Okot P'Bitek

  • Okot P'Bitek
Writer, Lecturer
Principal country concerned : Column : Literature

Birthdate:  June 9,1931

Date of Death:  July 20, 1982
 
Place of birth: Gulu, northern Uganda             
 
Languages spoken: Acholi, English
 
Writing language: Acholi, English
 
Education: Attended Gulu High School and King's College, Budo. While at Budo, Okot's participation in the opera The Magic Flute by Mozart provoked him to write one of his own, Acan which was performed at the school. From 1951-52 Okot attended Mbarara Teacher Training College from where he was selected to play on the national soccer team during which time he also completed his first and only novel in Lwo, Lak Tar Miyo  Kinyero wi Lobo (I Laugh Only with My Teeth, but My Heart is Bleeding) published in 1953.

Okot then read for a bachelors in Education at the University of Bristol, 1956-7); LL.B. (cum laude), University of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1957-60, and also spent three months at the International Court of Justice at the Hague as part of his studies in International Law; Butt, University of Oxford, 1960-63.
 
Employment: After Mbarara Okot was, in 1953, appointed to teach English and Religious Studies at Sir Samuel Baker School, Gulu. It was at this school that work on Werpa La wino (Song of Lawino) started in 1956. The East African Literature Bureau rejected the manuscript, it got lost, Okot discovered it much later, re-wrote it and translated it into English But before that he left with the national soccer team that played barefoot in London in 1956. He stayed on in the UK after the tour to pick up a series of degrees as indicated above. Okot also lectured in the department of sociology and social anthropology, Makerere University in 1963.

Disgusted with the academic theories in the department, Okot left after three months to join the department of extra-mural studies, arid was posted to take charge of northern Uganda which encompassed Bunyoro, Lango, Acholi, Karamoja, and West Nile.

In 1966 Okot became the first African director of the National Cultural Centre, Kampala (National Theatre), only to leave two years later for what turned out to be 11 years of exile. During that time the literary giant taught at universities in Kenya, Nigeria and the United States.

He returned to Uganda in 1979 and was promptly made Senior Research Fellow, Makerere University Institute of Social Research, a post he disliked and loudly made that known. He says the university didn't ‘know' where he belonged; sociology, literature, religion, philosophy or law. Well, in 1982 Makerere belatedly ‘recognised his contribution to the literary world' by appointing him the first Professor of Creative Writing in the Department of Literature. And within months he was dead.
 
Bibliography:
Fiction
Lak  Tar Miyo Kinyero Wi Lobo (I Laugh Only with My Teeth, but My Heart is Bleeding). Nairobi: Eagle
Press, 1953. Lak Tak was published by Heinemann Kenyaln 1989 as White Teeth. Song of Lawino.

Nairobi: EAPH, 1966. It gave birth to the song school tradition in Uganda. Werpa Lawino (Acholi version of Song ofLawino). Nairobi: EAPH, 1969. The 1956 version of Werpa La wino (32 pages) is available for restricted use in the University of Nairobi library. Song of Ocol. Nairobi: EAPH, 1970. Two Songs: Song of Prisoner and Song of Malaya. Nairobi: EAPH, 1971. Song of Prisoner. New York: Third Press, 1971.
 
Non-fiction
African Religions in Western Scholarship Nairobi: EALB, 1971.
Religion of the Central Luo. Nairobi: EALB, 1971.
Africa's Cultural Revolution (essays). Nairobi: Macmillan Books for Africa, 1973.

Horn of M yLove. London: Heinemanri Educational Books, 1974.
Hare and Hornbill, London: Heinemarm Educational Books, 1979.
Acholi Proverbs. Nairobi: Heinemaim Kenya, 1985.
Artist the Ruler Essays on Art Culture and Values. Nairobi: EAEI 1986. Reprinted 1992 and 1994.
This work also includes extracts from "Song of Soldier", which Okot left unfinished, and a translation
into English of Lak Tar Miyo Kinyero wiLobo. Okot died a fortnight after completing Artist the Ruler.
 
Comment: Okot's major articles, conference papers and lectures appear in over 20 anthologies around the world.

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  • Zimbabwe : Culture Fund Of Zimbabwe Trust
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  • Niger : ONG Culture Art Humanité
  • Collectif 2004 Images
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  • Africiné
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