AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to millions of articles from top publications available through your library.

The Defence of Lawino [Wer pa Lawino].(Book review)

Research in African Literatures

| June 22, 2008 | Lilleleht, Mark L. | (Hide copyright information)Copyright

The Defence of Lawino [Wer pa Lawino]

BY OKOT P'BITEK, TRANS. TABAN LO LIYONG

1969. Kampala: Fountain, 2001.

ISBN 9970022695. xvi + 115 pp.

Foreword by S. Raditlhao, preface by Taban to Liyong, and glossary.

Distributed by African Books Collective Ltd.

Let's start with an intriguing bit of literary archeology. Or maybe it's just idle gossip. Back in 1974, in the preface to his book The Horn of My Love, Okot p'Bitek admonished his fellow writer and countryman Taban to Liyong:

 
   When, recently, my friend Taban to Liyong wept bitter tears over 
   what he called the literary desert in East Africa, he was suffering 
   from acute literary deafness, a disease which afflicts those who 
   have been brainwashed to believe that literature exists only in 
   books. Taban and his fast dwindling clan are victims of the 
   class-ridden, dictionary meaning of the term literature, which 
   restricts literary activity and enjoyment to the so-called literate 
   peoples, and turns a deaf ear to the songs and stories of the vast 
   majority of our people in the countryside. (ix) 

With an almost gratuitous slap, p'Bitek concludes the opening …

Related articles from newspapers, magazines, journals, and more
Singing the law: Okot p'Bitek's legal imagination and the poetics of...
Magazine article from: Research in African Literatures Leman, Peter September 22, 2009 700+ words
On translating the 'untranslated': Chapter 14 of 'Wer pa Lawino' by Okot...
Magazine article from: Research in African Literatures Liyong, Taban lo September 22, 1993 700+ words
Comparative Approaches to African Literatures.
Magazine article from: Research in African Literatures Ogede, Ode S. December 22, 1996 700+ words
40 Years in Publishing And Gaining Strength By the Day.
News wire article from: Asia Africa Intelligence Wire October 23, 2005 700+ words
Goretti Kyomuhendo.(author)(Interview)
Magazine article from: Research in African Literatures Gray, Stephen March 22, 2001 700+ words
©2013 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Contact us | Privacy policy | Terms and conditions

The AccessMyLibrary advertising network includes: womensforum.com GlamFamily