Amos Tutuola
Encyclopedia
Amos Tutuola was a Nigeria
n writer
famous for his books based in part on Yoruba
folk-tales
.
, Nigeria, in 1920, where his parents Charles and Esther were Yoruba
Christian
cocoa farmers. When about 7 years old, he became a servant for F.O. Monu, an Igbo
man, who sent Tutuola to the Salvation Army
primary school in lieu of wages. At age 12 he attended the Anglican Central School in Abeokuta. His brief education was limited to six years (from 1934 to 1939). When his father died in 1939, Tutuola left school to train as a blacksmith, which trade he practised from 1942 to 1945 for the Royal Air Force
in Nigeria. He subsequently tried a number of other vocations, including selling bread and acting as messenger for the Nigerian Department of Labor. In 1946, Tutuola completed his first full-length book, The Palm-Wine Drinkard
, within a few days. In 1947 he married Victoria Alake, with whom he had four sons and four daughters.
in 1956 as a storekeeper in Ibadan
, Western Nigeria. Tutuola became also one of the founders of Mbari Club, the writers' and publishers' organization. In 1979, he held a visiting research fellowship at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University
) at Ile-Ife, Nigeria, and in 1983 he was an associate of the International Writing Program
at the University of Iowa
. In retirement he divided his time between residences at Ibadan and Ago-Odo. Tutuola died at age 77 on June 8, 1997 from hypertension
and diabetes.
Despite his short formal education, Tutuola wrote his novels in English. His most famous novel, The Palm-Wine Drinkard and his Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Deads' Town, was written in 1946, published in 1952 in London
by Faber and Faber
, and translated and published in Paris
as L'Ivrogne dans la brousse by Raymond Queneau
in 1953. The noted poet Dylan Thomas
brought it to wide attention, calling it "brief, thronged, grisly and bewitching". Although the book was praised in England
and the United States
, it faced severe criticism in Tutuola's native Nigeria. Part of this criticism was due to his use of "broken English" and primitive style, which supposedly promote the Western stereotype of "African backwardness". The Palm-Wine Drinkard was followed up by My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
in 1954 and then several other books in which Tutuola continued to explore Yoruba traditions and folklore. Strangely the narrative of the Palm-Wine Drinkard refers back to The Bush of Ghosts several times even though the latter was written and published later. However, none of the subsequent works managed to match the success of The Palm Wine Drinkard. Many of Tutuola's papers, letters, and holographic manuscripts have been collected at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
at the University of Texas, Austin.
Brian Eno and David Byrne took the title of the novel "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
" for their 1981 album
.
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
n writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
famous for his books based in part on Yoruba
Yoruba people
The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...
folk-tales
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
.
Early history
Tutuola was born in AbeokutaAbeokuta
Abeokuta is the largest city and capital of Ogun State in southwest Nigeria and is situated at , on the Ogun River; 64 miles north of Lagos by railway, or 81 miles by water. As of 2005, Abeokuta and the surrounding area had a population of 593,140....
, Nigeria, in 1920, where his parents Charles and Esther were Yoruba
Yoruba people
The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...
Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
cocoa farmers. When about 7 years old, he became a servant for F.O. Monu, an Igbo
Igbo people
Igbo people, also referred to as the Ibo, Ebo, Eboans or Heebo are an ethnic group living chiefly in southeastern Nigeria. They speak Igbo, which includes various Igboid languages and dialects; today, a majority of them speak English alongside Igbo as a result of British colonialism...
man, who sent Tutuola to the Salvation Army
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
primary school in lieu of wages. At age 12 he attended the Anglican Central School in Abeokuta. His brief education was limited to six years (from 1934 to 1939). When his father died in 1939, Tutuola left school to train as a blacksmith, which trade he practised from 1942 to 1945 for the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
in Nigeria. He subsequently tried a number of other vocations, including selling bread and acting as messenger for the Nigerian Department of Labor. In 1946, Tutuola completed his first full-length book, The Palm-Wine Drinkard
The Palm-Wine Drinkard
The Palm-Wine Drinkard is often considered the seminal work of modern African literature. It gained Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola acclaim in the West and criticism at home...
, within a few days. In 1947 he married Victoria Alake, with whom he had four sons and four daughters.
Writing
After he had written his first three books and become internationally famous, he joined the Nigerian Broadcasting CorporationVoice of Nigeria
The Voice of Nigeria is the official international broadcasting station of Nigeria.-History:Founded in 1961, the Voice of Nigeria began life as the External Service of the then Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation...
in 1956 as a storekeeper in Ibadan
Ibadan
Ibadan is the capital city of Oyo State and the third largest metropolitan area in Nigeria, after Lagos and Kano, with a population of 1,338,659 according to the 2006 census. Ibadan is also the largest metropolitan geographical area...
, Western Nigeria. Tutuola became also one of the founders of Mbari Club, the writers' and publishers' organization. In 1979, he held a visiting research fellowship at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University
Obafemi Awolowo University
Obafemi Awolowo University is a government-owned and -operated Nigerian university. The university is in the ancient city of Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria...
