Book review: The religion of the Central Luo by Okot p’Bitek

LSE Professor Tim Allen reflects on the profound impact that Ugandan poet Okot p’Bitek‘s The Religion of the Central Luo had on his own approach to fieldwork among the Acholi people and their neighbours in northern Uganda. This insightful and engaging book demonstrates the originality of p’Bitek’s work, which challenged anthropology’s links with colonial rule and thinking and the discipline’s prevailing treatment of African religion, African history and African customs. The Religion of the Central Luo. Okot p’Bitek. East African Literature Bureau. Nairobi. 1971.