs are solid
And not hollow
They are not thin, not easily
breakable
They cannot be blown away
By the winds
Because their roots reach deep
into the soil.
(S.L., p. 41)
Despite the above plea by Lawino for Ocol to sit up and respect the local, indigenous culture of his people, his ancestors and his forebears, it seems as if he is totally off the track, completely unable and unwilling to change for good; his stubborn obduracy is apparent from the following statement by Lawino:
Like beggars
You take up white men’s
adornments
Like slaves or war captives
You take up white men’s ways
Didn’t the Acoli have
adornments
Didn’t Black People have their
ways?
(S.L., p. 49)
With regard to religion or matters of faith and belief, Ocol prefers Christianity which is antithetical to the indigenous African religion. Again Lawino explains:
Ocol laughs at me
Because, he says,
I do not know
The names of the moons
That I do not know
How many moons in a year
And the number of Sabbaths
In one moon.
The Sabbath is a day
For Christians
When protestants and Catholics
shout
And suffer from headaches.
The Acoli did not
Set aside a special day
For Jok
When misfortune hits the
homestead
The clansmen gather
And offer sacrifices
To the ancestors:
When the rains
Refuse to come
The Raincock prepares a feast.
A goat is speared
In the wilderness
and the elders offer prayers
To Jok.
(S.L., pp. 69-70)
From all that we have discussed above, it is obvious that Ocol is impervious to reformation: he cannot change nor can he be reformed -- he hurls insults at Lawino and her mother; he prefers Christianity to the indigenous African religion; and he ridicules and denigrates the African indigenous culture and its people with spite and hate.
II
While so much attention has been paid by critics to Song of Lawino as a work of art, surprisingly very little interest, if any, has been shown in Song of Ocol, the corresponding response. The reason for this critical deficit may be attributable to the fact that, generally, in any conflict or state of disagreement, people tend to pass judgment in favor of the complainant before hearing from the other side. In the case at hand, Lawino is the complainant and the first person to narrate her side of the story. A second reason for the critical deficit may be due to the limited space given to Song of Ocol, which covers about 30 pages (pp. 121-151) in contrast to Song of Lawino, whose text covers about 86 pages (pp. 34-120). However, a careful and thorough reading of Song of Ocol will show that the limited attention paid to the poem by critics may have nothing to do with the reasons offered above. Ocol’s negative behavior and his wild utterances contribute immensely to the poem’s limited appeal: He alienates not only his wife but his audience as well. He has no respect for his people and their culture. He denigrates traditional African institutions, mores, and beliefs. And he would do anything and everything to impose his mad and outrageous convictions on other people. For example, he tells his wife Lawino:
Woman
Your song
Is rotting buffalo
Left behind by
Fleeing poachers
Its nose blocked
With house-flies
Sucking bloody mucus . . .
(S.O., pp. 123-124)
Ocol next descends on his ancestral Acoli background with impunity and venom:
We will obliterate
Tribal boundaries
And throttle native tongues
To dumb death.
(S.O., p. 124)
Here is how Ocol derisively characterizes the African continent:
What is Africa
To me?
Blackness,
Deep, deep fathomless
Darkness,
Idle giant
Basking in the sun,
Sleeping, snoring,
Twitching in dreams
Diseased with chronic illness,
Choking with black ignorance,
Chained to the rock
Of poverty.
(S.O., p. 125)
True, all the issues which Ocol addresses in his song can be said to center on his egocentrism. Being the consummate politician that he is, Ocol talks a lot, curses a lot, boasts a lot, and he has an inordinate ambition to dominate and exploit others, especially those who hold a contrary opinion different from his own. Further, he is misanthropic, particularly of his contemporaries, the elites and the intelligentsia. Hear him:
We will arrest
All the village poets
Musicians and tribal dancers,
Put in detention
Folk-story tellers
Any myth makers
The sustainers of
Village morality.
(S.O., p. 129)
The following lines attest to his pride, egoticism and ruthlessness:
We will uproot
Each tree
From the Ituri forest
And blow up
The rubble from Ruwenzori
Will fill the valleys
Of the Rift,
We will divert
The mighty waters
Of the Nile
Into the Indian Ocean .
