VENETS: the Belogradchik journal for local history, cultural heritave and folk studies

14-19

Authors: I. Petkov Tsekov

The short history of the Belogradchik archieral district is written on November, 10th, 1967 by Ivan Petkov Tsekov, a priest at the Belogradchik church. It is an archive document found by Ivan Spassov, a local historian.

26-33

Authors: G. Simeonova

Letter to the Editor

57-73

Authors: John Madoshi Peter

Okot pBitek’s Song of Lawino and Ocol manifests a conflict caused by Cos-mos and Ontological differences between African and western culture. The main character, Lawino in the Song of Lawino, laments of the cultural death of her western educated husband Ocol. Examining the book through the lens of African Philosophy, it is shown that Lawino has no sufficient knowledge about western cosmos and its ontology. Thus her argument is centered upon the protest and defense of Okoli’s tradition and customs. Two perspectives seem to conflict within Song of Lawino and Ocol. First is the way Ocol views African tradition and customs and second is the way Lawino regards her reli-gion and the foreign religion into which her husband has been converted. Ocol in Song of Ocol, seems to attack the center of African ontology. He sees that Lawino’s beliefs in African tradition and customs is superstation. In the side of argument, Ocol appears to be stronger because he knows the weakness of his society. Being the advocate and prophesying western civilization, he under-stands what he advocates through the knowledge he acquires from reading. (Song of Ocol), Ocol shifts from attacking Ocol’s culture and his attack is ex-tended to African culture in its totality. He attacks the Gikuyu,, the Ankole women of Rwanda and Burundi, the Swahili women with their buibui attires, the Luo, the Karamajong the Kalenjin and the Maasai warriors. The fact that Ocol shifts his attack to cover the large area of African tradition and customs shows that the two characters are used symbolically to represent traditional Africans (Lawino) and educated Africans who who are represented by the character Ocol. However, despite the fact that Ocol is educated, he retains his roots just as Ocol tribe retains his name.

99-107

Authors: B.V. Toshev

The only visit of a Bulgarian patriarch in Belogradchik is in 1954. The citizens met Patriarch Kirill with a joy. Ivan Frolov, a senior priest in Belogradchik, met the Patriarch with a speech.

117-127

Authors: R. Vladova

Veselin Borisov is a physician, professor. He is known as a poet and publicist as well. An anthology of poems - old and new, was published by him in 2019.