A BAKHTINIAN READING OF OKOT p’ BITEK’S
SONG OF LAWINO AND SONG OF OCOL
BY
DUTKI STANLEY
SUPERVISOR: PROF. TIMOTHY WANGUSA
A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE
OF MASTERS OF ARTS IN LITERATURE OF
MAKERERE UNIVERSITY
DECLARATION
I, Dutki Stanley, do hereby declare that this dissertation is my original work and it has never
been submitted to this university or any other university for the award of a degree.
Signature: …………………
DUTKI STANLEY
Date: ……………………….
PROF. TIMOTHY WANGUSA
(SUPERVISOR)
Date: ………………………..
Endorsed: ……………………….
1
DEDICATION
To my parents, brothers, sisters, wife Bella and children Jed and Pearl who encouraged me not
to give up in the course of this study.
2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof. Timothy Wangusa for his guidance and supervision
without which this dissertation would not have been possible.
I also would like to express my gratitude to Dr.Susan Kiguli and Dr Sarah Namulondo for their
constructive advice in the course of this study.
Lastly, thank you to Mrs.Christine Dutki, who in my absence, liased with The School of
Postgraduate Studies and School of Languages, Literature and Communication, Makerere
University, Kampala regarding the progress of this study.
3
ABSTRACT
This study uses Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism to interpret Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino and
Song of Ocol. Even though Okot p’Bitek has enjoyed international readership as a poet, no study
known to this researcher has addressed itself to Okot’s poetry from the perspective of Bakhtin’s
very important theory on language which espouses the view that individual utterances and
literary works of art are dialogic in nature.The objectives of the study were to outline Mikhail
Bakhtin’s concepts on language relevant to this study and to assess the extent to which these
concepts apply to Okot p’Bitek’s ‘Songs’.The hypothesis of the study is that Okot p’Bitek’s
selected poems, Song of Lawino (1966) and Song of Ocol (1970) positively answer to Bakhtin’s
idea of literary work as implying past utterance and future response and confirm that Okot
p’Bitek is using experimental and innovative forms in his written poetry. The research findings
confirm this hypothesis.
The second chapter of this study investigates the notion of Heteroglossia in Song of Lawino and
Song of Ocol and reveals that the Acholi reader of these songs is able to elicit meanings of
Acholi words even when not translated into English. To a non-Acholi reader of the text,
however, meaning of words may not be easily perceived; nevertheless, the essential point of
what is said by Lawino and Ocol is grasped since the reader is able to make out the meaning and
context of the things they depict in their culture. It argues that Okot p’Bitek blends Acholi and
English words, Acholi ideas and concepts with new cultures that the colonial administration has
introduced and sets forth strong perceptions on the rural and urban situations particularly at the
time he was writing.
4
The third chapter of the study focuses on Bakhtin’s concept of Dialogism in Song of Lawino and
Song of Ocol and presents many vivid examples of how one may use utterances, either in
speaking to another person or to oneself, in a manner that is described by Bakhtin as he expounds
on the notions of internal dialogism and hidden dialogue. The study confirms that Lawino and
Ocol use someone else’s words to disagree, respond, defend or argue, depending on the situation
in which utterances have been made. The study also reveals Okot’s attempt to challenge what he
viewed as the ‘authoritative discourse’, particularly in Song of Lawino and parodying it in Song
of Ocol.
The study, in its fourth chapter, examines the notion of Double voicedness in Song of Lawino
and Song of Ocol and concludes that many of Lawino and Ocol’s utterances have deeper
meanings which can only be deciphered after taking a second reading or on a closer study of the
said utterances.
The study concludes that the barriers between the novel and poetry are not as rigid as Bakhtin
claims and confirms that contrary to his claim, the concepts of many worlds of language; all
equal in their ability to conceptualise and be expressive is not organically denied to poetic style.
5
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Declaration ....................................................................................................................................... i
Dedication ....................................................................................................................................... ii
Acknowledgement ......................................................................................................................... iii
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iv
Chapter: One Introduction: ......................................................................................................... 1
1.1
Background To The Study ................................................................................................ 1
1.2
Statement Of The Problem ............................................................................................... 3
1.3
Definition Of Terms.......................................................................................................... 3
1.4
Objectives ......................................................................................................................... 4
1.5
Hypothesis ........................................................................................................................ 5
1.6
Review Of Related Literature ........................................................................................... 5
1.7
Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................... 18
1.8
Justification Of The Study .............................................................................................. 19
1.9
Significance Of The Study .............................................................................................. 19
1.10 Research Methodology ................................................................................................... 19
1.11 Scope And Limitation Of The Study .............................................................................. 20
Chapter Two: Heteroglossia In Song Of Lawino And Song Of Ocol ...................................... 14
2.1
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 14
2.2
Heteroglossia And The Use Of Titles .......................................................................... 14
2.3
Heteroglossia And Culture ............................................................................................ 17
2.4
Heteroglossia And Music .............................................................................................. 20
2.5
Heteroglossia And Animal Imagery ............................................................................. 25
2.6
Heteroglossia And Plant Imagery ................................................................................. 28
2.7
Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 32
Chapter Three: Hidden Dialogue And Internal Dialogism In Song Of Lawino And Song Of
Ocol ............................................................................................................................................... 31
3.1
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 31
3.2
Internal Dialogism And Defence .................................................................................. 31
3.3
Hidden Dialogue And Behaviour.................................................................................. 37
3.5
Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 43
6
Chapter Four: Double Voicedness In Song Of Lawino And Song Of Ocol ............................ 44
4.1
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 44
4.2
Double Voicedness And Behaviour .............................................................................. 44
4.3
Double Voicedness And Physical Appearance ............................................................. 48
4.4
Double Voicedness And Changes In Nature/Culture ................................................... 51
4.5
Double Voicedness And Political Changes .................................................................. 54
4.6
Double Voicedness And Modern Household Items...................................................... 56
4.7
Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 57
Chapter Five: Summary ............................................................................................................. 58
5.1
Review Of The Study.................................................................................................... 58
5.2
Research Findings And Conclusions ............................................................................ 58
Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 72
7
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin is an acclaimed thinker, whose career was powerful but eccentric
in the literary world at the commencement of the 20th century. He was, as his biographer and
editor Michael Holquist has said, gradually emerging as one of the leading thinkers of the 20 th
century, a claim which will strike many as extravagant, since a number of factors have until
recently conspired to obscure his importance.
Michael Holquist posits as possible explanation unique complications to Mikhail Bakhtin that
clouded perception of the scope of his activity. His two most productive periods occurred during
the darkest years of Russian history, the decade following 1917, when Bakhtin was in exile in
Kazakhstan, and most of Russia was huddling through the long Stalinist night. It was in these
years that Bakhtin wrote something in the order of nine large books on topics as major and
varied as Freud, Marx and the philosophy of language. One of these, The Dostoevsky Book,
appeared under his own name during these years.The others were published under different
names, some were lost during the forced moves, and some disappeared when the Nazis burned
down the publishing house that had accepted his large manuscript. Some were ‘delayed’ fortyone years in their publications, when journals that had accepted manuscripts were shut down, as
happened to the Russian Contemporary in 1924.Others such as The Rabelais Book (1984) were
considered too aberrant for publication due to their emphasis on sex and body functions.Bakhtin
was constantly working with what is emerging as the central preoccupation of the time language. Bakhtin’s perception that language in use is essentially dialogic, every speech act
springing from previous utterances and being structured in expectation of a future response, has
implications that spread far beyond the field of literary studies.
8
. My interest in Bakhtin begun when we were introduced to his work during the coursework year
of my M.A studies. I was fascinated by his argument in Discourse in the Novel that literary prose
is multi-layered in nature with a network of collaborations, influences and contradictions
whereas poetry is predominantly monologic and a single voice that is highly personal. I thought
this claim in itself complicated Bakhtin’s theory of language because as Sonya Petkova points
out in her essay Mikhail Bakhtin: A Justification of Literature (2005), Bakhtin had studies of
poetry where she thinks his theory of dialogism could have had its beginnings. She further
asserts that Bakhtin found dialogic elements in the poetry he studied before he did so in
novelistic discourse-for instance as he was examining the different speech styles in Bloc’s
poetry. Petkova argues thatBakhtin created a typology of different stylistic types of speech: the
language of everyday speech (which he later calls skaz), the oral folkloric forms, and finally,
artificially composed speech which he later adopts in his Problems of Dostoyevsky’s Poetics to
classify prose discourse.
In addition Bakhtin’s theory of language at a cursory glance seemed to speak to the style of poets
I had read particulary Okot p’Bitek.Okot’s poetry seemed to be a convergence of many voices
and a combination of registers and I thought it would be interesting to investigate how Bakhtin’s
theory spoke to or illuminated Okot p’Bitek’s poetry.
The concept and notions postulated by Mikhail Bakhtin will be related to the literary work of
Okot p’Bitek, one of East Africa’s foremost men of Literature, who has been lauded for his
successful use of oral forms in his English Language poems Ngara (1990:65).
Okot p’Bitek, (1931-1982), is one of the best known African poets. After the long domination of
the African literary scene by West Africans, Okot p’Bitek stormed the ‘literary scene of East
9
Africa’ with Song of Lawino in 1966 which was a translation of the Acholi version Wer pa
Lawino. This was followed by Song of Ocol (1970) and Two Songs: Song of Prisoner, Song of
Malaya (1971). As George Heron (1976) points out,Okot p’Bitek compels his readers to make
comparisons between his poems and traditional songs. The title ‘Song of…’ that he has given to
all his poems suggests the comparison.When Okot was writing his poem, he worked together
with friends. He read new versions of each chapter to these people as soon as they were
completed, and their comments were taken into account if the chapter needed rewriting. Thus,
even their methods of composition are similar to that of traditional songs: A group of singers
work together and continuously alter the songs as they perform. Okot has also published a
collection of essays, Africa’s Cultural Revolution; a collection of Acholi songs published as The
Horn of My Love (1974) and tales in Hare and Hornbill (1978).
Bakhtin’s perception that language is dialogic with every speech springing from previous
utterances and being structured in expectation of a future response, has strong resonances with
the ‘Songs’ of Okot p’Bitek, where his caricatures seem to use language in the manner postulated
by Bakhtin. This study specifically focuses on Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino (1966) and Song
of Ocol (1970) which established that there was a readership for volumes of poetry in English by
a single author, and influenced the publication of such as Okello Oculi’s Orphan (1968), and
Joseph Buruga’s The Abandoned Hut (1969).
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
This study seeks to examine the relevance of Bakhtin’s very important theory of language, which
is that individual utterances and literary works of art are dialogic in nature: meaning that every
such utterance implies previous utterances, and an expectation of a future response, to Okot
p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol. Much as Okot p’Bitek has enjoyed international
10
readership as a poet, there is no study known to this researcher which has addressed itself to
Okot’s poetry from Bakthin’s perspective of the dialogic nature of art, but in reading Song of
Lawino and Song of Ocol there are pointers to the strongly dialogic nature of these poems.This
study seeks to establish that Okot p’Bitek has blended a number of voices, histories,and styles
that make his poetry an alternative form offering significant positions for African poetry.
