Song of Lawino
The son of lawino
Literary analysis
In the poem Song of Lawino racism reared its ugly head in a rather ridiculous form, some people might argue that any form of racism is ridiculous, which is very understandable, but in this particular situation in my opinion it is worst than the segregation in America throughout the early part of the century 20th century. It’s called self hatred, self hatred is a very uncommon form of racism and it can appear in any ethnic group but its black self hatred that manifest it self in this poem, as Lawino’s husband Orcol condemns his wife, tribe and there way of life.
As I began to read the section of the poem assigned to us, I immediately assumed that Lawino a women from West Africa had obviously did something to her husband that caused him to insult her the way she implied he did. Ocol which is also from West Africa, son of the chief and man with an University education slanders his wife’s name throughout the poem . I thought for a second maybe she was lazy and/or didn’t do anything to help him around the house or maybe she was unfaithful but one thing I was sure of is that whatever it was it obviously caused him to stop loving her. This was became more and more obvious as he continued to insult her, he compared her to things like the rubbish in the rubbish pit; a little dog, the ojuu insects that sit on the beer pot and a sheep, implying she is a fool. Orcol constantly ridicules Lawino saying, she is primitive for not being able to play a guitar, he says she her eyes are dead because she cant read, he states her ears are blocked and she cant comprehend a single foreign word as he boastfully scorns her in English, and he says she cannot count the coins. Roughly translated he called her stupid, worthless and he basically proclaimed she wasn’t worthy of a man of his quality. It was mind boggling to me how a man could say something like that to the women he called his wife with out a reasonable explanation. What could have
Literary analysis
In the poem Song of Lawino racism reared its ugly head in a rather ridiculous form, some people might argue that any form of racism is ridiculous, which is very understandable, but in this particular situation in my opinion it is worst than the segregation in America throughout the early part of the century 20th century. It’s called self hatred, self hatred is a very uncommon form of racism and it can appear in any ethnic group but its black self hatred that manifest it self in this poem, as Lawino’s husband Orcol condemns his wife, tribe and there way of life.
As I began to read the section of the poem assigned to us, I immediately assumed that Lawino a women from West Africa had obviously did something to her husband that caused him to insult her the way she implied he did. Ocol which is also from West Africa, son of the chief and man with an University education slanders his wife’s name throughout the poem . I thought for a second maybe she was lazy and/or didn’t do anything to help him around the house or maybe she was unfaithful but one thing I was sure of is that whatever it was it obviously caused him to stop loving her. This was became more and more obvious as he continued to insult her, he compared her to things like the rubbish in the rubbish pit; a little dog, the ojuu insects that sit on the beer pot and a sheep, implying she is a fool. Orcol constantly ridicules Lawino saying, she is primitive for not being able to play a guitar, he says she her eyes are dead because she cant read, he states her ears are blocked and she cant comprehend a single foreign word as he boastfully scorns her in English, and he says she cannot count the coins. Roughly translated he called her stupid, worthless and he basically proclaimed she wasn’t worthy of a man of his quality. It was mind boggling to me how a man could say something like that to the women he called his wife with out a reasonable explanation. What could have