Selected Poetry of Okot p'Bitek
my Husband’s Tongue is Bitter
Whose tongue is bitter to whom? By my Husband’s Tongue is Bitter
Whose tongue is bitter to whom? By my Husband’s Tongue is Bitter
The speaker’s husband (Ocol) is egotistical. The speaker confirms, “My husband abuses me together with my parents:/He says terrible things about my mother/And I am so ashamed!” The husband’s superciliousness prompts him to affront the people that he ought to be venerating. He is blinded by the self-absorption credited to the dogma of modernism. He holds that he is superior; thus, he can disgrace them anyhow.