1.3 DEFINITION OF TERMS
In this study, the following terms will be used to mean the definition adopted here below:
Double voiced:
This will be used in reference to both Bakhtin’s and Okot p’ Bitek’s
works to mean doing at least two things simultaneously.
Heteroglossia:
Will be used in this study to mean the internal stratification of
language into many different (social) varieties.
Dialogue:
This, in the study will mean the verbal process. It will be external
(Between two different people) or internal (between an earlier and
a later self).
Hidden dialogue:
,
Will be used to refer to a dialogue of two persons in which the
statements of the second speaker are omitted but in such a way that
the general sense is not violated. This is where an utterance cannot claim
its own authority but echoes the presence and interaction of an invisible
speaker whose omitted words determine and influence the outcome of
the visible.
11
Language:
In this study, this will be used to mean a system of human
expression by means of words.
Speech:
This will be used in reference to Bakhtin’s works to mean a
manner of speaking specific to a person, not the speeches of a
character.
Utterance:
In this study, this will be used in reference to Bakhtin’s extension
of what Saussure called the Parole aspects of language of
speech act/utterance, but where the utterance is specifically
social, historical, concrete and dialogized.
Voice:
This will mean the speaking personality, the speaking
consciousness. A voice always has a will or desire behind it, its
own timbre and overtones.
1.4
OBJECTIVES
The main objectives of the study are:
(a) To map out Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of dialogism and its attendant notions on language;
(b) To assess the relevance of this concept and notions to Okot p’Bitek’s “Songs.”
(c) To assess the extent to which a Baktinian reading enhances our reading of Song of Lawino
and Song of Ocol.
12
1.5
HYPOTHESIS
This research hypothesises that:
(a) Mikhail Bathtin’s concepts are not relevant to a reader/scholar of African Literature.
(b) Okot p’Bitek’s selected poems, Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol positively answer
to Bakhtin’s idea of a literary work as implying past utterance and future response.
1.6
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
“The Bakhtin Circle” was a contemporary school of Russian thought which centered on the work
of Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975)1. The work of its five members2 focused on the centrality of
questions of signification in social life in general and artistic creation in particular, examining the
way in which language registered the conflicts between social groups. The key views of the
circle are that linguistic production is essentially dialogic, formed in the process of social
interaction and that this leads to the interaction of different social values being registered in
terms of reaccentuation of the speech of others.
Bakhtin advances the concept of Dialogism, under which lies the notion of Heteroglossia that
refers to the internal stratification of language into many different (social) varieties: languages
belonging to professions, to genres, and languages peculiar to particular generations for example.
Simply put, it is the collection of all the forms of social speech, or rhetorical modes, that people
use in the course of their daily lives.
Heteroglossia may also refer to the multiplicity of meaning based on factors other than the word
– for example, tone, gestures and the nature of the audience. In presenting the concept of
Heteroglossia, Bakhtin emphasizes context over text. Michael Holoquist (1994:14) quotes him as
saying that at any given place, there will be a set of conditions (social, historical, physiological,
13
meteorological) that will ensure that a word uttered in that place and at that time will have a
meaning different from what it would have had under any other condition.
Bakhtin saw the artistic use of heteroglossia as the defining characteristic of the novel as a
genre, and emphasised the necessity for stylistics to focus on heteroglossia and develop the tools
to account for it (Bakhtin 1984). However, he also claimed that, in contrast to the novel, poetry is
mostly detached from the living heterogeneity of language, and has no space for any varieties
other than the single, homogeneous voice of the poet him/herself.
The language of the poetic genre is a unitary and singular Ptolemaic world
outside of which nothing else exists and nothing is needed. The concept of
many worlds of language, all equal in their ability to conceptualize and be
expressive, is organically denied to poetic style. (Bakhtin 1981: 286)
Thus, Bakhtin discovers in the novels the full liveliness of a linguistic (hence cultural) context.
Just as the traditional critics fail to admit certain categories of work into the garden, he is highly
judgemental. Bakhtin elevates those novels grounded in heteroglossia over less dialogic novels
as well as over poetry and even the epic, a situation this study of Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino
and Song of Ocol will challenge.
Bakhtin argues that the sense of boundedness, historicity, and social determination found in
dialogic notions of language is alien to poetic style. (Bakhtin 1981:674) This study will attempt
to prove otherwise, showing that the diversity of voices, which is heteroglossia, is not only a
fundamental characteristic of prose writers and of the novel as a genre, but of poetry as well.
Charles Okumu, in Breitenger (1999:152-3), argues that:
In Okot’s poetry, he [sic] uses the form of Acholi oral songs,
proverbs and similes and draws his symbols and images from the
14
traditional culture.The rhythm of the poems is derived from the
tonal languages of the Acholi, and even in translation, he has
retained some of the rhythmic patterning. He uses Acholi proverbs
not merely to embellish his poetry but as vehicles to convey his
contemporary themes.
In the same text, Okumu further argues that Okot combines the oral poetic form, the formulaic
genre, the traditional symbols and images with his creative imagination to produce poetry which
is uniquely African in style and form, yet contemporary in themes and ideas. Okot does not
merely use Acholi proverbs to authenticate his poetry. He paraphrases them to suit his poetic
action. This study will go a step further to establish that the symbols and images that Okumu
alludes to enhance meanings of utterances under the notion of Double voicedness.
Ngugi wa Thiongo in (1972:40) points out that it is Okot’s use of the Acholi oral song form with
its cumulative details, imagery and symbols which gives the poems their Africanness and central
place in East Africa creative writing. He further argues that the poetic achievement of Okot lies
in his creative combination of Acholi literary genres, cultural tradition and his imagination.It is
this plurality in Okot p’Bitek’s ‘songs’ that Ngugi says gives the songs their ‘Africanness’ that
will be further examined in the study of Bakhtin’s notion of heteroglossia which constitutes the
second chapter of this research.
Ngara, (1990:63) in critiquing Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol argues that:
Some of the traditional modes of
expression Okot employs in Song of Lawino
do not come off – at least from those
readers who do not understand Acholi.
In this connection, the fundamental proverb which says, “The pumpkin in the old homestead
must not be uprooted” occurs frequently and is clearly meant to play a key role in conveying
Lawino’s warning to Ocol beseeching him not to alienate himself from his culture. However, to
15
the reader of the text, to whom Acholi is a strange language, the proverb conveys little or no
meaning. This study will agree with Ngara’s stance in the above quotation that some traditional
modes employed by Okot remain opaque to the non-Acholi reader but will also show that in
evoking the concept of dialogism, the very idea of context and interaction with other voices
becomes significant and it is then easier to understand the importance of some of the aspects that
may first appear culturally alien to a reader.
Timothy Wangusa, in Eldred Jones (1973:46), states:
Song of Lawino (1966) runs into thirteen movements of what
we may call an extended dramatic monologue uttered in public.
The internal structure is that of a dialogue,or a debate between
two sets of values, Western and African symbolized in the
persons of Lawino, on the one hand, and Ocol her husband on
the other.
Timothy Wangusa introduces some tensions in his argument by calling Song of
Lawino a dramatic monologue whose internal structure is that of a dialogue. This
study, while examining Bakhtin’s important concept of Dialogism will unravel
this tension by expanding the idea of dialogue to include: intertextuality, hidden
dialogue, as well as internal dialogue.
In reference to the Acholi community, which Okot p’Bitek uses as a basis for his work Ken
Godwin (1982:154) observes,
It is a lusty, vigorous community where absence of noise is
characteristic of wizards. If she seems over emphatic and raucous
at times, she can also modulate her tone to blandishment and
appeal, though she never becomes servile.
16
Although Godwin’s impressions of the Acholi community may be contested, his impression is of
a multiplicity of voices in interaction that Lawino has to acknowledge even while taking centre
stage.
Charles Okumu in Breitenger, (1999:71) highlights the point by observing that the appeal of
Song of Lawino lies in its direct and forceful manner of address. Lawino initially appeals to her
husband, then to her clansmen, and then by implication, to every listener, including the reader.
This makes the poem and especially its rhetoric very compelling to read and identify with. At
another level, this study will while evaluating Lawino’s utterances examine the conditions under
which she makes them.
In a study of Okot’s poetry, George Heron (1976:35) argues that:
An important reason for success of these poems is the controversial
issues that they raise. In some circles in East Africa, the words
‘Lawino’ and ‘Ocol’ have become common nouns. You will hear
the ‘Ocol’s or the ‘Lawinos’ of Africa praised or condemned in
many arguments. The two characters have become prototypes of
two opposing approaches to the cultural future of Africa
This study will argue that the identification of the personae in these poems with ordinary people
outside the text shows that these personaes’s voices encompass a larger consciousness than the
author’s or the personas themselves.
Heron further argues:
Okot p’Bitek compels us to make comparisons between his poems
and traditional songs. The title ‘Song of …’ that he has given to all
his poems suggests the comparison.
Partly, because of the
familiarity of these features to all Africans, Song of Lawino has
become one of the most successful African literary works.
17
In studying the influences on Song of Lawino, Heron further states that the most important
influence Acholi Songs had on Song of Lawino is in the imagery Okot uses.
Okot has
completely avoided the stock of common images of Acholi literature. In the English version, this
gives his poem a feeling of freshness and a sense of Africanness. This study, under the notion of
Doublevoicedness in Chapter Four will seek to examine these images and what role they play in
conveying meanings of utterances made.
The study will also further explore the idea of intertextuality that Heron suggests in the
comments on Okot’s echoes of traditional songs that compel the reader to see a relationship
between what Okot is writing and what exists in Acholi traditional song.
The Literature Review shows that other scholars have to varying degrees acknowledged the
presence and involvement of other voices other than the principal persona and the author in Okot
p’Bitek’s poetry. The counter voices who for example, either refute or challenge the apparent or
affirm compel an in-depth analysis which can be achieved by using Bakhtin’s concept of
dialogism.
1.7
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
In the criticism of Okot p’Bitek’s poetry, the dominant critical theory applied will be Bakhtin’s
dialogic philosophy of language, in particular, his concept of dialogism. Bakhtin’s theory of
dialogism centres on seeing communication and meanings as invested in a plurality of voices
whose utterances are vested with past and future voices. Because Bakhtin posited a sociological
materialist method of study, the current work also invokes the sociological literary theory whose
main tenets are that the writer is a product of historical and social situations and that his whole
writing reflects this; and that the socio-historical environment determines his mode of writing.
18
1.8
JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
The reason for undertaking this study is that Mikhail Bakhtin has been hailed as one of the
leading thinkers of the twentieth century, especially concerning his views on the way in which
language registers the conflicts between social groups; and Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino
(1966) and Song of Ocol (1970) are texts whose meaning and rich texture will be greatly
enhanced by a Bakhtinian reading because they seem to be a convergence of many voices and a
combination of registers that a Bakhtinain reading will illuminate. This approach will highlight
Bakhtin’s concepts in Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol.
