Okello Oculi (1942 â 26 July 2025) 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.
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 (S5 -S6). 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.
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.