thumb|right|150px|Okot p'Bitek
'''Okot p'Bitek''' (westernised. ''Song of Lawino'' was originally written in Acholi language, and self-translated to English, and published in 1966. It was a breakthrough work, creating an audience amongst anglophone Africans for direct, topical poetry in English; and incorporating traditional attitudes and thinking in an accessible yet faithful literary vehicle. It was followed by the pendant ''Song of Ocol'' (1970), the husband's reply. 

The ''East African Song School'' or ''Okot School poetry ''is now an academic identification of the work following his direction, also popularly called 'comic singing': a forceful type of dramatic verse monologue rooted in traditional song and phraseology.

== Life ==

He was born in Acholi, and he wrote first in Luo, one of the Western Nilotic languages.

He was educated at Gulu High School, then King's College in Budo, and later at universities in the United Kingdom. At school he was noted as a singer, dancer, drummer and athlete; he composed and directed an opera while at college. 

He travelled abroad first as a player with the Ugandan national football team, in 1958. At this point he gave up on football as a possible career, staying on in Britain; he studied education at the University of Bristol, and then law at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He then took a B. Litt. degree in social anthropology at the University of Oxford, with a 1963 dissertation on Acholi and Lango traditional cultures. 

According to George Heron he lost his commitment to Christian belief during these years. This had major consequences for his attitude as a scholar of African tradition, which was by no means accepting of the general run of earlier work, or what he called 'dirty gossip' in relation to tribal life. His character Lawino also speaks for him, in some places, on these matters.

He wrote an early novel, ''Lak Tar Miyo Kinyero Wi Lobo'' (1953) in Luo, later translated into English as ''White Teeth''. It concerns the experiences of a young Acholi man moving away from home, to find work and so a wife. He organised an arts festival at Gulu, and then at Kisumu. Subsequently he taught at Makerere University and then was Director of Uganda's National Theatre.

He became unpopular with the Ugandan government, and took teaching posts outside the country. He took part in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 1969. He was at the Institute of African Studies of University College in Nairobi from 1971 as a senior research fellow and lecturer, with visiting positions at University of Texas at Austin and University of Ife in Nigeria in 1978/9.  He remained in exile during the regime of Idi Amin, returning in 1982 to Makerere University, to teach creative writing.

Apart from his poetry and novels, he also took part in an ongoing debate about the integrity of scholarship on traditional African religion, with the assertion in ''African Religions in Western Scholarship'' (1971) that scholars centred on European concerns were "intellectual smugglers". His point, aimed partly at Africans who had had a training in Christian traditions, was that it led to a concentration on matters distant from the actual concerns of Africans; this has been contested by others.

He died of a liver infection. His daughter Jane Okot p'Bitek wrote a ''Song of Farewell'' (1994). 

'''Okot p'Bitek''', född Ugandas landslag. Hans första bok var en diktsamling på acholi 1953 "Lak tar miyo kinyero wi lobo (eng. översättning "White Teeth" 1989). Efter en turné i England stannade p'Bitek kvar för att studera juridik och socialantropologi. 1963 doktorerade han vid Oxfords universitet med en avhandling om traditionella sånger på luo och acholi.

p'Bitek återvände till Uganda, undervisade vid universitetet i Makerere, startade en kulturfestival i Gulu och ledde nationalteatern. Men efter att ha kritiserat regimen emigrerade han till Kenya och arbetade vid universietet i Nairobi. 1978 reste han till Nigeria för att undervisa vid universitetet i Ife. Kort före sin död återvände han till Uganda.

== Verk översatta till svenska ==
*Lawinos sång: en afrikansk kvinnas klagan; svensk tolkning och inledning av Margareta Ekström; ill. av Frank Horley, 1971 (Song of Lawino 1966)
*Två sånger om Afrika: Den politiske fångens sång; Ocols sång, svensk tolkning och inl. av Margareta Ekström; ill. av Trixi Lerbs och Frank Horley, 1973 (Song of prisoner 1971; Song of Ocol 1970)