CHAPTER ONE:
OKOT p' BITEK'S LIFE AND WORK
Introduction
This chapter deals with life and work of Okot p'Bitek, a
Ugandan poet. This chapter provides an over view to the reader about this poet.
It allows us to get more information about Okot's background.
1. Life
Okot p'Bitek was born on July 20, 1931 in Gulu, and died in
1982, in North Uganda grasslands into a family of Luo people.
His father was a school teacher and an expressive storyteller,
his mother Lacwaa Cerina was a traditional gifted singer, composer, and leader
of her clan. From his mother's name, the title Song of Lawino is derived and
she taught him many songs that he enjoyed throughout his life. At that time
Uganda was a protectorate of British Empire. Under the influence of his mother,
p'Bitek grows up learning the tales, proverbs and songs of Acholi folklore
sometimes referred to as lwo or luo.
He was educated at Gulu High School, then King's College in
Budo, and later at Universities in the United Kingdom.
An outstanding student, p'Bitek was noted as a great singer of
Acholi songs, a dancer, a drummer and athlete. He composed and produced a
full-length opera while still in high school. He travelled abroad first as a
player with the Ugandan national football team, in 1958. At this point, he gave
up with football as a possible career; staying on in Britain he studied
education at Bristol University, and then Law at the University College Wales
at Aberystwyth. He then took a B. litt. degree in Social anthropology at the
University of Oxford with a 1963 Dissertation on Acholi and Lango Traditional
Cultures.
He lost his commitment to Christian belief during these years.
This had major consequence for his attitude as a scholar of African tradition,
which was by no means accepting of the general run of earlier work. He wrote an
earlier novel in Luo, Lak Tar Miyo Kinyero Wilobo (1953) later
translated into English as `' If your Teeth Are White, Laugh!''
It concerns the experiences of a young Acholi man moving away
from home, to find work and so a wife. P'Bitek organised an Art festival at
Gulu, and then at Kisumu (Kenya).He taught at Makerere University and then was
director of Uganda's national Theatre in 1956.
In the summer of same year, he participated in the Olympic
Games in London and remained in England to study at several institutions
including the institute of social Anthropology in Oxford and University
College, Wales.
In this capacity, he founded the highly successful Gulu Arts
Festival, which celebrates the traditional oral history, dance; and other arts
of Acholi people.
He became unpopular with the Ugandan government; and took
teaching parts outside the country. He took part in the International writing
program at the University of Iowa in 1969. He was at the institute of African
Studies of University of College in Nairobi from 1971 as a session research
fellow and lectures, with visiting position at University of Texas at Austin
and University of Ife in Nigeria in 1978-179. He remained in exile during the
regime of Ugandan Dictator Idi Amin, returning in 1982 to Makerere University
to teach creative writing. He died of a liver infection on July 19, 1982. His
daughter, Jane Okot p'Bitek, is also a writer, whose Song of Farewell
(1994), a poetry volume was dedicated to the memory of her father.
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