Novel
Prostitute
Okello Oculi · 1968
Synopsis
Rosa Nakintu, a young village woman, is torn from the countryside and taken to the city. There she suffers a sexual assault and is pushed into prostitution, serving the new African elites who profit from the most vulnerable. The novel follows this isolated rural migrant, deprived of the community ties that once protected her, and turns her story into the indictment of a corrupt ruling class, in a style made of scraps of conversation, proverbs and popular wisdom.
Context
The novel was published in Nairobi in 1968 by East African Publishing House, in the Modern African Library series, the same year as a long poem by the same author. The publisher's bankruptcy made its books disappear for decades, and the author almost stopped writing fiction for thirty years. A tribute compares him to Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and Okot p'Bitek, while noting that he remained little known in his own country.
Who it is for
A short novel in English, harsh in its subject; it reads as a chronicle of the rural exodus to the city.
Prizes and reception
According to Pambazuka's tribute, this novel established its author's reputation as soon as it appeared.
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