1.9
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
It is hoped that a study of Okot p’Bitek’s poetic works, Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol will
reveal that contrary to Mikhail Bakhtin’s view of poetry, the concepts of many worlds of
language, all equal in their ability to conceptualise and be expressive is not organically denied to
poetic style. The application of Bakhtinian theory to Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol will
strongly show with solid justification Okot p’Bitek’s powerfully innovative and experimental
style that put East African poetry in the limelight.
1.10
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The study is of a library-based, employing a qualitative approach in its assembling and
organization of data analysis and interpretation.
Mikhail Bakhtin’s important concepts on language: Dialogism and its attendant notions of
Heteroglosia, Hidden dialogue and internal dialogue and Double voicedness will be identified in
Okot p’Bitek’s two poems, Song of Lawino (1966) and Song of Ocol (1970).
19
Each notion will constitute a separate chapter. In terms of procedure, a chapter will be structured
as follows: there will be an introductory section of the concept to be studied in the respective
chapter; followed by enumeration and categorization of features of the said concept that can be
identified in the respective poems under study. Presentation of data will throughout be
immediately followed by analysis and interpretation.
The concluding part of each core chapter will take the form of a summary of the content of the
said chapter.
The concluding chapter will constitute a review of the study, followed by the research findings
and conclusion.
The examination of data will go from Song of Lawino to Song of Ocol, since Song of Ocol is
taken as a sequel of the former.
1.11
SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
This study seeks to map out the concepts on language as postulated by Mikhail Bakhtin and
apply them in the literary works of Okot p’Bitek. The study is limited to Okot p’Bitek’s Song of
Lawino (1966) and Song of Ocol (1970). Although there are four long poems of Okot p’Bitek,
the features being investigated are well represented in Okot’s first two long poems. Whereas
Song of Lawino would have served by itself, Song of Ocol is included being a sequel to the
former. Also, Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol are some of the most recognised inAfrican
poetry today. In addition, the concept of Mikhail Bakhtin on language – that is, Dialogism, and
its notions, Heteroglossia and Double voicedness – are examined and applied to Okot p’Bitek’s
two poems.
20
NOTES
1. Quoted in Micheal Holquist (Ed). Dialogic Imaginations. (Austin: University
of Texas Press, 191) ix
2. The Bakhtin circle was a study group with figures like Pavel N. Medvedev
(1981-1938), V.N.Voloshinov (1884-1936).Lev.V. Pumpianskii (1891-1940),
Matvei.I.Kagan (1889-1937), Ivan.I.Sollertinskii (1902-1944).
21
CHAPTER TWO: HETEROGLOSSIA IN SONG OF LAWINO AND SONG OF OCOL
2.1
INTRODUCTION
Mikhail Bakhtin, in dealing with language, propounds the notion of heteroglossia, which falls
under the concept of Dialogism. The term ‘heteroglossia’ refers to the internal stratification of
languages into many different (social) varieties.
Heteroglossia may also refer to the multiplicity of meanings based on factors other than the
word, for example, tone, gestures and the nature of the audience.
Heteroglossia emphasizes context, since the context ensures that a word uttered in a place and at
that time will have a meaning different from the one it would have had under any other
conditions. In this chapter, the study will systematically deal with the areas identified in Song of
Lawino and Song of Ocol as having features of Heteroglossia. These areas are: titles, behaviour,
music, animals and plants.
2.2
HETEROGLOSSIA AND THE USE OF TITLES
Altogether, about eight references to titles in Song of Lawino and about half that number in Song
of Ocol have been selected for this study.Right from the start of Song of Lawino, the protagonist
uses several titles as she appeals to several hierarchies now that by virtue of her husband’s
choice, she is regarded as inferior: by him or she is moved to assert her equality:
Son of the Chief
Now you compare me… (37)
She continues:
My friend, age-mate of my brother
22
Take care of your tongue
Be careful what your lips say (37).
In the above instances, we see that Lawino is not pleased with her husband’s actions and
responds in a friendly appeal that later translates into a warning, to use his words carefully. She
appeals to him as someone who occupies certain positions in the clan, community and their
home.
Furthermore, Lawino devotes herself to ridiculing her co-wife, Clementine. Lawino brings it to
her audience’s notice that Ocol is now in love with a modern woman. Lawino uses the language
of appeal,
Brother, when you see Clementine!
The beautiful one aspires
To look like a white woman (41)
In continuing to describe Clementine and to hurl insults at her, Lawino directly appeals to her
clansmen:
O! My clansmen
How aged modern woman
Pretend to be young girls (43)
In what seems to be a gentle response in comparison to the harsh words of Ocol, in the above
case, Lawino seeks through her utterance to stir a debate among the clansmen about the
behaviour of modern women through the use of speech. The modern women pretend to be young
girls, and Lawino tells us that they mould the tips of the cotton nests so that they are sharp, that
they sleep with their nests tied firmly on their chests, though actually they have empty bags on
their chest. Even though in the larger context Lawino confronts and challenges her haughty,
stubborn and uncompromising husband, her register shifts from time to time, from that of plea to
that of rage according to the issues she happens to be addressing at each point.
23
Lawino directly refers to Ocol as a friend when she says,
Ocol, my friend
Look at my skin
It is smooth and black
And my boy friend
Who plays the nanga
Sings praises to it. (73).
In addressing Ocol specifically, Lawino is able to not only appreciate her beauty, which is
appreciated by her boy friend, but also to show pride in not imitating the white woman. She also
points her own perception of her husband as an equal partner and friend.
From Song of Ocol, two examples will illustrate the feature of titles. After evading the subject of
his cultural enstrangement raised by Lawino, and refusing to broach it by being initially oblique
in referring to her as ‘woman’, Ocol becomes more specific. He seems to have come to terms,
temporarily, with the fact that the woman is his wife, Lawino.This message filters through when
he ‘comes home’. Ocol is back to his matrimonial home, even if it is to ask Lawino to leave. He
invokes his houseboy in the last stanza of the section:
Houseboy
Listen
Call the ayah
Help the woman
Pack her things,
Then sweep the house clean
And wash the floor,
I am off to town
To fetch the painter (205)
According to Bakhtin, the direct address by title which is used by Ocol shows first his mood
swings and his hypocrisy. He deliberately refers to his wife as woman because he wants to create
an emotional distance between them.
24
2.3
HETEROGLOSSIA AND CULTURE
Altogether, about five main instances are drawn from Song of Lawino and about the same
number are drawn from Song of Ocol in which there is a mixing of register, a feature of
heteroglossia. In the opening chapter of Song of Lawino, Lawino, the poet’s spokeswoman, uses
the language of appeal to her husband Ocol;
Listen my husband,
You are the son of a chief
The pumpkin in the old homestead
Must not be uprooted (41).
In this appeal, the prime question Lawino poses to her husband, regarding the uprooting of the
pumpkin, is an example of what Bakhtin meant in a diversity of voices. What we read on the
surface is Lawino’s recognition of Ocol as her husband and a son of a chief. By implication
though, it is not only Lawino that sees Ocol as occupying an important position, but there are
other voices such as those of the people the chief presides over. The tone here also points to the
importance of Ocol’s position in his community. The question of uprooting a pumpkin also
becomes significant to readers in a particular context, and in this case, those that understand the
Acholi culture, to whom the force of the proverb that forms the basis of Lawino’s argument
against cultural alienation is deeply left. In the land of the Acholi, the pumpkin grows all year
round and is therefore an important source of food and life. No sensible person would uproot a
pumpkin because it symbolizes the continuity of Acoli traditional life as represented by Lawino.
Lawino further appeals to her clansmen,
Listen to my voice:
The insults of my man
Are painful beyond bearing. (37)
25
In the above case, it is evident that Lawino uses the language of appeal to her clansmen who are
the most immediate people to whom she can get support or a form of intervention on her behalf.
Lawino portrays her husband as using a language of quarrel, hence a mixing of register when she
confronts him and quarrels with him saying:
Listen Ocol, you are the son of a
Chief,
Leave foolish behavior to little
children,
It is not right that you should
be laughed at in a song!
Songs about you should be songs
of praise! (34)
Also, the social condition ensures that the words uttered by Lawino, regarding the ojuu insects
have a different meaning from ones they would have had under other conditions. For a nonAfrican reader of Song of Lawino it may be difficult to comprehend the gravity of Ocol’s insult,
if the reader has never seen or known the ojuu insects, let alone seen a beer pot that Lawino
mentions in her complaint:
Ocol treats me
As if I am no longer a person,
He says I am silly
Like the ojuu insects that sit on
The beer pot. (38)
In Song of Lawino, although Lawino is not unfair to Europeans and does not try to impose her set
of beliefs on them, yet she is unreasonable in some of her criticism of Clementine. She uses a
language of rumour in her attack of Clementine:
Perhaps she has aborted many
Perhaps she has thrown her twins
In the pit latrine! (39)
26
For someone who is seeking justice and a fair hearing, the register of rumour is a direct mixing
of codes. So at one level Lawino uses the language of appeal and at another level she seems to be
spreading rumours about her co-wife and this mixing of registers produces irony and show’s Is a
direct mixing of registers. So, at one level Lawino uses the language Lawino’s bias against Tina
and Ocol.
Furthermore Lawino uses assumed socially unacceptable language in the description of the
different types of dung to ridicule the kind of life Ocol has chosen:
The entire floor
Is covered with human dung
All the tribes of human dung!
Dry dungs and dysentery
Old dungs and fresh dungs. (46)
Her choice of registers shows the discrepancies in the life Ocol has chosen to live. The thought
of people littering with human dung shows the irresponsibility of the company Ocol is
keeping.In addition the field of entertainment which is described would not normally be
associated with ‘all tribes of human dung’. The choice of words is also very telling; it is not even
human faeces but dung like that of animals. So, in her register, Lawino is reducing the so-called
elite to a less than human state.
Lawino is not pleased with the behavior of her husband, particularly as regards the hostile
reception that he gives to his visitors. There is a mixing of direct speech with reported speech
when she narrates,
And when the visitors have arrived
My husband’s face darkens
He never asks you in,
And for a greeting
He says
‘What can I do for you?’ (70)
27
In the above instance, Lawino shows how Ocol has become detached and alienated from his
people to the extent that he wants to have nothing to do with them.
2.4
HETEROGLOSSIA AND MUSIC
The following are the situations in Song of Lawino, where Heteroglossia features in relation to
music and dance.
Lawino arouses the sympathy of the reader in the second chapter of Song of Lawino when she
goes on a nostalgic reminiscence of the better times shared with her husband. Now Ocol has got
himself another girl.
Only recently I would play
On my bow harp
Singing praises to my beloved… (41)
The bow harp that was played in the better times of Ocol and Lawino’s lives is just an example
of the symbols and images derived from the traditional culture of the Acholi, which may not be
universally known.
