(East) African postcolonial ecocriticism: Revisiting Okot p' Bitek's Song of Prisoner.
This article celebrates Okot p'Bitek's contribution to East African literature in general and the song school of East Africa in particular, by revisiting one of his less-known works, Song of Prisoner on the fiftieth anniversary of its publication. I subject the text to a close reading in order to de...
| Published in: | Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Vol. 58; no. 1; pp. 139 - 158 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Tydskrif vir Letterkunde
2021
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=151088109&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 151088109 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0041476X 162I jtl: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde issn: 0041476X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2021 vid: 58 iid: 1 pid: 71603 pub: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde artinfo: ui: 151088109 10.17159/tl.v58i1.8301 ppf: 139 ppct: 19 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 2.1MB tig: atl: (East) African postcolonial ecocriticism: Revisiting Okot p' Bitek's Song of Prisoner. aug: au: Nelungo Wanjala, Alex affil: Senior lecturer in the Department of Literature and sub-department of French at the University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya su: Ecocriticism p'Bitek, Okot, 1931-1982 Song of Prisoner (Poem) East African literature Social order sug: subj: Ecocriticism p'Bitek, Okot, 1931-1982 Song of Prisoner (Poem) East African literature Social order keyword: East African poetry Okot P'Bitek postcolonial ecocriticism Song School ab: This article celebrates Okot p'Bitek's contribution to East African literature in general and the song school of East Africa in particular, by revisiting one of his less-known works, Song of Prisoner on the fiftieth anniversary of its publication. I subject the text to a close reading in order to demonstrate how p'Bitek uses imagery that is drawn from East Africa's natural environment in a way that evokes issues that are an assault on the prevailing social and political order in East Africa at the time, in a nuanced manner. With the benefit of hindsight, the paper establishes that p'Bitek's attempt to preserve his natural environment (that of East Africa) through writing it into his poetry, was a precursor for texts that would later be examined within the framework of the contemporary critical theory of postcolonial ecocriticism, and that using the text, one can narrow the scope further in a manner that takes into account the specificities of (East) African environmental literature. In so doing, the paper establishes that p'Bitek indeed highlights social realities through his poetry, in order to launch his attack on the existing neo-colonial capitalistic order prevailing at the historical moment of his writing, thus confirming that he displays a social vision that strives for decolonisation without the exploitative aftermath encapsulating modernity. The paper thus demonstrates how this poem is still relevant as a study to the student of East African literature reading it in the 21 century. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Tydskrif vir Letterkunde is the property of Tydskrif vir Letterkunde and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde holder: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde dt: @attributes: year: 2021 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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