100 Days

By Juliane Okot Bitek
Publisher: University of Alberta Press

Book Description

For 100 days, Juliane Okot Bitek recorded the lingering nightmare of the Rwandan genocide in a poem – each poem recalling the senseless loss of life and of innocence. Okot Bitek draws on her own family’s experience of displacement under the regime of Idi Amin, pulling in fragments of the poetic traditions she encounters along the way: the Ugandan Acholi oral tradition of her father—the poet Okot p’Bitek; Anglican hymns; the rhythms and sounds of the African American Spiritual tradition; and the beat of spoken word and hip-hop.

Author Bio

Writer Juliane Okot Bitek is a PhD Candidate with UBC’s Liu Institute for Global Issues in Vancouver. In 2004, her short story Going Home won the Commonwealth Short Story Contest and was featured on the BBC and CBC.