Abstract
This paper attempts to textually examine Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino and find out how Okot deals with the theme of the past versus the present (tradition versus modernity) and what attitude he spells out through the song. Is he just advocating an idealization of the past and utterly rejecting the western culture and ways or is he one of those writers who are in favor of a realistic appraisal of the past and blending the modern with the traditional, the western with the African? While the song addresses many issues, this paper will focus on the two issues of Christianity and western education being the most important root causes of the cultural conflict depicted in the song.
Highlights
In the postcolonial African literature there have been two dominant attitudes towards the African past: romantic embrace and realistic appraisal
This paper attempts to textually examine Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino and find out how Okot deals with the theme of the past versus the present and what attitude he spells out through the song. Is he just advocating an idealization of the past and utterly rejecting the western culture and ways or is he one of those writers who are in favor of a realistic appraisal of the past and blending the modern with the traditional, the western with the African? While the song addresses many issues, this paper will focus on the two issues of Christianity and western education being the most important root causes of the cultural conflict depicted in the song
IJCLTS 8(3):19-25 out how Okot deals with the theme of the past versus the present and what attitude he spells out through this song. Is he just advocating an idealization of the past and utterly rejecting the western culture and ways or is he one of those writers in favor of a realistic appraisal of the past and blending the modern with the traditional, the western with the African? While the song addresses many issues, this paper focuses on the two issues of Christianity and western education being the most important root causes of the cultural conflict depicted in the song
Summary
In the postcolonial African literature there have been two dominant attitudes towards the African past: romantic embrace and realistic appraisal. Ngugi even condemns the Church as the “greatest cause of the misshaping of African souls and cultural alienation” (Ngugi 35) He does not advocate a total rejection of the European cultural structures or regression to the past. IJCLTS 8(3): out how Okot deals with the theme of the past versus the present (tradition versus modernity) and what attitude he spells out through this song. Is he just advocating an idealization of the past and utterly rejecting the western culture and ways or is he one of those writers in favor of a realistic appraisal of the past and blending the modern with the traditional, the western with the African? This is a stage when the western ways of life, western taste and western codes of social behavior had already found ardent admirers among Africans, especially the middle class educated people, a stage in which western lifestyle, standards and codes had already penetrated subtly among the generation exposed to western education
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