SOURCE: Heron, G. A. “Introduction.” In Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol, by Okot p'Bitek, pp. 1-33. London and Ibadan: Heinemann, 1984.

In the following introduction to p'Bitek's Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol, Heron discusses the effects of translation on p'Bitek's poetry as well as details of the poems themselves.

African writers who choose to use English or French set themselves certain problems. They wish to express African ideas, but they have chosen a non-African tool to express them. There is a grave danger that with the tool of language they will borrow other foreign things. Every language has its own stock of common images expressing a certain people's way of looking at things. Every language has its own set of literary forms which limit a writer's manner of expression. How many of these tools can a writer borrow before his African ideas are affected by...