An Acoli lament from Uganda. According to Acoli custom, a feast called Guru Lyel is held many months after the funeral of the deceased:
On the morning of the appointed day the widow is led off into the wilderness once more, and her head is shaved. The strings of sorrow around her head and chest are untied; hence the name of the ceremony, Gonyo Cola, untying sorrows from the body. Everybody in the homestead is shaved and this marks the end of mourning. Later, during the day, groups of relatives and their wives begin to arrive, bringing cattle and goats and material for making beer.
Okot p’Bitek, The Horn of My Love (1974) p. 22
She used to sit
Close to her husband
touching each other.
The beautiful one, sister of Amoo,
She used to boast,
the one loved most by her husband:
He had removed all her worries completely.
Fate has knelt on her,
Oh mother,
Fate has crushed her completely.
She used to sit
close by her husband,
touching each other!
from The Horn of My Love (1974),
by Okot p’Bitek