In praising the cultural dances of her community, Lawino is acting as a mouthpiece of Okot
whose poetry is best understood through emphasis on folklore and cultures of the Acholi
community. Lawino defends her inability to dance the foreign dances using conversational
language that is not traditionally associated with written poetry when she says:
I cannot dance the rumba
My mother taught me
The beautiful dances of Acholi.
I do not know the dances of
White People.
I will not deceive you,
I cannot dance the samba!
You once saw me at the orak
dance
The dance for youths
The dance of our People (42)
28
Lawino further elaborates on the manner of dress and adornment appropriate for dance in her
culture. The young men adorn themselves with ‘lacucuku rattles’, as well as the oduye and
lacomi beads. A reader of Song of Lawino, who is not from Acholi, will not easily understand
the pride with which Lawino, in a conversational tone describes the female dancer. Lawino’s
subject of celebration is imbued with romantic qualities as she describes her cultural heritage:
When the daughter of the Bull
Enters the arena
She does not stand there… (56)
It is significant to note that the title Lawino uses with regard to the female dancer above is
unique to the Acholi traditional culture, and is in conformity with Okot’s poetic diction. Its
value however, may not be fully perceived by a non-Acholi reader. Okot brings a new register
and new images to the non-Acholi reader.
In describing the white man’s dances that Ocol her husband now engages in, Lawino makes the
claim that:
They come to the dance dead
Drunk
They drink white men’s drinks
As well as waragi.
They close their eyes,
And they do not sing as they
Dance,
They dance silently like wizards (51)
Lawino’s picturesque portrayal of the dances in Acholi though captivating may leave the readers
who do not know the Acholi dance setting a little puzzled. They may not understand why
drinking and dancing silently without song is so abhorrent to Lawino. Okot even by his choice of
29
ideas and words elaborates on the theme of cultural clash. Two different worlds with different
practices are coming together and the meeting is tense and causing confusion.
Through the use of powerful imagery, Lawino makes an apt description of the dancing hall:
It is hot inside the house
It is hot like inside a cave
Like inside a hyena’s den!
And the women move like fish
That have been poisoned,
They stagger
They fall face upwards
Like fish that are dead drank
With lugoro or ober;
Like small fish out of water (54).
Okot in the above quotation has used similes, to describe the sordid night-club atmosphere which
he is contrasting with the beauty of the Acholi Orak dance. In the above case, the similes have
added meaning due to their social context, outside of which they would not have done. The nonAcholi reader may not easily understand the similes used, more so the ‘lugoro’ or ‘ober’, but
according to Bakhtin’s definition of heteroglossia, multiplicity of meaning based on factors other
than the word, may be perceived. The similies are very telling because Lawino deliberately
compares the women to fish so you get a mixture of animal and human images mixed together
with the intention of showing how crazy the women are. Lawino wants to portray the abnormal
situations that the urban elite are creating and the mixture of registers does this`effectively.
In the next instance, Lawino attacks Ocol for this failure to participate in the dances of his
people.
…You can not beat rhythm on the
Half gourd
Or shake the rattle-gourd
To the rhythm of the orak
Dance!
And there is not a single bwola
30
Song
That you can dance,
You do not play the drum
Or do the mock-fight
At the funeral dances…. (61)
Whereas Ocol turns to the foreign dance due to ignorance of his own, he nevertheless knows the
associations of the rhythm and meaning of the dances. In the same way, the non-Acholi reader of
Song of Lawino will not even know the significance of the Orak and Bwola dance beyond the
vague idea that they are forms of dance.
Also, Lawino makes an allusion to her boyfriend who plays the nanga, and sings praises to her
concerning her skin, in the words,
Ocol, my friend
Look at my skin
It is smooth and black
And my boyfriend
Who plays the nanga
Sings praises to it (73).
The nanga is a stringed musical instrument, played especially by one singing praises. The
musical instrument may not be understood by a foreign feader of the text Song of Lawino, but in
the context of the Acholi culture, it is given meaning to the non-Acholi. Whereas Lawino talks
about her boyfriend with ease, the sense of a woman addressing her husband at at the same time
referring to her boyfriend may not make full sense unless one is familiar with what Lawino’s
context takes to be acceptable or unacceptable.
Furthermore, Lawino describes the grinding stone in a manner that is elusive to the foreign
reader. Since that reader will not understand the jok dance, it will be difficult to comprehend the
nature of the simsim grinding stone described thus:
31
On this stone
They also grind
Dried beans and peas
The sister stone,
The smaller one,
Clean and beautiful oiled
Like a girl
Ready for the jok dance (81)
Certain words such as ‘jok’ as are used above may not be universally comprehended by the
literary reader, yet in the context in which they are made; one gets a notion of some form of
dance being referred to.
Lawino continues to love Ocol as is evident in her desperate attempt to rekindle whatever flame
of love may yet be glowing in his heart. Realising that her tears are futile she nevertheless
performs the traditional nanga dance, her final act before bowing out of the love contest between
her and Tina. She uses the language of appeal saying:
Let me dance before
My love
Let me show you
The wealth in your house
Ocol my husband
Son of the bull
Let no one uproot the pumpkin. (198)
Not only are the words not translated from the Acholi language, difficult to understand by a
reader that is a non-Acholi, but also some of the English words that Lawino uses are not easily
understood unless one understands the idea implied by the words. Lawino uses mixed images as
she mocks the Catholic priest and describes the dance that the teacher in the evening class
engages in as a ‘get-stuck’:
32
The teacher, still drunk
He too is coming
To hunt for girls
At the ‘get-stuck’ dance. (121).
The idea of a Catholic priest going to hunt for girls is strange, and reflects hypocrisy in his
behavior that Lawino mocks. The priest ideally should have an elevated moral standing, serving
as a good example for his students to emulate. The use of images like ‘hunt’ show that the
teacher is not supposed to be at the dance. He however is presented as a hunter coming to
stealthily pounce on his unsuspecting victims.
2.5
HETEROGLOSSIA AND ANIMAL IMAGERY
Altogether, about nine references to animals are drawn from Song of Lawino, and none in Song
of Ocol, notably because it is Song of Lawino that is rich in animal imagery.
It may be difficult for a non-African reader to fully grasp the appearance of Ocol, from Lawino’s
point of view, if the reader has never seen the animals of which she talks. Lawino uses the
language of cajole to describe her husband, and thus elicit sympathy from her listener saying:
His eyes grow large
Deep black eyes
Ocol’s eyes resemble those of
The Nile perch!
He becomes fierce
Like a lioness with cubs,
He begins to behave like a
Mad hyena (39).
It is interesting to note that Lawino follows with a rebuttal.
He says I am blocking his progress,
My head, he says,
Is as big as that of an elephant… (39).
33
The case of Lawino’s clinical and somewhat repugnant description of her co-wife Tina is
achieved through the use of similes that further exemplify Bakhtin’s theory of Heteroglossia. Her
intention is clear: she wants to discredit Tina and prevent her from competing for Ocol’s love. It
would be difficult for a non-African reader to grasp the exact portrayal of Clementine, as
described by Lawino, having not seen the images used to describe her:
Her lips are red-hot
Like glowing charcoal
She resembles the wild cat
That has dipped its mouth in
Blood… (41)
Further reference to Clementine is that,
She resembles the wizard;
She looks like the guinea fowl (41).
Lawino also likens Clementine’s physical appearance to that of a hyena:
Her body resembles
The ugly coat of the hyena;
Her neck and arms
Have real human skins!
She looks as if she has been
Struck
By lightning; (43)
By using imagery drawn from the Acholi community, Okot is able to give his poetry its
Africanness. However, for a non-Acholi/or non African reader of Okot’s literary works, the
description of Clementine may not be outstandingly clear but they are definitely vivid.
The projection of a typically oral voice in a written poem points to a feature of heteroglossia in
Song of Lawino. In this instance Lawino conversationally boasts about the beauty of her voice
comparing it to the Ogilo bird:
34
Nobody’s voice was sweeter
Than mine!
And in the arena
I sang the solos
Like the ogilo bird
At sunset. (60).
The above stanza is like reminiscence about her prowess to a closed audience.
Lawino, attacks Ocol, in connection with native adornments, which she describes in terms of
variety in the animal kingdom. She says,
Listen
Ostrich plumes differ
From chicken feathers
A monkey’s tail
Is different from that of the
Giraffe,
The crocodile’s skin
Is not like the guinea fowl’s
And the hippo is naked, and
Hairless (64).
Furthermore, Ocol’s behaviour is described in a simile by Lawino is not pleasant at all:
When I walk past my husband
He hisses like wounded ororo snake
Chocking with vengeance (69).
Though Okot draws his symbols and images from the traditional culture yet, the behaviour of the
ororo snake is not understood universally; rather it is limited to only a certain geographical
context.
Lawino sets to mock the Catholic religion in another instance. She does not understand
Catholics, their Bible, and its teachings. She ridicules the Catholics priests with whom she could
not get on together and describes one particular incident where there was a verbal exchange
between a particular priest and Lawino’s group of baptismal candidates:
35
He shouted words at us
And we shouted back at him,
Agitated and angry
Like the okwik birds
Chasing away the kite
From their nest.
We repeated the meaningless
Phrases
Like the yellow birds
In the lajanawara grass (114)
The non-Acholi reader of Song of Lawino will not understand the behaviour of the Okwik nor
will he know how the yellow birds behave. Lawino is able, to give meanings to her words since
they are said in the context of the Acholi culture of which she is part.
2.6
HETEROGLOSSIA AND PLANT IMAGERY
About seven references to plants are drawn from Song of Lawino, and one from Song of Ocol for
this study. In a passage where Lawino recalls the time when Ocol was wooing her, Okot leaves
two words untranslated: ‘lyonno’ and Nya-Dyang’. These give the passage a feeling of
strangeness but without necessarily making it difficult to understand. These words are used by
Lawino as she reminices about her past:
When Ocol was wooing me
My breasts were erect
And they shook
As I walked briskly,
And as I walked
I threw my long neck
This way and that way
Like the flower of the lyonno lily
Waving in a gentle breeze.
And my brothers called me
Nya-Dyang… (58)
For the Acholi reader of Song of Lawino, it is probably easier to understand the weight of the
simile from the plant world that Okot uses than for a foreign reader of the same text. Okot’s use
36
of language becomes even richer when you apply Bakhtin’s notion of Heteroglossia which states
that a word can gain significance in context. Bakhtin’s emphasis of context over text means that
even though Okot does not translate the words, he is yet justified, since he is writing from within
and for a particular community. And whereas ‘Nya Dyang’ has no specific meaning, the foreign
reader can infer from the various items in the text that the name has to do with something
positive, beautiful or praiseworthy. This is regardless of the fact that the reader has no hint as to
whether ‘Nya Dyang’ belongs to the plant or animal world or indeed to the inanimate world; but
the attributes of the image gain in being mentioned in close proximity with the beautiful lily form
the plant world.
Lawino further expresses a sense of beauty of nature in her region, by continuing to draw images
from the plant world. She personifies these images when she says,
The obiya grasses are flowering
And the pollok blossoms
And the wild white lilies
Are shouting silently
To the bees and butterflies!
