Okot P'Bitek Books
Okot p'Bitek was a Ugandan poet who achieved wide international recognition for his long poem, Song of Lawino. This work delves into the tribulations of a rural African wife whose husband has embraced urban life and wishes for everything to be westernized. His writing keenly explores the clash between traditional African values and modern Western influences. Through his poetry, p'Bitek embodies a voice of resistance against colonial legacies, advocating for cultural integrity.
COVID meditations from literary phenom Otoniya J. Okot Bitek The relationship between the quotidian and the extraordinary is symbiotic: they defined each other. In Song & Dread, Bitek becomes a record keeper, observing this contradictory relationship from inside the quagmire of pandemic days. Rife with the paradoxical forces of boredom and intensity, the early days of COVID-19 passed under an inescapable pall. The poems of Song & Dread seek quietude, order, refuge, and space within that shroud. They remind us of community, connectedness, and what is inherently shared in a time of limited access and limitless grief. Innovative and playful in form, the works in this collection are of the time, while remembering an existence outside the present. They juxtapose the sensational news stories of daily turmoil and sorrowful social-media posts with the winnowed-down nature of life in a global crisis. With a keen eye, Bitek documents the ways the strange can become normalized when there is no other option.
Belletristik : Uganda/Atscholi ; Frau - Afrika.
