Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of racism and graphic violence.

The Acholi are a Nilotic ethnic group who reside in present-day northern Uganda and southern Sudan, a region known as Acholiland. They are one of at least 10 different ethnic groups who make up the Luo diaspora, dispersed roughly along the White Nile throughout South Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya. The Acholi language is a dialect of Southern Luo and is spoken by at least 1.5 million people (“Readers in Acholi.” The University of Melbourne). Song of Lawino is the most successful piece of literature written in Acholi and has remained an essential example of the Acholi language and culture into the 21st century.

Traditional Acholi religion revolves in large part around Jok, a group of spirits who are the force behind one’s fortunes and misfortunes. Jok take their name from the Acholi’s supreme god, Jok, who is thought to have replicated himself into the individual spirits (Jogi) who determine the course of human affairs. The other two categories of Jok are ancestral Jok, who are the spirits of deceased relatives, and non-ancestral Jok, who inhabit the physical forms of nonhuman entities, including animals, plants, and geographic features.