An Acoli Reflection on African Future: Okot P’Bitek’s Futuristic Gaze in Song of Lawino

This article discusses African history from three perspectives: the past, the present, and the future. From the past historical perspective, what are the factors still weighing Africa down, the obstacles in the way to development, structures that must change or remain for Africa to thrive in the future? From the present perspective, where is the push, what are the drivers, and the trends propelling Africa towards a particular future or futures yet unknown? Finally, from the future perspective, what unavoidable images constitute the pull towards a plausible, possible, probable, or preferred future(s)? These are the kinds of questions that the theory of Futurology poses. Specifically, Sohail Inayatullah’s Futures Triangle, in which the three-dimensional tension between the past, present, and future constitutes a formidable force whose dynamics cause the creation of a future space in the middle of the triangle that, in itself, creates scenarios to be considered, will serve us as a methodological tool to explore the future(s) of Africa. Applied to the study of Okot p’Bitek’s fiction, Song of Lawino, we shall examine the weight of the past, the push in the present and pull away from the future and the dynamics of their interplay, unearthing the author’s impatience with the Acoli elite, the middle class and their disregard of African traditions and values that they no longer identify with, due to their sell out to foreign ideas and alienation from their own people. Finally, this article will suggest how Africa could find itself again on its own cultural foundations.