Pio Zirimu

Pio Zirimu was a Ugandan linguist, scholar and literary theorist. He is credited with coining the word "orature" as an alternative to the self contadictory term, "oral literature" ^[1] used to refer to the non written expressive African traditions. Zirimu was also central in reforming the literature syllabus at Makerere university to focus on African literature and culture instead of the English canon.^[2]

Early life and Education

Zirumu was born in Buganda. He attended high school at King's College Budo. He attended Makerere University college, and the university of leeds, where he was a contemporary of Ngugi wa Thiong'o. While at Makerere, he met Ugandan poet and dramatist Elvania Namukwaya Zirimu. They were to marry a few years later. The marriage produced a daughter. He later taught at the Institute of Languages Studies at Makerere where he was involved in the formulation of standards for judging emergent African lietrature in the 1960s.^[2]

Published works

• An approach to Black Aesthetics, in Pio Zirimu and Andrew Gurr, ed. (1973). Black Aesthetics: Papers from a Colloquium Held at the University of Nairobi, June, 1971. East African Literature Bureau. ISBN 978-0860702573. 
• Oracy as a tool of development, in Pio Zirimu and Andrew Gurr, ed. (1973). Black Aesthetics: Papers from a Colloquium Held at the University of Nairobi, June, 1971. East African Literature Bureau. ISBN 978-0860702573.  with Austin Bukenya

References

External links

• Globalectics: Theory and the Politics of Knowing. Columbia University Press. 2013. ISBN 9780231530750. 
• Uganda, a century of existence. Fountain Publishers. 1995. ISBN 9789970020225. 
• "Definitions and understandings of oral literature"
• "Uganda Poetry Anthology 2000. (Uganda)."