In the next lines, she continues
And when you go
To the well
Or into the freshly burnt
Woodlands
To collect the red oceyu
Or to cut oduggu shrubs,
You find them
Lurking in the shades
Like the leopardess with cubs (68)
Lawino does not only ascribe beauty to the plant world; she also imbues it with animate qualities
of motion and tender relationship such as exists between the leopardess and her cubs.
37
The shrubs and grasses that Lawino mentions are ‘pollok’, ‘oceya’ and ‘oduggu’ respectively.
Okot intentionally does not translate the names of the grasses and shrubs, into English; rather
they remain in the form in which they are, which poses a problem for the foreign reader (a non
Acholi) who may not be able to understand the beauty of these plants as portrayed by Lawino.
Heteroglossia however gives an allowance for the words to gain significance. There is, for
instance, the suggestion of richness in the various categories of vegetation from grasses (obiya)
to shrubs (odduggu) to the blossoming or flowering pollok, possibly a tree, and there is the
brightness by the red colour of the oceya.
In another instance, Lawino describes the trees used for firewood in Acholi. She gives them
Acholi names. It would be difficult for a non-Acholi reader of the text to differentiate the trees
that are good for firewood, from those that are not, if one does not know the language of the
Acholi. Lawino says:
Oywelo and lucoro and kituba
Are no use as firewood…
Labwori is alright
It is perfectly dry… (82)
Opok is easy
To split with the axe:
Yaa burns gently
It burns like oil
Poi is no use for firewood (83)
Again, Okot does not translate the names of the trees, but rather he leaves them in Acholi.
Nevertheless, the non-Acholi will, short of knowing what the various mentioned trees look like,
he will gain some understanding in terms of the functions of the trees. He will grasp the
essential point which is that the trees that can potentially be used as firewood are given in four
categories by Lawino. Those which are no good: (Oywelo, lucoro, kituba), that which is good
38
(Yaa); that which is easy to split (Opok) and that which is good only when perfectly dry
(Labwori).
In addition to Lawino’s view of nature as a context on its own right for lovers, an account of its
beauty, of nature as worth of celebration as nature, and of nature as useful in supplying firewood
for human kind, she also identifies one aspect in which nature is useful to humankind, that of
supplying medicine. In her description of medicines commonly used, a reader familiar with the
Acholi culture will easily understand what Lawino is describing. On the other hand, a nonAcholi reader will find difficulty in understanding Lawino’s argument. However, he does not
take nothing out of Lawino’s description. Some of the medicines and cures are,
The roots of bomo
For stomach aches
The roots of omwombye
Is chewed for bad throats
The shoots of lapena and olim
Are chewed when they have
Removed the blockage in the throat
Fresh wounds are treated
With ogali or pobo (151)
All the above examples of useful traditional herbs are not easily understood by the non-Acholi
reader of Song of Lawino. The essential point in what Lawino says is that the trees have
medicinal value. The non-Acholi will not know how these trees will look like, regardless of the
names and what they look like. His understanding will be that they are useful for curatives
purposes.
In Song of Ocol, there is a projection of a typically oral voice in a written poem, which is one of
the manifestations of heteroglossia in Ocol’s ‘song’ which seems to lack reason and logic. He
says that his group
39
will plough up
All the valley
Make compost of the pumpkins
And the other native vegetables. (124)
Ocol does not say what he will plant in the valley. If he wants to destroy the pumpkins and other
native vegetables, he betrays a sense of irrationality in believing that vegetables are bad because
they are native.
2.7
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it can be observed that the Acholi reader of Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol is
able to elicit meanings of Acholi words even when not translated into English. To a non-Acholi
reader of the text, however, meaning of words may not be easily perceived; nevertheless, the
essential point of what is said by Lawino and Ocol is grasped since the reader is able to make out
the meaning and context of the things they depict in their culture as has been discussed above.
These categorizations include the aesthetic function of nature as context for lovers; the
celebration of nature for nature’s own sake, and the celebration of nature for man’s sake where
Lawino presents a utilitarian view of aspects of nature such as wood for cooking, plants for herbs
and roots for medicine.
Okot p’Bitek blends Acholi and English words, Acholi ideas and concepts with new cultures that
the colonial administration has introduced and the rural and urban perceptions in his poetry and
the result is fascinating and rich.
40
CHAPTER THREE
HIDDEN DIALOGUE AND INTERNAL DIALOGISM IN SONG OF LAWINO AND
SONG OF OCOL
3.1
INTRODUCTION
Bakhtin’s notion of hidden dialogue is where a speaker’s utterances can be read as direct moves
and responses to other participants as he explains:
Imagine a dialogue of two persons in which the statements of the second speaker are omitted,
but in such a way that the general sense is not at all violated. (Bakhtin 1984: 197)
Internal dialogism includes includes two related phenomena: (i) the way in which any
text/utterance about a particular subject-matter relates to other texts/utterances about the same
subject-matter; and (ii) the way in which any text/utterance anticipates and responds to potential
objections from others.
In this chapter, the study will systematically deal with the areas identified in Song of Lawino and
Song of Ocol, showing notions: hidden and internal dialogue respectively. These areas are:
defence, behaviour and dances.
3.2
INTERNAL DIALOGISM AND DEFENCE
Lawino has to defend herself against the accusations labelled against her by Ocol and goes on a
self-justifying crusade. She extols her virtues and those of Acoli womanhood in which the
husband is the centre internal of attention and the pivot of the homestead. Lawino puts up selfdefence in a form of internal dialogism when she states,
41
I am not unfair to my husband
I do not complain
Because he wants another woman
Whether she is young or aged!
Who has ever prevented men
From wanting women? (45).
In raising a self defence, it is assumed that Lawino is making a response to an earlier utterance;
made by Ocol when accusing his wife of blocking his bid to get another woman. This selfdefence could also be as a result of the common talk in Lawino’s community.Lawino uses
language in a form that Bakhtin would have described as internal dialogism as she anticipates
and seeks a response to her question.
Furthermore, in defending herself about her relationship with her co-wife Clementine, Lawino
seems to imply that the competition between Clementine and herself is not balanced, since Ocol
and Clementine do not seem to have given her a chance.
She says,
I am not angry
With the woman with whom
I share my husband
I do not fear to compete with her (47)
It is most likely that Lawino seeks to defend herself and clear the air about how she feels towards
her co-wife. This may stem from an earlier utterance to the effect that she is angry because she is
a co-wife.
In another instance of internal dialogism,Lawino makes a response to an earlier utterance when
she defends herself against the accusations made by her husband that she is ignorant of the
dances of foreigners. Lawino’s utterance anticipates and responds to potential objections from
others with different views when she says:
42
It is true
I am ignorant of the dances of
Foreigners
And how they dress
I do not know.
Their games
I can not play,
I only know the dances of our
People (48).
Bakhtin points out that we are often dealing with someone else’s words other than our own
utterance for example in making a response, as has been the case of Lawino in countering earlier
accusations regarding her ignorance in the example above, though she is ignorant of the dances
of foreigners, she takes comfort in the fact that she knows the dances of her people which are
vigorous, healthy and innocent.
Lawino continues to involve herself in a dialogue when she goes ahead to defend her not
knowing much about other dances, while having pride in the dances her mother taught her. She
seems to be telling those who have expectations of her knowing the foreign dances that this is
not the case. The dances that she knows and takes pride in are those of her people. She says ‘’I
will not deceive you’’ as if to reply to someone who maybe challenging the truth of her words.
Even though we hear only Lawino’s words, her utterances are strongly suggestive of some other
speakers that evoke her responses.
….. I do not know the dances of
White People
I will not deceive you,
I cannot dance the samba!
You once saw me at the orak
Dance
The dance for youths
The dance of our People (48)
43
Lawino, in a dialogue, seems to condemn anything alien and that does not help her image as a
defender of authentic ways in any region of the world. Her attitude toward Western dance
illustrates this narrow-mindedness:
It is true, Ocol
I cannot dance the ball-room
Dance
Being held so tightly
I feel ashamed,
Being held so tightly in public
I cannot do it,
It looks shameful to me! (51)
Likewise, Lawino makes utterances that are a response to a probable accusation from her
husband Ocol. Ocol has accused her of not knowing the names of the months. She therefore has
to make utterances that are defensive.
I do not know
The names of the moons
Because the Acholi
Do not name their moons (102).
A classic example of how one’s speech mode might be a direct response to a previous utterance
is in case of Lawino’s words:
My husband says
My head is dumb and empty
Because, he says,
I cannot tell
When our children were born (104).
She straight away launches into a self-defence technique, by explaining when her children were
born.
I know that Okang
My first born
Was born at the beginning
Of the Dry Season
And my little girl
44
In the middle of the rains
Okang was born
In the middle of the famine
Called Abongo-wang-dako ….. (105).
In the above case, Lawino is speaking to somebody else about the accusation of her husband.
Lawino probably speaks at a particular time, following the accusations made by Ocol.
Also, it is in a mood of awe and wonder that she describes the events surrounding lighting and
thunder. She describes it, not from firsthand experience, rather from what she has heard other
people say about it. That Lawino is engaged in a form of internal dialogue is evident in her
words:
They say
It is listening lightning
They say
The whiteman has trapped
And caught the rain-cock (76).
She continues,
They say
When the Rain-Cock
Opens its wings
The blinding light… (76)
The use of the pronoun ‘they’ makes us more aware of the fact that Lawino is reporting what
some people have already said. They are in response to an earlier utterance. Lawino even asks
rhetoric questions which is evidence that at the particular time when she speaks, she, holds a
specific dialogue with someone else, where she expresses her fears regarding the use of the
electric stove: she uses the pronoun ‘you’ which is an indicator that she is involved in a dialogue
with a particular person.
45
I am terribly afraid
Of the electric stove
And I do not like using it
Because you stand up
When you cook
Whoever cooked standing up? (78)
She continues in detailed description to narrative what goes on in her mother’s house at meal
times. She describes a typical scene when the family sits on the earth floor to share millet bread.
Later on, as though addressing herself, Lawino engages in asking some rhetoric questions
regarding her inability to cook European dishes, for which does not want to take any blame:
‘… I do not enjoy
Whitemen’s foods
And how they eat.
And how they eat
How could I know?
And why should I know it? (56)
In Song of Ocol, Ocol uses a feature of internal dialogism when he seems to speak to his mother,
exposing his hatred for blackness:
Mother, mother
Why,
Why was I born
Black? (126)
Ocol entirely rejects the African past that once nurtured him. In a case of hidden dialogue, he
wildly orders his people to
Smash all these mirrors
That I may not see
The blackness of the past
From which I came
Reflected in them (129)
The mirror image is significant as it exposes Ocol’s fear of reality. The mirror naturally reflects
what is before it, and Ocol’s refusal to see his past shows him as being psychologically
unbalanced.
