Abstract
Human beings share commonalities, many of which are intricately woven into literature. Literary works allow individuals to explore and gain insights into diverse cultures and ideas across spatiotemporal contexts. Against this backdrop, this study compared two literary works, Oedipus Rex (Sophocles, 1992) and Utenzi wa Nyakiiru Kibi [‘Epic of Nyakiiru-Kibi’] (Mulokozi, 1997), to gain insight into the two societies from which the stories are derived. Using Aarne and Thompson’s (1961) classification of the Oedipus story, the study finds that Utenzi wa Nyakiiru Kibi qualifies as an Oedipal story as it meets several Oedipal narrative motifs in the Oedipus story. The epic of Nyakiiru-Kibi presents an Oedipal narrative, a relatively scarce tale in Africa. It presents a complex organisation in the Great Lakes Region, similar to ancient Greece. The similarities between the stories reflect the comparability of sociology, culture and political systems in ancient Greek kingdoms, the Kiziba kingdom and several others in the Great Lakes of East Africa around the 15th century.
Recommended Citation
Mnenuka, Angelus
(2023)
"But he did not commit incest…!” A Comparative Analysis of Utenzi wa Nyakiiru Kibi and Oedipus Rex,"
Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences: Vol. 12
:
No.
2
, Article 6.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.56279/jhss.v12.i2.5
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