Okello Oculi


Okello Oculi was a Ugandan novelist, poet and chronicler of rural African village life. Until his death, he was a private political and social consultant based in Abuja, Nigeria. Before that, he served as Professor of Social and Economic Research at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria.

Background

Oculi was born in 1942, in Dokolo District, Northern Uganda, when the district was still part of Lira District.
Oculi was educated at Soroti College, in Soroti, and St. Peter's College Tororo, both in Eastern Uganda. He then attended St. Mary's College Kisubi for his A-Level examinations. He entered Makerere University, Uganda's oldest university, where he studied political science, graduating in 1967, with a bachelor's degree. During his undergraduate studies at Makerere, he spent one year, from 1964 until 1965, as an exchange student at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, United States. In 1968, he obtained a Master's degree from the University of Essex, in the United Kingdom. He obtained a PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1972.
Oculi died in Abuja on 26 July 2025, at the age of 83.

Professional work

Oculi's writing is filled with authentic snatches of conversation, proverbs, and folk wisdom. His poetry, like that of Okot p'Bitek and Joseph Buruga, seeks to re-assert the cultural heritage of Africa with a critique of foreign influences in East Africa.

Selected bibliography

Kanti Riti Malak: An African Political Poem Kookolem Health Problems in Rural and Uurban Africa Nigerian Alternatives Political Economy of Malnutrition Song for the Sun in Us Discourses on Africa Affairs: Directions and Destinies for the 20th Century Song for the Sun in Us Discourses on African Affairs: Directions and Destinies For the 21st CenturyPolitical Economy of Malnutrition KookolemMalak: An African Political PoemImperialism, Settlers and Capitalism in KenyaKanta RitiOrphanProstitute