(S.O., p. 146)
In the other parts of the poem, Ocol demonstrates bad judgment: He insults and condemns important leaders (“where is Aime Cesaire? / Where Leopold Senghor? / Arrest Janheinz Jahn,” S.O., p. 12); he denigrates African womanhood (“Woman of Africa / . . . You are not / A wife!,” S.O., p. 134); and he boasts about his wealth and estates (“I have other properties / . . . Let me take you for a ride / And show you around my farm.,” S.O., p. 141)
III
If we compare and contrast Song of Lawino with Song of Ocol, we soon discover the marked aesthetic differentia between the binary texts and their personae. Both texts are songs which derive from the Acoli oral narratives. However, while Song of Lawino is extensively discussed, running through 86 pages, the narrative structure of Song of Ocol covers just a limited space of 30 pages. A concusion that can be drawn from this aesthetic disparity is the fact that Song of Lawino offers a far more interesting panorama and perspective than Song of Ocol. To be sure, both characters present diametrically opposed realities: Lawino is highly intelligent, respectful and a good wife endowed with initiative and a stable state of mind. Ocol, on the contrary, is abrasive, dogmatic, eccentric, and irrational. He does not only demonstrate his inability to cope with the vicissitudes of life, he also manifests traces of a diseased mind perpetually in disagreement with his wife, his community, his continent, and the entire world. A careful reading of the texts highlights other facts: Lawino addresses his husband graciously and with respect (e.g, “Listen Ocol, you are the son of a / Chief,” S.L., p. 34). Elsewhere, she politely reminds him of the bond that exists between them (“Ocol, my husband/. . . You saw me when I was young / In my mother’s house/ This man crawled on the floor.,” S.L., p. 48). Ocol, on the other hand, is not only condemnatory but lacks civility: “Woman/Shut up/Pack your things/Go!? (S.O., p. 121). An aspect of p’Bitek’s verse that is widely praised by critics, centers on his handling of his subject matter, where he displays a remarkable sense of technical skill. David Cook, for instance, remarks:
Okot has done much to help establish a stock of images in East African English which express an East African way of looking at things, an achievement of great importance and complexity: for other writers it may be easier to build from this nucleus than it would have been to start creating their own base.3
K. Senanu and T. Vincent similarly note:
p’Bitek’s poetry represents one of the best examples of African poetry to successfully express African ideas in European forms, retaining the lyric freshness and simplicity of the songs of his own tribe, the Acoli, and using personal imagery. The distinctive result has no comparison in the whole range of African poetry.4
There is no doubt that the two texts under discussion in this essay contain enough technical and rhetorical paradigms that will appeal to readers, for their diversity, simplicity and originality. For instance, Ocol employs simile (“she looks like a witch/like someone who has lost her head,” S.L., p. 39); exaggeration (“Perhaps she has aborted many! / Perhaps she has thrown her twins / In the pit latrine!,” S.L., p. 39); and repetition (“We sowed / We watered.” S.O., p. 143): Nor can p’Bitek’s descriptive abilities be doubted or disputed, as exemplified, for example, in the following lines:
For all our young men
Were finished in the forest,
Their manhood was finished
In the classrooms,
Their testicles
Were smashed
With large books!
(S.L., p. 117)
The conclusion possible in this study is as follows. Firstly, p’Bitek employs a wide variety of rhetorical and poetic strategies to validate the dynamics of his work. Secondly, his lyrical style -- which benefits significantly from the Acoli oral corpus -- is bound to appeal both to contemporary audiences as well as to future readers. Finally, his verse explores the thrust of the theme of culture conflict, with Ocol representing the Western socio-cultural values while Lawino symbolizes the indigenous African cultural matrix.
Notes
1. Ken Goodwin, in his Understanding African Poetry (London and Ibadan; Heinemann, 1982), p. 154, writes that Okot “made possible the publication of such works as Okello Oculi’s Orphan (1968), Joseph Buruga’s The Abandoned Hut (1969) -- two volumes heavily influenced by Song of Lawino --, John Mbiti’s Poems of Nature and Faith (1969), Jared Angira’s Juices (1970), Taban lo Liyong’s Frantz Fanon’s Uneven Ribs (1971), and Richard Ntiru’s Tensions (1971).”
2. All references to Okot’s Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol come from the volume as introduced and edited by G.A. Heron (London and Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books, Ltd., 1967). Subsequent citations from the volume will be abbreviated parenthetically in the text as S.L. for Song of Lawino, and S.O. for Song of Ocol, followed by the page number (s).
3. David Cook, African Literature: A Critical View (London: Longman Group Ltd, 1977), p. 53.
4. K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent, A Selection of African Poetry: New Edition (London: Longman Group Ltd., 1977), p. 152. In his “Introduction” to Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol (p.11) G.A. Heron praises Okot’s lyrical and technical skill. Ali Mazrui, in “the Patriot as an Artist,” African Writers on African Writing ed. G.D. Killam (London: Heinemann, 1978), p. 34, however criticizes p’Bitek: “the poet himself has erred on the side of excess in his portrayal of Ocol.”
5. As Charles A Bodunde, “Oral Traditions and Modern Poetry: Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino and Okigbo’s Labyrinths,” African Literature Today, 18, 1992, 25-26, notes: “Lawino, the speaker of the poem relies on the traditional Acholi symbols of the horn, the bull and the spear to lament her husband’s loss of traditional realities.”
Works Cited
Bodunde, Charles A. “Oral Traditions and Modern Poetry: Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino and Okigbo’s Labyrinths. African Literature Today, 18, 1992, 25-26.
Cook, David. African Literature: A Critical View. London
Goodwin, Ken. Understanding African Poetry. Edinburgh and Melbourne: Heinemann, 1982.
Senanu, K.E. and Vincent, T. A Selection of African Poetry London
Mazrui, Ali. “The Patriot as an Artist,” African Writers on African Writing, ed. G.D. Killam. London
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