The Defence of Lawino is a fresh and exciting rendering into English of Okot pβBitekβs Acholi-language Wer pa Lawino by Taban lo Liyong. The translator is a distinguished scholar and writer, and the late Okotβs great friend and admirer. This new translation follows the original version more closely than Okotβs Song of Lawino does. Lo Liyong asserts that the translation became necessary because Song of Lawino was not strictly a faithful translation but rather one in which whatever was βtopical, striking, graphic and easily renderable into Englishβ was given prominence. The Defence of Lawino is meant to set the record straight.
Lawino, the wife of Ochol, is an intelligent and cultured Acholi woman. She stands for all that is good, valuable and enduring in African culture. Not surprisingly, therefore, she is both angered and offended by Ocholβs desertion of important traditional values. He is an Acholi prince who has received western education. And he has accepted this education without question. Instead of recognising the good and the bad from both cultures, he rejects his origins and embraces the whole of western culture. Lawino finally sees him as an unthinking caricature of the white man.