46
3.3
HIDDEN DIALOGUE AND BEHAVIOUR
In this section instances of behaviour which are made targets of Lawino’s attacks, and to which
Ocol reacts are examined. There are over ten instances of this kind of behaviour in Song of
Lawino and only one in Song of Ocol. This imbalance in the number of the specified behaviour
in the two poems is a consequence of the fact that whereas Lawino produces a string of
accusations against Ocol, he on his part does not answer back point by point but rather, brushes
away her arguments in one generalized response.
Of she slightly more that ten instances, of the specified behaviour, each one is about a different
aspect of behaviour. These are kissing, smoking, hair adornments, shouting, dancing, cooking
and lighting. The instances mentioned in Song of Ocol, on the other hand are in connection to his
dismissal of Lawino.
Lawino in throwing accusations against Ocol describes his actions when he is with Clementine.
She addresses him in the first person, and uses strong imagery to show her strong disgust for the
habits Ocol has decided to ape from the white men:
You kiss her on the cheek
As white people do
You kiss her open sore lips
As white people do
You suck slimy saliva
From each other’s mouths
As white people do (52)
Lawino’s accusation is that Ocol is an imitator, that he apes the ways of the whiteman .by kissing
Clementine on her cheek the way white people do.This example of which there are many more
of a similar nature can be read as a direct response and confrontation with Ocol. It is an
emotionally charged exchange even though only Lawino is speaking.
47
Furthermore, she specifically addresses Ocol on the issue of aping the Whiteman when she says,
You smoke cigars
Like whitemen,
Women smoke cigarettes,
Like white women,
And sip some poisons from the glasses (54).
Again, Lawino has not minced her words and has used similes to show that her people are copycats; something that she is not happy about, when she talks to Ocol.
It is with nostalgia that Lawino remembers the days when Ocol was courting her. She reminds
him of the things that he used to like, and wonders what has now become of him. She openly
reminds him:
‘You loved my giraffe-tail bangles, ‘
‘You admired my sisters… ‘, ‘you trembled…’ (59)
In the above case, Lawino is talking to Ocol in a particular dialogue; regarding what he used to
do and has seemingly lost interest in doing. Lawino continues to accuse her husband and in this
instance it is as if she is before a clan’s meeting and telling them what is happening to her
marriage:
My husband refuses
To listen to me
He refuses to give me a chance
My husband has blocked up my path
Completely
He has put up a road block
But has not told me why
He just shouts
Like house-flies
Settling on top of excrement
When disturbed! (61)
In the above example, Lawino seems to be talking to somebody else in a specific dialogue,
regarding her husband’s behaviour. In what one would term hidden dialogue, there is implication
48
of someone suggesting to Lawino that she should talk to her husband. She uses strong similes to
express how intolerant of her he has become, yet he gives no reason to support his actions.
The rhetorical questions that Lawino asks her husband show that she is involved in a form of
dialogue with her husband. She is still not convinced that Ocol could have wholeheartedly
embraced a foreign culture, and this forces her to question his following the ways of a white man
as though the African didn’t have an established culture. She says,
Like beggars
You take up white men’s adornments
Like slaves or war captives
You take up whitemen’s ways
Didn’t the Acholi adornments didn’t black people have
Their ways? (60)
She continues her attack:
Didn’t your people have amusements?
Like half wits
You turn to whitemen’s dance… (60)
Lawino in the above instances talks as if Ocol was directly before her and she is taking the
opportunity to show disapproval of Ocol’s turning to foreign ways, thus disregarding his own.
Similarly, Lawino seems to be involved in a dialogue, in response to the accusations of her
husband Ocol. Ocol has made several comments about her dress styles, especially her hair. She
describes to her listeners the views of Ocol, in a manner indicative of a dialogue;
My husband tells me
I have no ideas
Of modern beauty
He says
I have stuck
To old fashioned hair styles. (65)
Lawino seems to be talking to a third person, when in narration of the woes, brought to her by
Ocol, she says:
49
He insists
I must eat raw eggs
Smelly, slimy yellow stuff
He says
It is good for me!
There is something in eggs
Which is good for the bones (86).
From Lawino’s narration the reader is probably able to sympathise with her, regarding how
unfairly she is treated.
Lawino softly portrays a traditional village setting to her implied listener. This makes one
confirm that a form of dialogue described by Bakhtin is taking place when two actual people talk
to each other on a common subject: cattle
You hear the flutes,
Of the herdsmen
Bringing the cattle home. (93)
… A man listens
To the roar of his own bull
And shouts praises to it (93)
She continues to narrate her troubles to someone else when she states the opinion her husband
has of her, and thus eliciting our sympathy:
My husband says
I am useless
Because I waste time (94)
While Lawino laments the death of Ocol as her husband and an alienated modern man, he, in
Song of Ocol adopts an arrogant and dismissive attitude towards her and the culture she
represents. His impatience is evident from what he says in the hidden dialogue:
Woman
Shut up!
Pack your things
Go! (199)
50
In a manner that one would regard as callous, Ocol completely brushes away his wife, together
with her arguments. He has no apologies whatsoever regarding sticking to his culture, and that is
why he dismisses his wife’s arguments in the words,
To hell
With your pumpkins
And your old homesteads,
To hell
With the husks
Of old traditions
And meaningless customs (209)
In the above instance, Ocol deals with Lawino’s words, as he brushes her arguments aside.
Ocol strays from his criticism of Africa and her past unexpectedly to celebrate the African
environment he wants destroyed. There is a nostalgic passion as he recollects in the manner of
hidden dialogue.
That shady evergreen byeyo tree
Under which I first met you
And told you
I wanted you
Do you remember
The song of the ogilo bird
And the chorus
Of the grey monkeys
In the trees nearby? (77)
The above are, perhaps, the most tender lines in Song of Ocol that seem to suggest that
subconsciously, Ocol is fighting against himself and what he likes. The direct interfacing of the I
with the you makes it most wistful for example in ’’I wanted you’’.
51
3.4 HIDDEN DIALOGUE AND DANCE
In this section only five instances of dance are examined in Song of Lawino.
Lawino seems to involve herself in a dialogue when she goes ahead to defend her not knowing
much about the other dances, while having pride in the dances that her mother taught her.
She says:
I do not know the dances of white people
I will not deceive you
I cannot dance the samba!
You once saw me at the Orak dance … (45).
She continues in her presumed dialogue:
You dance with vigour and health
You dance naughtily with pride
You dance with spirit
You complete, you insult, you provoke
You challenge all!
And the eyes of the young men become red (49).
Further use of the third person pronoun by Lawino when she speaks, is indicative of a form of
dialogue where in a particular place and at a particular time, she speaks to someone. In these
instances she says ‘you dance with confidence’ ‘you do not come to the arena drunk’ (49).
In a related instance, Lawino describes the dancer, and poses some rhetorical questions as well.
She thus seems to be addressing herself and not another person when she says:
… Her breasts are ripe
Like the full moon
When the agemate of her brother sees them,
When, by accident
The eyes of her lover
Fall on her breasts
52
Do you think the young man sleeps?
Do you know what fire eats his inside? (51)
In Song of Ocol, Ocol does not insult Lawino alone, but also insults her aunt, from whom he
guesses Lawino inherited her stupidity. Abusing one’s aunt-in-law is unethical in the way of life
which Lawino tries to affirm. Going beyond his wife’s relatives, Ocol, using hidden dialogue
asserts:
Black People are primitive
And their ways are utterly harmful
Their dances are mortal sins
They are ignorant, poor and diseased. (17)
3.5
CONCLUSION
In conclusion therefore, Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol presents to this researcher many vivid
examples of how one may use utterances, either in speaking to another person or to oneself, in a
manner that is described by Bakhtin as he expounds on the notions of internal dialogism and
hidden dialogue. Lawino in many instances has spoken directly to her husband, clansmen, and in
other instances to an implied listener. In some instances also, she has addressed herself on issues
regarding her relationship to Ocol. Ocol too, is engaged in several dialogues, either as he hurls
insults at his wife or as he answers back to her accusations. In all these instances, someone
else’s words have been used to disagree, respond, defend or argue, depending on the situation in
which utterances have been made.
53
CHAPTER FOUR
DOUBLE VOICEDNESS IN SONG OF LAWINO AND SONG OF OCOL
4.1
INTRODUCTION
Double voicedness is a notion that falls under the concept of Dialogism and refers to doing two
things, at least simultaneously. An uttered word may have more meaning attached to it than what
is actually stating.
This study had drawn instances from Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol, where double voicedness
features.
It is worth noting that over twenty instances dealing in behaviour and physical
differences are recorded in Song of Lawino; while those recorded in Song of Ocol mainly deal
with the changes on the political scene
The instances identified by this researcher, fall under the following categories: behaviour,
physical appearance, changes on the political scene, changes in nature/culture and household
equipment. There are about five main instances of the double voicedness in Song of Lawino and
only one in Song of Ocol. This is because Lawino’s utterances are mostly social in nature while
Ocol’s utterances are mostly political.
4.2
DOUBLE VOICEDNESS AND BEHAVIOUR
Lawino’s prime argument with her husband is that he has forsaken his culture, and he has started
to ape the whiteman. She asks her husband if anyone has ever uprooted the pumpkin.
54
Stop despising people
As if you were a little foolish man
Stop treating me like salt–less ash
Become barren of insults and stupidity
Who has ever uprooted the pumpkin? (37)
The question of who has ever uprooted the pumpkin, in this case is not taken at face value.
Rather, Lawino challenges her husband not to abandon the cultural norms of which he is part. If
a surface reading of the text is taken, one might assume that Lawino is referring to the physical
uprooting of a pumpkin. The pumpkin plant is very important in Acholi culture and even in times
when people would abandon their homesteads as Lawino implies earlier in the poem, they would
never uproot the pumpkin because it is a plant that withstands harsh conditions and if other
people settled in the abandoned homestead, they would find the pumpkin as a source of food. At
a deeper level, the pumpkin acts as a symbol or a pillar on which all important values hinge. The
sense of belonging is invested in this symbol and if it is uprooted then one’s identity also
disappears. Two meanings may be deciphered by the reader of the text; a probable indicator that
Double voicedness applies to Song of Lawino.
In a related incident, Lawino accuses her husband of the way he uses his tongue. She says:
My husband’s tongue
Is bitter like the roots of the lyonno lily
It is hot like the penis of the bee
Like the sting of the kalang… (38)
In using the adjectives ‘bitter’ ‘hot’, and a simile ‘like the sting of the kalang’, she portrays a
description of how rude Ocol is, and the extent to which he uses his tongue in a wrong manner.
Yet, to one taking a surface reading of the text, questions may be raised as to how one’s tongue
may be bitter, or even be like a sting since these qualities are not biological attributes of a
tongue.
55
Lawino also arouses the sympathy of the reader when she makes utterances regarding the way
her husband treats her due to her ignorance of Christianity and the Bible. She echoes the words
of Ocol:
He says
I am ignorant
Of the good word
In the Clean Book (109).
Literally, Lawino is not talking about the outside form of a book; rather she talks about the
contents which are of a spiritual nature. Lawino’s utterance thus has greater significance than
that which the first time reader meets.
