III.1. Social point of
view
A great deal of appeal of Song of Lawino comes from
Okot's exploitation of dramatic possibilities of Lawino's rivalry with
Clementine. Lawino, the traditional woman is opposed to Clementine, the modern
woman. This opposition is due to the fact that the latter praises modern
notions of style while the former is making a mockery of them. This traditional
woman stands for African culture and the westernized woman stands for European
culture.
Okot P'Bitek through Lawino attacks this modern slyly funny
woman who has disappeared completely in poem replaced by Ocol:
«Brother, had you beheld the said Clementine,
Her mouth glows red like live embers
Her lips are red like a ghost's after drinking blood,
Her mouth protrudes like yaw-point,
It looks like ulcer,
Like a wild-beast's mouth!
Her face is freckled; she looks like hyena (SOL,
P.37)».
The attack on dramatic reversal of values is limited to
cosmetic and make-up it yoes on European social and cultural values which go
against traditional codes of behavior, imported forms of dancing. African songs
and dances are full of emotins said Lawino:
«You dance naughtily with pride,
You dance with spirit, you compete,
You insult, you provoke» (SOL, P.42)
African songs and dances require skill and stamina:
«A girl whose waist is stiff is a clumsy
girl» (SOL, P.43)
Where as western dances are stameful, result immorality,
Each man dances with a woman who is not his wife:
«Being held so tightly I fell ashamed,
Being held so tightly in public I cannot do it,
It looks shameful tome» (SOL, P.44).
A part from being immoral, their kissing and dancing are seen
as grotesquely ugly:
«You kiss her on the cheek
As their teeth look
As if they have been boxed in the mouth» (SOL, P.44).
From Lawino's point of view, imported forms of dancing result
in immoral behavior when each man dances with a woman who is not his wife while
dancing, one can told me waists of the woman. Even touch the woman's breasts in
order to provoke her for sexual inter course.
Western people's emotions are derived more likely from alcohol
than from spiritual means:
«They fall face upwards like fish that are dead
drunk» (SOL, P45).
The white man considers the traditional woman as a thing and
the modern woman as a University woman: «He has no time to waste
discussing things with a thing like Lawino. University man can only have useful
talk with another University man or woman» (S O L, 88).
Okot presents the traditional woman as simple preasant woman
and then twins her into a political scientist without creating the
circumstances that give rive rise to such a shift:
«And while the pythons of sickness
Swallow the children
And the buffaloes of poverty
Knock the people down
And ignorance stands there
Like an elephant»(S O L, P. 111).
If we take into account her analysis of behaviour of
politicians, one may wonder if she is the same woman commenting about political
rivalry.
Brief colonial education taught African lives. In song of
Lawino and song of Ocol, Okot p'bitek laments a situation.
Western people consider African woman as a sweeper of the floor, as a mattress
for man; her arm as a pillow for his head! (SOO , P.134).
«Thus Alice walker quoter from the site web: www. Unb.
c/ca/CACLAS/chin 0 26. Html argues that Apartheid exerts
A double oppression on black woman, since the policy is
rife
Wife Un official inscriptions of Manichean gender models,
models which are themselves powerful marginalizing structures.
Womanism denotes the impossibility of a unity predominantly
Based either on gender (on gender) or race.»
Moreover, another woman, MS Zollar quoted with grin.
«we woman will never have peace. The troubles with man
are ceaseless. At night they are worse «From htt: // query. nytimes.
Com /gst/full page. Html?
| 
