Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol

As Heron notes in his introduction, Clementine is mentioned very early in the poem but ultimately disappears from the text. What effect does this disappearance have, and why do you think p’Bitek chose to move the poems’ focus away from Clementine?

Compare Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol with another major work of early African postcolonial literature, such as Things Fall Apart, A Dance of the Forests, or When Rain Clouds Gather. What themes do the two works share? How might cultural and political differences between their countries of origin inform differences between the two works?

Throughout the text, how does p’Bitek negotiate and distinguish between Acholi struggles, Ugandan struggles, and, even more broadly, the struggles of colonized Africans across the continent? Consider the relationships between ethnicity, nationality, and race as they are presented in the poems.

In his introduction, Heron presents p’Bitek as personally speaking through Lawino (and occasionally through Ocol). What is the relationship between the author and the characters in these poems, and do you agree with Heron’s assessment?

How do Lawino and Ocol define masculinity differently from one another? How are these ideas of masculinity influenced by their respective racial and cultural ideals?

What role does memory play in Lawino’s formulation of her cultural identity and convictions?

How do political and religious tensions between Protestants and Catholics appear throughout the poems? What do you think is the poems’ broader message about this rivalry within the Christian community?

Analyze Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol in the context of the Négritude movement, which Ocol is explicitly critical of in his song. Useful texts related to the Négritude movement include The Souls of Black Folk, Prayer to the Masks, and Discourse on Colonialism.