In continuing to talk about religion, Lawino enlightens the reader as to how the members of her
Protestant catechist class struggle in order to get a new name at baptism. The woes that they go
through discourage Lawino from joining this class, as she says,
Oh, how young girls
Labour to buy a name
You break your back
Drawing water (110)
In the above quotation, Lawino speaks about buying a name, in a form that does not exactly
mean the direct exchange of goods for goods or of a service for a service. Lawino elucidates that
the cost of a new Christian name is hard labour.
Furthermore, Lawino, in a flashback gives an apt description of her elder sister Erina. She tells
of the day she escorted her to the Protestant Church. The priest who was conducting the
celebrations of the Eucharistic meal is presented as he calls people to:
56
… come and eat
Human flesh!
He put little bits
In their hands
And they ate it up! (112).
The call of the priest is not understood by Lawino, because his words bear greater significance
than what Lawino probably understands. The human flesh that he calls congregation to come and
sacramentally receive is symbolized by bread. Okot is able to use this to point to the fact that
Christianity was imposed upon the people without them clearly understanding what it is about.
Because no one took time to explain the new religion to Lawino, she misses its deeper
significance and takes literally what she sees.
Okot’s euphemistic use of the spear is a direct borrowing from Acoli oral poetry. In Song of
Lawino, Lawino laments the sexual starvation of the young men who go to the mission schools
in search of foreign names. They, she says:
Sleep alone
Cold, like knives
Without handles
And the spear
Of the lone hunters
The trusted right- hand spears
Of the young bulls
Rusts in the dewy cold
Of the night. (121)
At the end of her Song, Lawino asks Ocol to beg his ancestors, among things, to restore his
manhood so that he can once again consummate their marriage:
Ask them to give you
A new spear
A new spear with a sharp and hard point
A spear that will crack the rock
One that does not bend easily
Like the earth-worm (195)
57
The phallic connotation of the spear in the above quotations actually derives from its importance
in a society where sexual virility and male prowess are highly valued. It is a symbol against
which Lawino measures Ocol and finds him lacking.
A surface reading of the above quotations will yield a different meaning to the reader hence
Doublevoicedness.
In the same breath, Ocol ridicules the prostitute who is spreading the deadly syphilis disease in
the nightclubs. Ocol describes the manner in which the disease is spread using the analogy of a
farmer who goes out to sow seed. In sowing, one usually scatters seed out on the land. The
reader may not understand how one may sow a disease, yet to Ocol, the haphazard way in which
the prostitute spreads the disease in his basic concern. It may take the reader time to understand
that an utterance may have more meaning attached to it, before he comprehends Ocol’s words.
…. You prostitute
Sowing syphilis in the night clubs (244).
4.3
DOUBLE VOICEDNESS AND PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
Altogether, about six references to beauty in Song of Lawino and only one in Song of Ocol for
this study. This imbalance is attributed to the fact that whereas Lawino in a detailed manner
describes her co-wife, Ocol does not target a particular individual; rather he makes a generalized
comment regarding the physical appearance of the woman from Ankole.
It is the second movement of Song of Lawino in which Lawino uses negative sensuous imagery
to show how despicable her co-wife Clementine looks:
Her lips are red-hot
Like glowing charcoal
She resembles the wild cat
58
That has dipped its mouth in blood.
The mouth is like raw yaws… (41)
It should be noted that Clementine’s lips are not red hot in the physical sense. Clementine has
only used lipstick, an artificial substance to enrich her beauty. Red is the colour which at first
sight gives Lawino the impression that someone has been dipping their mouth in blood, or that
the lips like glowing charcoal. The repugnant description is intended to create a negative image
of Tina and to belittle and ridicule her.
In an incident related to the above, Lawino gives the effect of kissing someone with red lips,
though this is not explicitly stated. The reader has to make out an underlying meaning of what
Lawino says, and not merely take her utterances at face value. She says:
And the lips of the men become bloody
With blood dipping from the red-hot lips
Their teeth look
As if they have been bored in the mouth. (52)
The actual fact is that as a result of kissing one who has used lip-stick, it may be possible that the
lip-stick is transferred onto the other party’s lips, and not that blood actually dries from the lips.
Similarly, if the reader is to take literally the similes used by Lawino, it would be hard for him to
imagine that Clementine is a living being, rather than a dead one. As a matter of fact, Lawino
tries her best to give an apt portrayal of her co-wife, and presents her as being ill-looking because
she starves to be slim:
And when she walks
You hear her bones rattling
Her waist resembles that of a hornet
The beautiful one is dead dry.
Like a stump she is neatless
Like a shell
On a dry river bed (44)
59
Furthermore, Lawino logically demonstrates the uniqueness of racial qualities.When one group
forsakes its own nature and imposes on itself alien values, there is incongruity. That is why it is
unnatural for an African woman to try to make her hair like a white woman’s.Clementine, with
whom Lawino shares her husband, “returns from cooking her hair” in order to make it look like a
white woman’s. If surface meaning is taken, the reader may not understand the meaning of
Lawino’s utterances, hence the need for a deeper understanding of what she means when she
says:
When the beautiful one
With whom I share my husband
Returns from cooking her hair
This results in her resembling
A chicken
That has fallen into a pond;
Her hair looks
Like the python’s discarded skin (69)
Blacks who forsake their natural ways become artificial and weird. Lawino continues to exhibit a
misunderstanding of the idea of combing or perming one’s hair when she vividly relays to the
readers what happens to Clementine’s hair.
They fry their hair
In boiling oil
As if it were locusts
And the hair sizzles… (70)
She culminates her description of what happens, with the description of how the hair turns out.
…. It lies lifeless
Like the sad and dying banana leaves
On a hot and windless afternoon. (70)
It would be a mistake for one to take Lawino’s utterances for the literal truth, since it is
practically impossible for one to dip the head in boiling oil and remain alive. The utterances of
60
Lawino are taken to have a deeper meaning attached to them, than that which meets the reader’s
eye. There is something suicidal in the act of deliberately killing one’s ‘vigorous and healthy’
self. Besides, there is something demoniacal and strange in frying one’s hair in boiling oil.By
implication, Lawino emphasizes that white women are beautiful with their own kind of hair, and
the strangeness creeps in with black women transposing to themselves what is naturally not
theirs.
Ocol has used figurative language which in turn has made his utterances have more meaning
attached to them, than they would actually have. In addressing the “sister” from Ankole, Ocol
uses metaphoric language, which at the same is dehumanizing. Ocol describes her as having
‘fatness’. Referring to her manner of movement, he says:
You stagger into the sunlight
Molting, dripping, wet
A pregnant hippo
Soft, flabby, weak…(133)
A first time or an uninformed reader of Song of Ocol may think that Ocol is talking about a
hippo, whereas he is talking about the Ankole woman. This portrays the utterances of Ocol as
having more meaning attached to them than actually stated.
4.4
DOUBLE VOICEDNESS AND CHANGES IN NATURE/CULTURE
In talking about the changes that occur in nature as well as the lives of human beings, about five
instances where Doublevoicedness features may be found. These give a semblance of an equal
number of instances being drawn from both texts. To begin with Ocol personifies the moon,
when he describes its movements:
61
We all know the moon
It elopes
Climbs the hill
And falls down (100).
Lawino in the above quotation alludes to the more significant actions of the moon - its
movement, since it is not known that the moon ‘climbs’ or ‘falls’ meaning that Lawino’s
utterances should be interpreted at a deep level than the surface one. Also, we know that
“eloping” is usually made in reference to human beings, who “marry” illegally. Thus Lawino
gives the moon a human attribute. The naïve reader will not easily understand the words of
Lawino, hence the need for a deeper understanding of her utterances.
Okot continues to use phallic symbols for example the rich and fertile land, symbolizing MotherEarth which is sexually assaulted by the gardener who comes with his hoe and plants seeds, as
Lawino says when she describes the process of creation:
And when the gardener comes
Carrying two bags of live seeds
And a good strong hoe
The rich red soil
Sweats with a new life (101).
If the message is taken literally, the readers will not gain a complete understanding of it.
Lawino’s words in the above quotation can be interpreted at two different levels: the process of
human reproduction where there is a sexual union between a male and female on one level, and
on the other level, a farmer that is involved in the cultivation process.
In the same way, Lawino tries to explain the fundamental physiological changes that take place
in a woman’s body. Certain features begin to deteriorate in her body, and Lawino concludes that
62
at that moment, the woman has begun to “wither”. The uninitiated reader may not understand
how one might “wither” unless a deeper understanding of the words is sought, hence more
meaning attached to an utterance than what is actually stated when Lawino says:
When a girl sees the moon
She is ripe
After bearing three children
She begins to wither (106)
In a rebuttal to Lawino, Ocol, in Song of Ocol promises her inevitable change in her culture. He
unashamedly proclaims the destruction ‘they’ will do to the culture, whose erosion Lawino has
already cried about. In a vivid picturesque description, Ocol foresees cultural disintegration
when he says:
I see a large pumpkin
Rotting a thousand beetles
In it (205)
He continues in a remorseless manner to proclaim,
He will obliterate
Tribal boundaries
And throttle native tongues
To devil’s death (205)
The utterances made by Ocol in the above quoted incidents have more meaning attached to them
than that which meets the literal reader.He foresees a time when there will be an influx of foreign
cultures leading to destruction of the local one. At the same time, he sounds a warning as to the
manner in which those cultures will destroy the local languages.
63
4.5
DOUBLE VOICEDNESS AND POLITICAL CHANGES
All the instances of Doublevoicedness and political change examined in this section are drawn
from Song of Ocol.
Ocol, in talking about the changes sweeping Africa, personifies Africa. He speaks of the laziness
of the African, and how he is slow to respond to work at a time when he should be working. The
utterances of Ocol at a first reading do not portray the implied meaning when he talks about
Africa.
Africa
Idle giant
Basking in the sun
Sleeping snoring
Twitching in dreams (200)
In another instance, Ocol makes a scathing attack on the African nationalist at the time of preindependence in most African states. He sees no significance as to why men like Leopold
Senghor, Aime Cesaire should call for unity. He summarises it thus:
The balloon of
The African personality
Exploded long ago (215)
Ocol uses figurative language which makes his utterances to have a deeper meaning attached to
them than would actually have been made. In this instance, he makes reference to the ego of the
African personality which has been deflated. He calls this ‘the balloon’.
Ocol does not stop here; rather he makes an alarm, and warns that soon the villages will be
consumed by modernization. He seems to ask his addressees to pay heed to the waves of change
that are hitting the country. These are positive changes. The lay readers of Song of Ocol would
64
probably imagine a situation where the “fierce fires” that are referred to are physical in nature.
