Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of racism and emotional abuse.

Pumpkins are an essential symbol utilized in Song of Lawino’s core refrain, “The pumpkin in the old homestead / Must not be uprooted” (41). In Uganda, pumpkins are a valuable cash crop that is native to the region and therefore well suited to cultivation. Traditionally, all parts of the pumpkin have culinary use; the flesh can be cooked in a number of ways (including being dried into flour), the leaves can be used as greens, and the seeds can be roasted. As Heron explains in his introduction:

Pumpkins are a luxury food. They grow wild throughout Acoliland. To uproot pumpkins, even when you are moving to a new homestead, is simple wanton destruction. In this proverb, then, Lawino is not asking Ocol to cling to everything in his past, but rather not to destroy things for the sake of destroying them (71).

This meaning will not be obvious to non-Acholi readers but would be immediately recognizable to Acholi ones, especially those reading the text in its original language; this commitment to using Acholi cultural signifiers is part of the text’s implicit resistance to colonialism.