II.8. Philosophy of the
author
Okot P' Bitek is among Africa's best author whose views
on important philosophical issues remain UN exoplored. His poems not only
locate his views very well within African philosophy, but will provoke and
stimulate African philosophers to search for African philosophy, he wrote
African religions in western scholarship, Africa's Cultural Revolution,
song of Lawino and of Ocol, and other essays. Therefore, in reading
Oral traditions as philosophy one gets a holistic purview of P' Bitek's views.
In song of Lowino, Okot P' Bitek takes Lawino
as his tool for making his own comments on the way people behave in East
Africa. In his philosophy, P'Bitek argues that Africa should reject European
ways by having Lawino state that they are good, but only good for Europeans.
Okot speaks out against the prejudice that African tribes have received for
him, there is no room for song of Ocol, and Okot argues that Ocol is allowed to
address his own beliefs, but his argument is not strongly realized at Lawino's.
According to P'Bitek, Ocol does not bring up issues regarding healthcare in
Africa, stating that traditional medicines harm people rather than help them.
Using Luo toles, Imbo (2002:44) argues that the narratives are
best apprehended by a holistic approach that sees the spirits, the living, and
the unborn as members of the same extended family.
According to P' Bitek, the spoken can sustain analytical and
rigorous philosophical dialogue. Imbue (idem P49) in supporting P'Bitek's view
mutatis mutandis, postulates that the spoken word plays an important role
within philosophy and as poets, novelists and story tellers. According to him
philosophy is the extraction of meaning from the accounts of the oral
traditions. That extraction is made richer by admission of oral traditions as
texts.
Okot P'Bitek, believed that his work dealt honestly with human
condition and had deep human roots although, he has been criticized by other
African writers, including Ngugi wa Thiong'o, for not adequately addressing the
underlying causes of Africa's problems.
Brief, P' Bitek dealt with the conflict between European and
African cultures by using medium of satirical monologues.
In order to provide an easy understanding to our readers, we
give some definitions of some techniques according to the dictionary of English
language.
CHAPTER
THREE: THE IMAGE OF WOMAN IN OKOT P'BITEK'S SONG OF LAWINO AND SONG OF
OCOL
Introduction
In this chapter Three, we quote some passages showing the
image of a woman that Okot uses and speaks to in his poems. Before dealing with
this chapter, we confirm that the study of literary techniques in the preceding
chapter Two is worthy for the good understanding of p'Bitek's Song of
Lawino and Song of Ocol. The summary of the analysis helps us enough to
get the full meaning of each poem.
We find it better to divide this chapter which treats the
image of woman according to different point of view into three subdivisions
with a personal point of view which closes the lines: Social point of view
educationa point of view and religious point of view.
The woman has a mission of defending her ancestor's traditions
and preserving them from western influences.
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