Ocol is talking about the speed with which progress and civilization are catching up with
tradition and will soon consume the villages. He uses metaphoric language in his dialogue,
which may lead to there being two meanings deciphered from his utterances when he says:
Weep long,
For the village world
That you know
And love so well,
Is gone,
Swept away
By the fierce fires
Of progress and civilization! (247)
It is pertinent to note that Ocol is against tears for the coming of civilization, and he cautions the
woman, that her tears cannot quench the flames of civilization, since to him the tears are too
weak for the strong flames:
Stop crying
You woman,
Do you think those tears
Can quench the flames
Of civilization (249)
In the above quotation, Ocol cautions his addressee that change is inevitable, and therefore it is a
waste of time to cry over the impending civilization that she is going to experience. The
woman’s tears can in no way hinder the inevitable.
65
4.6
DOUBLE VOICEDNESS AND MODERN HOUSEHOLD ITEMS
There are only two instances in Song of Lawino where Lawino is talking about the use of modern
household items and it becomes clear in her description that such descriptions spell of ignorance.
A case in point is when she talks about the purpose served by the white man’s stoves. In her
simplicity, she does not exactly talk about food preservation which is the main idea as presented
by Okot in Lawino’s argument:
The whiteman’s stoves
Are good for cooking
Whiteman’s food:
For cooking the tasteless
Bloodless meat of cows
That were killed many years age
And left in the ice to rot! (78)
That Lawino mentions “bloodless meat left in the ice to rot” is a pointer that she talks about
something greater: preservation of food. Another instance where Lawino’s utterances bear
features of Doublevoicedness is when she has been talking about the way the husband values
time.She, in her own understanding, begins to give a picturesque description of a clock:
On the face of the clock
There are writings
And its large single testicle
Dangles below.
It goes this way and that way
Like a sausage-fruit
In a windy storm (89)
The reader of Song of Lawino finds humour in Lawino’s language which is rich in imagery: “like
a sausage–fruit”, and her personification of the clock, attributing a dangling testicle to it whose
oscillations would coincide with the ticking of the seconds’ hand of the clock.
66
4.7
CONCLUSION
In many instances, features of Double voicedness have been found in Song of Lawino. Many of
Lawino’s utterances have deeper meanings which can only be deciphered after taking a second
reading or on a closer study of the said utterances. In Song of Ocol instances of
Doublevoicedness are mainly found when Ocol talks of the impending changes in the political
scene, that are going to sweep across the continent of Africa.
67
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY
5.1 REVIEW OF THE STUDY
This study set out to analyse the concept of Dialogism as postulated by Mikhail Bakhtin, and its
notions, that is: Heteroglossia,Internal dialogism, Hidden dialogue and Double voicedness and
to apply them to the literary works of Okot p’Bitek, specifically Song of Lawino (1966) and Song
of Ocol (1970).
The research problems that prompted the investigation arose out of the fact that much as Okot
p’Bitek has enjoyed international readership as a poet, no study known to this .researcher has
addressed itself to Okot’s poetry from the perspective of Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism which the
researcher anticipated would elucidate Okot’s poetic style and demonstrate his outstanding wit
and insight in combining linguistic tools and ideas from two different cultures and from diverse
contexts. The aim of the study was to make a sustained and deliberate analysis of Okot p’Bitek’s
‘‘songs’’ to establish whether Bakhtin’s important concept, Dialogism, and its notions are
applicable to those “songs’’ against the background of Bakhtin’s argument that poetry is most
detached from the living heterogeneity of language and has no space for other varieties, other
than the single homogeneous voice of the poet himself/herself.
This study therefore set out to test the hypothesis that Okot p’Bitek’s selected poems, Song of
Lawino and Song of Ocol positively answer to Bakhtin’s idea of a literary work as implying past
utterance and future response.
68
5.2
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS
The findings of the study on Bakhtin’s concept of Dialogism and its notions, Double voicedness,
Internal dialogism, Hidden dialogue and heteroglossia in Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol –
confirm the hypothesis that Okot’s selected poems positively answer to Bakhtin’s idea of a
literary work as implying past utterance and a future response.
The first of Bakhtin’s important notions on language, Heteroglossia was applied to selected
elements in Okot’s poem.
The study revealed an internal stratification of language in situations where Lawino and Ocol
used a mixture of registers, for example the language of quarrel, of appeal, of rumour and
cajoling. It also noted situations where the author, Okot p’Bitek, projected a typically oral voice
in a written poem, and his spokeswoman used socially unacceptable language, as well as a
hybrid of utterances leading this researcher to the conclusion that the barriers between the novel
and poetry are not as rigid as Bakhtin claims. The study confirmed that contrary to Bakhtin’s
claim, the concepts of many worlds of language, all equal in their ability to conceptualise and be
expressive is not organically denied to poetic style.
In the course of examining the notion of Heteroglossia, the study revealed that Okot drew his
symbols and images from the traditional culture, and also used the form of Acholi oral songs,
together with the Acholi proverbs and similies. This was significant in that it gave authenticity
to Bakhtin’s views on language – that an uttered word may have different meaning, depending
on the conditions of utterance. In such cases therefore, a non- Acholi reader, without
understanding how bitter the “lyonno lilly” is, or the sting of the “kalang” will not understand
how Ocol’s tongue can be “corrosive like the juice of the gourd” yet such a reader will
69
understand from the categorisation of selected elements that the bad behaviour of Ocol is what is
being alluded to by Lawino.
The researcher came to the conclusion that because of Okot’s continued use of African symbols
and imagery, the reader of Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol, who is an African, will be able to
strongly identify with his writing. This lends credibility to Bakhtin’s views on language, that
words get more meaning from the context in which they are used: that social and geographical
conditions ensure that uttered words gain more meaning than they would have otherwise got.
The study further confirmed that by continuing to draw symbols from the Acholi community,
Okot was able to give his poetry its Africanness and central place in East African creative
writing.
Dialogism is another concept on language that is put forward by Bakhtin in his important theory
on language.This research confirmed that throughout Song of Lawino (1966) and Song of Ocol
(1970) internal and hidden dialogue were used and that the readers are often dealing with
someone else’s words, other than their own utterance or speech modes.
Importantly, in studying Bakhtin’s concept of Dialogism, the researcher bore in mind the
fundamental concept in his theory on language that the utterances made were in response to prior
utterances. Examples of this were in situations, where, for instance, Lawino responded to
accusations made by Ocol, in a manner of self-defence.
The researcher analysed situations of hidden dialogue where, as Bakhtin points out, one talks to
an implied listener. For example, in Lawino’s complaints against her husband:
My husband laughs at me
Because I cannot dance whitemen’s dances
70
He despises Acholi dances (56)
There were situations where this researcher could have used the term ‘internal monologue’ to
describe a situation where Lawino talks to herself, but according to Bakhtin, this is still
Dialogism.
The fourth chapter of this study constituted a mapping out of the Bakhtinian notion of Double
voicedness, in Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol to assess the extent to which the concept is
present in these poems. The researcher sought to discover whether an uttered word may have
more meaning attached to it than what it is actually stating, as in the definition of Double
voicedness.
Okot’s Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol read through the theory of dialogism reveals Okot’s
attempt to challenge what he viewd as the ’authoritative discourse’, by challenging it particularly
in Song of Lawino and parodying it in Song of Ocol.
The explosion of various voices especially in Lawino endorses the values Western colonialism
had dismissed and reiterates that ‘‘the pumpkin in the old homestead must not be uprooted’’.
Similarly, by mimicking the new ways, Ocol exposes these ways to scrutiny and in appearing to
stage a one man show in Song of Ocol his claims make public the very voices he wants to
smother. The analysis of these poems using Bakhtin’s theory shows Okot p’Bitek as a poet
attempting to bring the hitherto marginal elements of oral poetry such as repetition, lampoon,
conversational, proverbial and idiomatic language into poetic expression and what is more, he
does it drawing on Acholi culture which is familiar to him and part of the East African heritage.
71
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PRIMARY SOURCES:
Bakhtin, Mikhail. The Dialogic Imagination. Trans Cary Emercon and Michael Holquist ed.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981
Holquist M. (Ed) Dialogic Imaginations: Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994.
Okot p’Bitek. Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol. Nairobi: East Africa Publishing House, 1972
SECONDARY SOURCES:
Beti, M. Mission to Kala, London; Heinemann Educational Books, 1964.
Breitenger, E. (Ed). Uganda.The Cultural Landscape. Kampala: Fountain Publishers
Limited, 1999.
Bakhtin, M. Rabelais and this world. Trans. Helen Iswolsky. Cambridge: The M.T.T.
Press, 1968. Bloomington; Indiana University Press, 1984.
Duerden Dennis and Piertse (eds). African Writers Talking: Heinemann Educational
Books Ltd. 1972. Vol. 18
Goodwin, K. Understanding African Poetry: A study of Ten Poets. London Heinemann
Educational Books Ltd.; 1982.
Haynes, J. African Poetry and the English Language. Hong Kong. Macmillan Publishers
Ltd, 1987.
Heron, G. The Poetry of Okot p’Bitek, London, Heinemann, 1976.
Jones, Eldred Durosimi, eds. African Literature today. Vol.6. London: James Curry Ltd.
1992
Lodge, D (Ed). Modern Criticism and Theory. London; Longman Group UK Ltd. 1988.
Mbiti, J. African Religions and Philosophy. Nairobi: East African Publishing House,
Ngara, E. Art and Ideology in African Novel, London; Heinemann Educational Books Ltd.
1985
Ngara, E. Art and ideology in African Poetry. New Hampshire: Heinemann
Educational Books Ltd, 1990.
Ngugi wa Thiongo. Homecoming, London: Heinemann Educational Books. 1972.
72
Okot p’Bitek. Artist the Ruler, Essays on Art, Culture and Values. Nairobi; Heinemann
Kenya Ltd, 1986
Okot p’Bitek. Two Songs: Song of Prisoner, Song of Malaya.Nairobi: East African Publishing
House, 1971.
Pio Zirimu, Gurr Andrew (Eds). Black Aesthetics. Nairobi: East African Literature
Bureau. 1973
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged Massachusetts, 1986.
JOURNALS:
Charles Okumu. (1992). The Form of Okot p'Bitek's Poetry: Literary Borrowing from Acoli Oral
Traditions. Research in African Literatures . , 23 (3), 53-66.
David Hayman. (1983). Bakhtin's Progress. NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction,. 16 (2), 173-177.
Elena Semino. (2002). Stylistics and linguistic variation in poetry. Journal of English
Linguistics, .30 (1), 28-50.
Ogo A. Ofuani. (1987). [untitled]. Research in African Literatures,. 18 (1), 131-134.
Ogo A. Ofuani. (1985). The Traditional and Modern Influences in Okot p'Bitek's Poetry. African
Studies Review,. 28 (4), 87-99.
Ogo A. Ofuani. (1988). Digression as Discourse Strategy in Okot p'Bitek's Dramatic Monologue
Texts. Research in African Literatures,. 19 (3), 312-340.
Sonya Petkova. (2005). Mikhail Bakhtin: A Justification of Literature. Stanford's Student
Journal of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, .30 (1), 2-12.
Tanure Ojaide. (1986). Poetic Viewpoint: Okot P'Bitek and His Personae. Callaloo. 27 (1), 371383.
73