) at Ile-Ife, Nigeria, and in 1983 he was an associate of the International Writing Program
International Writing Program
The International Writing Program is a writing residency for international artists in Iowa City, Iowa. Since its inception in 1967, the IWP has hosted over 1,100 emerging and established poets, novelists, dramatists, essayists, and journalists from more than 120 countries...
at the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
. In retirement he divided his time between residences at Ibadan and Ago-Odo. Tutuola died at age 77 on June 8, 1997 from hypertension
Hypertension
Hypertension or high blood pressure is a cardiac chronic medical condition in which the systemic arterial blood pressure is elevated. What that means is that the heart is having to work harder than it should to pump the blood around the body. Blood pressure involves two measurements, systolic and...
and diabetes.
Despite his short formal education, Tutuola wrote his novels in English. His most famous novel, The Palm-Wine Drinkard and his Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Deads' Town, was written in 1946, published in 1952 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
by Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...
, and translated and published in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
as L'Ivrogne dans la brousse by Raymond Queneau
Raymond Queneau
Raymond Queneau was a French poet and novelist and the co-founder of Ouvroir de littérature potentielle .-Biography:Born in Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, Queneau was the only child of Auguste Queneau and Joséphine Mignot...
in 1953. The noted poet Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
brought it to wide attention, calling it "brief, thronged, grisly and bewitching". Although the book was praised in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, it faced severe criticism in Tutuola's native Nigeria. Part of this criticism was due to his use of "broken English" and primitive style, which supposedly promote the Western stereotype of "African backwardness". The Palm-Wine Drinkard was followed up by My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (novel)
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is a novel by African writer Amos Tutuola from Nigeria published in 1954.This novel recounts the fate of mortals who stray into the world of ghosts. The 'bush' is in the heart of the tropical forest, an impenetrable thicket left even after the rest of the forest is...
in 1954 and then several other books in which Tutuola continued to explore Yoruba traditions and folklore. Strangely the narrative of the Palm-Wine Drinkard refers back to The Bush of Ghosts several times even though the latter was written and published later. However, none of the subsequent works managed to match the success of The Palm Wine Drinkard. Many of Tutuola's papers, letters, and holographic manuscripts have been collected at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
The Harry Ransom Center is a library and archive at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the United States and Europe. The Ransom Center houses 36 million literary manuscripts, 1 million rare books, 5 million photographs, and more...
at the University of Texas, Austin.
Selected bibliography
- The Palm-Wine DrinkardThe Palm-Wine DrinkardThe Palm-Wine Drinkard is often considered the seminal work of modern African literature. It gained Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola acclaim in the West and criticism at home...
(1946, published 1952) - My Life in the Bush of GhostsMy Life in the Bush of Ghosts (novel)My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is a novel by African writer Amos Tutuola from Nigeria published in 1954.This novel recounts the fate of mortals who stray into the world of ghosts. The 'bush' is in the heart of the tropical forest, an impenetrable thicket left even after the rest of the forest is...
(1954) - Simbi and the Satyr of the Dark Jungle (1955)
- The Brave African Huntress (1958)
- Feather Woman of the Jungle (1962)
- Ajaiyi and his Inherited Poverty (1967)
- The Witch-Herbalist of the Remote Town (1981)
- The Wild Hunter in the Bush of the Ghosts (1982)
- Yoruba Folktales (1986)
- Pauper, Brawler and Slanderer (1987)
- The Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories (1990)
Tributes
The name of a detective on the television show "Law and Order:SVU" is Odafin Tutuola. In the first pages of the introduction of "The Palm Wine Drinkard," Michael Thelwell writes that the author's grandfather was an odafin, a spiritual leader, and Tutuola was the given name of Amos Tutuola's father.Brian Eno and David Byrne took the title of the novel "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (novel)
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is a novel by African writer Amos Tutuola from Nigeria published in 1954.This novel recounts the fate of mortals who stray into the world of ghosts. The 'bush' is in the heart of the tropical forest, an impenetrable thicket left even after the rest of the forest is...
" for their 1981 album
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (album)
The album was recorded entirely with analogue technology, before the advent of digital sequencing and MIDI. The sampled voices were synchronized with the instrumental tracks via trial and error, a practice that was often frustrating, but which also produced several happy accidents.Also according to...
.
For further information
- Collins, Harold R. Amos Tutuola. Twayne's World Author Series (TWAS 62). New York: Twayne Publishers, 1969.
- Lindfors, Bernth. "Amos Tutuola" in Twentieth Century Caribbean and Black African Writers. Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 125. Detroit: Gale Research, 1983.
- Owomoyela, Oyekan. Amos Tutuola Revisited. Twayne's World Author Series (TWAS 880). New York: Twayne Publishers, 1999.
External links
- Amos Tutuola at Pegasos
- Amos Tutuola at The Imperial Archive
- Profile of Amos Tutuola by Michael SwanwickMichael SwanwickMichael Swanwick is an American science fiction author. Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he began publishing in the early 1980s.-Biography:...