[Review of] Okot p\u27Bitek. Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol

Heinemann\u27s reissue of two early works by Okot p\u27Bitek includes Song of Lawino in Okot\u27s own translation from the Acoli published in 1966 and his shorter companion piece, Song of Ocol, 1967, composed in English only. The volume includes an introduction and brief biography of Okot and a critical analysis of the two poems in the light of Okot\u27s background and other works, written by George A. Heron in 1972. Heron includes a comparison between the Acoli and the English versions of Song of Lawino, and a comparison of the traditional poems inserted into the songs with some of the traditional folksongs collected and translated by Okot himself

[Review of] William Oandasan. Round Valley Songs

William Oandason, Senior Editor of the American Indian Culture and Research Journal and editor of his own journal, A, a Journal of Contemporary Literature, has published other books of poetry, A Branch of California Redwood (reviewed by Kenneth M. Roemer, Explorations in Sights and Sounds, Summer, 1984) and Moving Inland

Table of Contents

Table of contents for Explorations in Sights and Sounds, Number 5, Summer, 198

Modern African Verse and the Politics of Authentication

In his article Modern African Verse and the Politics of Authentication Gabriel S. Bamgbose argues that the authenticity of modern African poetry is marked by the intricate tie between African verse and African life in its diversities and complexities. Bamgbose examines the modern nature of African poetry, its oral roots, its treatment of colonial, and cultural nationalist issues, its issues of négritude, language, radical consciousness, gender, and its international nature. Bamgbose draws on the poetry of Okot p\u27Bitek, Taban Lo Liyong, and Frank Chipasula of East Africa, Tchikaya U Tam\u27si, Tati Loutard, and Gahlia Gwangwa\u27a of Central Africa, and Dennis Brutus, Agostinho Neto, and Luvuyo Mkangelwa of Southern Africa (he excludes poetry from West Africa, which has often taken the front space in critical discourse on modern African poetry). In doing so, he reveals that modern African poetry possesses a complex nature, a direct representation of the spirit, identities, and realities of Black Africa and Africans

Oedipal Identity and the Freudian Construction of Orality in Okot p\u27Bitek\u27s Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol

In Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol, Ocol and Lawino, presenting themselves as a university-educated man and his non-literate village wife, argue the various merits and failings of traditional, Acholi village life and modern, Westernized life. Accompanying this sociopolitical argument is the personal, emotional conflict between the two: Ocol is rejecting Lawino in favor of a Westernized second-wife, but Lawino refuses to leave him, trying instead to coerce him into returning, body and soul, to her bed. The scenario seems straightforward. But below this superficial reading is a more complex one in which Lawino is Ocol’s mother rather than his wife. In this reading, Lawino has no voice of her own, being Ocol’s projection of his own repressed oedipal fixation, against which he reacts intensely both in the fictionalized Lawino’s presentation of him and in his own song. The first clue to this oedipal reality was revealed by p’Bitek in some of his interviews. He claimed to have based Lawino on his mother but Ocol on himself. Yet Freudian theory is Western, and it is not certain that it is universally valid. However, the Acholi proverb, Your first wife is your mother, seems to bridge the gap of uncertainty. And textual examination reveals, further, that Lawino is indeed Ocol’s mother and Europe his father. This disparity between self-presentation and reality suggests further doubt concerning the authenticity of Lawino as an oral villager. Indeed, some critics have claimed that p’Bitek made her exaggeratedly simple. But beyond such a complaint, an application of Walter Ong’s elements of orality to a critical evaluation of Lawino’s song shows that, despite heavy borrowing of techniques common in Acholi orature, Lawino sings in a style and with a consciousness which are necessarily literate. Furthermore, she fails to follow the basic rule for the Acholi woman: to obey and respect her husband. The Lawino presented in this song cannot be its singer. Ocol, however, does not refute Lawino on any of her points of inauthenticity. Furthermore, critics tend to agree that he, rather than Lawino, is insecure, unhappy, or psychologically afflicted. Freudian examination reveals that he is fixated in the oedipal stage of development, his true desire being for his mother Lawino. Yet, unable to accept this morally repulsive desire, he represses all conscious awareness of it. He then projects this desire onto a fictionalized image of Lawino, which accommodates the repression by making Lawino into his wife. Thus Song of Lawino is Ocol’s masked expression of his repressed desire. And similarly, Song of Ocol is his open reaction against that desire. Additionally, many of Ocol’s childish or violent actions and reactions which may otherwise be inexplicable can be seen as a Freudian regression. Ocol is a man ruled by the mechanisms to which he turned for psychological defense

