Okot p’ Bitek’s response to Song of Lawino

Okot p ‘Bitek was born in Gulu in northern Uganda in 1931. Song of Ocol was published in 1966. It is a response to Song of Lawino. Ocol, Lawino’s husband, tries to justify his behaviour and attitude towards Lawino. He does it with no sympathy and he is loud.Ocol disowns his rich Acholi culture and does not care about what the public says. He disrespects Lawino and her parents. He vividly remembers his past but he says he is done with it and has no time to waste with his useless Acholi culture. He is an estranged husband who responds to his once beautiful Acholi wife arrogantly and does not want to have anything that reminds him of her. Ocol seems to forget his roots when he asks what Africa is to him. He is so alienated that he forgets that he is laughing at himself. He regrets why he was born an African and black. He is ready to uproot the pumpkin in the old homestead by smashing the taboos and burning down all the superstitions which, according to him, are the mother of backwardness. Ocol does not want any African history to be associated with him because it is like a mirror that shows the blackness of the past from which he came. To Ocol, taboos are chains around the neck of Africans and chains of slavery that must be broken.Modernity has made Ocol believe that beauty is for those who starve themselves to the bone like his new wife, Clementine, who does not have excessive fatty food like other women in some parts of East Africa. He also undermines an African woman who does a lot of domestic work instead of appreciating and praising her. Ocol does not believe in bride price which is a common practice in many African cultures.According to Ocol, City life demystifies the troubles of the customs that young people go through such as killing a man or a lion, circumcision, war dances, before they are considered adults. Ocol is a snob. He rates himself high because he is educated and has got educated friends. He says that while they were busy at school, Lawino and her friends were busy performing traditional dances, spending weeks at funeral parties, or in the bush chasing wild animals. Ocol thinks that while his lot struggled for independence, Lawino’s was just wasting time. It is for this reason that he wishes to take all the credit and therefore deserves a nice house in the town with a spacious garden and beautiful flowers.Ocol does not want to be blamed for some of the problems facing Africans such as disease, poverty, and ignorance. He dreams of a modern Africa with a green garden of wheat, barley, coffee, tractors and milking machines. To him people should sing and dance, celebrating the passing of the old homestead swept away by progress and civilization.Song of Ocol may be a surprise to some but not to all. Ocol’s stand is a natural response to his wife’s continuous pleas that turn out to be a song. The pleas are constantly and repeatedly uttered to Ocol. One may sympathize with either or both Lawino and Ocol.The reviewer is an educationist and publisher-