62 pages • 2 hours read
Okot p'BitekSong of Lawino and Song of Ocol
Okot p'BitekNonfiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Adult | Published in 1966A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Equal Value of Different Cultures
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of racism, emotional abuse, and graphic violence.
Through Lawino’s voice, the poem explores the idea that different cultures—in particular, African and European cultures—are fundamentally equal in value. For instance, when assessing the difference between European and Acholi doctors, Lawino proclaims:
White diviner priests,
Acoli herbalists,
All medicine men and medicine women
Are good, are brilliant
When the day has not yet dawned
For the great journey
The last safari
To Pagak (103).
In this quote, Lawino is highly complimentary of both cultures and suggests that they are equalized by the universal force of death. Similarly, she surveys the hairstyles of women from around the world and concludes that they are different but not that any particular style is better: “The hair of the Acoli / Is different from that of the / Arabs” (51).
As she continues, however, it becomes clear that the differences in style stem from differences in hair texture: “The Indians’ hair / […] needs to be cut / With scissors” (51). The idea that cultural differences are not arbitrary but rather reflect deeper distinctions between groups is an important corollary to Lawin’s belief in cultural equality: She firmly believes that individual people should remain loyal to the culture of their birth. As Heron summarizes, “Lawino doesn’t believe that the two ways of life are equally valid for Africans, and neither does Okot. She thinks the customs of white people probably suit white people. She doesn’t mind them following their own ways” (18).
This attitude is apparent in her discussions of Clementine, who is (in her estimation) foolishly trying to adopt a European beauty regimen: “Some medicine has eaten up / Tina’s face; / […] And it is all raw and red” (37). Here, an attempt to reject one’s own culture in favor of another has resulted in Clementine being physically harmed, illustrating the dire consequences that Lawino imagines for such an action. Similarly, she imagines that the young boys who have been compelled into the European school system had “Their testicles […] smashed / With large books” (117). Lawino’s words are metaphorical but communicate what she sees as a real threat to the masculinity of young Acholi men. To her mind, therefore, equality between cultures does not mean that their differences are not dangerous (and dangerous in a tangible, physical capacity). Attempts to transgress the boundaries between cultures can result in sweeping societal consequences, like a widespread loss of masculinity or femininity, that jeopardize different cultural/ethnic groups’ long-term survival.
National Conflict on a Domestic Scale
The domestic conflict between Lawino and Ocol that plays out over the course of both poems operates as an allegory for cultural conflict that was occurring on a national scale in Uganda when p’Bitek was writing. The symbolic dimensions of this conflict play out especially through the figure of Clementine, the Westernized woman Ocol now prefers to Lawino. As the poem progresses, however, even this layer of allegory falls away to expose deep-seated divisions in each spouse’s relationship to their racial, cultural, and national identities. In Lawino and Ocol’s marital dispute, the cultural turmoil of a nation recovering from the traumas of colonialism is thus on full display.
For his part, Ocol envisions a future where precolonial cultures are destroyed so completely that no one will even remember that they existed: “Not one [traditional weapon] will be left / Even for the museums” (137). Lawino, on the other hand, believes firmly in the resilience and beauty of her tribal culture and dreams of the day that Ocol will recognize his vision to be impossible. She tells him, “The ways of your ancestors / […] are not thin, not easily breakable” (41). P’Bitek presents these two polar opposite attitudes toward culture as having accordingly opposite emotional results for each character. Ocol’s hatred for all things traditional is tied to his deep sense of internal shame and unrest, feelings that are made most apparent in his anguished cry, “Why, / Why was I born / Black?” (126). In contrast, Lawino has a robust sense of self-esteem and expresses contentment about her Blackness at various points throughout Song of Lawino. These attitudes also inform each spouse’s treatment of the other; Lawino is angry with Ocol but desires to reconcile, whereas Ocol, projecting his anxieties onto his wife, hurls abuse at her. Through the domestic dispute of Lawino and Ocol, then, p’Bitek seems to be taking a firm side in the cultural conflicts of postcolonial Uganda: The right path forward, he is telling readers, is one the embraces traditional tribal cultures wholeheartedly.
Ocol’s political rivalry with his brother is another example of how p’Bitek brings national conflict down to the domestic scale. In this allegory, Ocol is a stand-in for the entirety of the DP, and his brother is a stand-in for the UPC. This allegory is less figurative in nature than the one involving Lawino and Ocol’s marriage since the UPC and DP were engaged in a literal political rivalry at the time p’Bitek was writing his poems. In this matter, however, p’Bitek does not take a clear stance; Lawino offers measured criticism of both parties. She observes:
I have seen
Many leaders of the D.P.
[…]
Some have really numbed heads
Like the head of my husband;
But others have heads like lightning
Quick and powerful,
[…]
I have met
Many leaders of Congress
[…]
Some have heads like the sun
Bright, burning and brilliant,
Others carry pieces of stone
On their necks
And call them heads! (106-07).
By using parallel structures for the stanzas about the UPC and DP, p’Bitek renders the two perfectly equivalent in Lawino’s eyes, thereby refusing to reveal his personal political stance. As the poem navigates national conflicts within the intimate setting of a single family, some problems are revealed to have a more clear-cut solution in p’Bitek’s mind than others.
Patriotism in Tribalist and Nationalist Contexts
Both Lawino and Ocol have a great sense of patriotism, but they conceptualize patriotism in terms of different forms of societal organization. Lawino is primarily loyal to Acholi society, whereas Ocol has a nationalist vision for Uganda that supersedes tribal affiliation, and the poem suggests that these differing forms of patriotism are utterly irreconcilable.
Throughout Song of Lawino, Lawino’s verse is rich with a sense of love for her Acholi homeland, ancestors, and culture. This is evident, for instance, in her description of running away from Catholic class to join an Acholi dance: “[We] sang songs we understood, / Relevant and meaningful songs, / Songs about ourselves” (79). This episode illustrates that Lawino’s patriotism for Acholiland, and her sense of belonging to the Acholi community, is what gives her the greatest sense of meaning in life. In contrast, Ocol describes the national liberation of Uganda in similar terms:
Do you remember
The night of uhuru
When the celebration drums throbbed
And men and women wept with joy
As they danced,
Hands raised in salute
To the national flag? (142).
These two dances, celebrating patriotism and a sense of community at different scales, suggest that at their cores, Lawino and Ocol share a love of their homeland—they just disagree about what that homeland is (and should be).
Indeed, the tension between their respective forms of patriotism seems irreconcilable. At the end of Song of Lawino, Lawino proposes her solution: a series of traditional remedies that will completely reverse Ocol’s Westernized way of thinking and allow him to reintegrate into the Acholi community. This involves, for example, “Bring[ing] the ripe seeds of labikka / And scratch[ing] Ocol’s eyeballs” and “Let[ting] [rhino-horn powder] stab away / The pus that blocks his eyes!” (118). This is notably violent language coming from Lawino, who usually invokes very tranquil natural imagery.
Ocol’s violence goes even further, aiming not at assimilation but at the physical destruction of those who practice a different form of patriotism than he does, as he dreams of executing stewards of traditional culture. “To the gallows / With all the Professors / Of Anthropology,” he writes, “And teachers of African / History (129). This targeting not merely of those who remain loyal to their tribes but also of anyone who would study or document the old form of patriotism (he goes on to recommend the burning of such scholars’ works and the closure of African studies programs) suggests Ocol’s desire to eradicate fully any trace of tribal affiliation. Both tribal and nationalistic remedies to the conflict require the obliteration of the other mindset in some capacity, suggesting that these two forms of patriotism cannot coexist, much less reach a compromise.
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