A Pragmatic Study of Abdicating

This research analyzes, pragmatically, the concept of abdicating. Its aim is to reveal how this concept is utilised in literature. It is based on the hypothesis that: 1- The speech act of (assertive, declarative, directive and expressive) can be used to express the sense of abdicating. 2- Grice's cooperative principle is frequently observed in the epic. 3- Many devices such as metaphor, repetition are used in the epic. In order to achieve the aims of the research, the steps are followed: 1. Reviewing the literature about abdicating, the poet and the epic itself. Some pragmatic notions such as speech acts, the cooperative principle, and some devices such as metaphor, repetition are also reviewed, since they are relevant to the aims of the study. 2. Analyzing five texts according to a model developed for this study. This study is limited to analyze texts from the epic "Song of Lawino ". It is written by the Ugandan poet Okot p'Bitek 1966

Oedipal Identity and the Freudian Construction of Orality in Okot p\u27Bitek\u27s Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol

In Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol, Ocol and Lawino, presenting themselves as a university-educated man and his non-literate village wife, argue the various merits and failings of traditional, Acholi village life and modern, Westernized life. Accompanying this sociopolitical argument is the personal, emotional conflict between the two: Ocol is rejecting Lawino in favor of a Westernized second-wife, but Lawino refuses to leave him, trying instead to coerce him into returning, body and soul, to her bed. The scenario seems straightforward. But below this superficial reading is a more complex one in which Lawino is Ocol’s mother rather than his wife. In this reading, Lawino has no voice of her own, being Ocol’s projection of his own repressed oedipal fixation, against which he reacts intensely both in the fictionalized Lawino’s presentation of him and in his own song. The first clue to this oedipal reality was revealed by p’Bitek in some of his interviews. He claimed to have based Lawino on his mother but Ocol on himself. Yet Freudian theory is Western, and it is not certain that it is universally valid. However, the Acholi proverb, Your first wife is your mother, seems to bridge the gap of uncertainty. And textual examination reveals, further, that Lawino is indeed Ocol’s mother and Europe his father. This disparity between self-presentation and reality suggests further doubt concerning the authenticity of Lawino as an oral villager. Indeed, some critics have claimed that p’Bitek made her exaggeratedly simple. But beyond such a complaint, an application of Walter Ong’s elements of orality to a critical evaluation of Lawino’s song shows that, despite heavy borrowing of techniques common in Acholi orature, Lawino sings in a style and with a consciousness which are necessarily literate. Furthermore, she fails to follow the basic rule for the Acholi woman: to obey and respect her husband. The Lawino presented in this song cannot be its singer. Ocol, however, does not refute Lawino on any of her points of inauthenticity. Furthermore, critics tend to agree that he, rather than Lawino, is insecure, unhappy, or psychologically afflicted. Freudian examination reveals that he is fixated in the oedipal stage of development, his true desire being for his mother Lawino. Yet, unable to accept this morally repulsive desire, he represses all conscious awareness of it. He then projects this desire onto a fictionalized image of Lawino, which accommodates the repression by making Lawino into his wife. Thus Song of Lawino is Ocol’s masked expression of his repressed desire. And similarly, Song of Ocol is his open reaction against that desire. Additionally, many of Ocol’s childish or violent actions and reactions which may otherwise be inexplicable can be seen as a Freudian regression. Ocol is a man ruled by the mechanisms to which he turned for psychological defense

Estimation of growth and financial analysis through the application of Ipil ipil (Leucaena leucocephala) leaf meal as supplements to soybean and fish meal in the diet of juvenile monosex tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

Among plant protein ingredients,ipil ipil (Leucaena leucocephala) leafmeal (ILLM) is considered the most nutritive plant protein source after soybean meal in aquatic feeds. That was proven in a 21-day experiment conducted to assess the response of juvenile Monosex Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus with four iso-nitrogenous formulated diets: One control diet was formulated based on fishmeal, one on soybean meal and one on rice bran, ipil ipil leafmeal was also included in experimental diets