CLAIM YOUR BIRTH RIGHT.

On the 9th of June 1931, Jebidayo Opii Bitek and Lacwa Cerina gave birth to a baby boy. They named the boy Jekeri Okot.

He grew up to be a versatile man. The kind of man that would make any father proud. The kind that would make a mother blush with the excitement that only a mother can muster.

He grew up to be a man of many talents. He exploited each of them to their full potential. He was a engaging footballer. An engrossing dancer. An enthusiastic singer. A consummate performer. A sociologist and anthropologist of world standing.An ecstatic essayist. A poet whose very sweat dripped of rhythm and rhyme. A legal mind. An atheist.

A father. A husband. A champion of Acoli oral literature. And many other things that are too mind pulsating to mention here. He also grew up to be known as Okot P' Bitek. ( Okot son of Bitek)

When Okot P' Bitek made that journey that we all must make, David Rubadiri described it as the splitting of the African drum. An African drum had indeed been severed.

Since then, there has not been that throbbing sound of the African drum that Gabriel Okara refers to as " urgent and raw" in his poem 'Piano and Drums".

Since then, there is a loud silence in this part of Africa as concerns the things that make us as African as Lawino symbolizes in the iconic 'Song of Lawino'

So why am I going on and on about this Ugandan soul? Well,his bithdate is the 9th of June and he would have celebrated eighty two years of existence, delighting the world with palpitating ideas. I am also highly favored that his blood flows in my veins, but most importantly because he lived a life that, in my view, should be emulated.

It is clear from all this that man was not designed to be cocooned in one set of circumstances. We were meant to know a lot about many things as opposed to knowing a lot about one particular thing. We are all able and capable of being as versatile as we permit ourselves to be.

Our education system sets out to compartmentalize us. As a result we grow up living one dimensional lives.

Society holds us to known measurements to the extent that if we choose to deviate from the norm, we are referred to as social misfits.

You should not permit yourself to live a mediocre life. Moving around in smallness as if your life is of no consequence.

Hovering in a maze of singleness and denying your potential, is only evidence of a lazy mind. A mind, that directs the individual to use a spoon to scope from the ocean of infinite possibilities.

Live your life with boldness. Demand the very best of life, in all the facets that life has to offer and life will graciously deliver it to you.

It is your right. Nay, it is your birth right.
Claim it.




Your life is in your hands