Charles Nelson Okumu2025-07-302025-07-302021http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14270/563As Cloete and Madadzhe observe, “a cursory glance at some of the oral poetry exposes the close connection between the past and present as revealed in, for example, some of Okot p’Bitek’s poetry. The late p’Bitek may be regarded as one of the most important literary figures in the field of oral literature … and its inclusion in African literature in general and his poetry in particular.” (Cloete and Madadzhe 31, emphasis mine). This article explores how Okot creatively used Acoli oral songs as intertext in his poetry, particularly in Song of Lawino. Since the publication of Song of Lawino in 1966, a number of scholarly studies and publications of Okot’s poetry were published, beginning with a full study of Okot’s poetry, The Poetry of Okot p’Bitek (George Heron 1976); scholarly articles such as “The Tradition and Modern Influences in Okot p’Bitek’s Poetry” (Ogo Ofuani 1985); “The Form of Okot p’Bitek’s Poetry: Literary Borrowings from Acoli Oral Poetry” (Okumu 1992). More recent studies include “Lateral texts and circuits of value: Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino and Wer pa Lawino” (Garuba and Benge-Okot 2017) and “Okot p’Bitek Diagnostic Poetics and the Quest for African Revolution” (Kahyana 2017). Besides these examples, there are other important articles and theses on the poetry of Okot that establish Okot as an important African writer whose poetry is influenced by oral literature, as Cloete and Madadzhe note.enArticle