Historical Context
Nigeria
Tutuola was born and lived throughout his life in Nigeria, and his life spanned
most of twentieth-century Nigerian history. By the beginning of the nineteenth
century, the area of West Africa now known as Nigeria was inhabited by various
tribal peoples often at war with one another. In the latter half of the
nineteenth century, the area came increasingly under the rule of British
traders and missionaries, and eventually was politically conquered by the
British. In 1894, the two protectorates of Benin and Yorubaland were combined
by the British to create the Niger Coast Protectorate. The British government
eventually took control of the areas which had been run by the Royal Niger
Company. The British re-divided the region into the Protectorate of Northern
Nigeria and Southern Nigeria. In 1914, these two territories were merged by the
British and renamed the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. In the early
twentieth century, the British instituted what they called "indirect rule,"
which was a policy of allowing for native rule at a local level, overseen by a
British governmental rule of the colony. Violent rebellion against British
rule, resulting in significant casualties, took place in 1906, 1918, and 1929.
Throughout the 1950s, pressure for self-rule increased, and new constitutions
were adopted several times. In 1960, Nigeria was granted national self-rule.
Subsequently, however, internal tensions between various ethnic groups led to
national instability. In 1966, a military coup was attempted, in which the
prime minister was murdered; however, the military head who came into power as
a result of this coup was assassinated that same year. During that year,
inter-ethnic tensions erupted into violence. A civil war began in 1967 when
several states declared themselves an independent Republic of Biafra. The
Biafrans surrendered in 1970. In 1975, a military coup was enacted, and in 1976
the leader of that coup was assassinated. Another military coup took place in
1983. In 1985, Nigeria saw its sixth coup in a period of twenty years.
Nigeria's first presidential elections in 1993 were ruled illegitimate, and
another military coup resulted.
The Yoruba
Tutuola's ethnic identity was Yoruba. The Yoruba are one of the two most
populous tribal identities in Nigeria. Among the more than 24 million Yorubans
in Nigeria today, the men are traditionally farmers or craftsmen, and the
women, who do not farm, are traditionally shop-owners and tradeswomen. The
Yoruba are known for their bronze casting skills, using the "lost wax"
technique. To this day, the city of Ile-Ife is of great importance to the
Yoruba, as it is traditionally considered to be the location of the creation of
the earth.
Nigerian Novelists
Tutuola is one among several prominent modern Nigerian novelists. Daniel
Fagunwa, a Nigerian, was the first to publish a full-length novel in the Yoruba
language. Published in 1938, the novel's title is translated as The Forest
of a Thousand Demons, and is essentially a collection of traditional Yoruba
fairy tales with a clearly stated moral which shows the influence of Christian
missionary education. Tutuola has often been criticized as having borrowed
rather heavily from his early reading of Fagunwa's work. Chinua Achebe,
probably the best known African writer in the Western world and also a
Nigerian, is famous for his 1954 novel, Things Fall Apart, which
idealizes a lost traditional African culture destroyed by colonialism.
Literary Style
The Yoruba Folktale
Tutuola's stories are loosely based on traditional Yoruba folktales, originally told in oral form. African critics pointed out early in Tutuola' s writing career that he seemed to have borrowed heavily from the Nigerian writer Fagunwa, who wrote Yoruban folktales in the Yoruban language. Subsequent critics, however, have noted that Tutuola's stories are infused with his own particular style of narrative, and...
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do not include the pointed moralizing which Fagunwa's tales emphasized. In his later writing, however, which would include "The Village Witch Doctor," Tutuola consciously included more specific elements of traditional Yoruba lore into his stories.
Repetition and Rhythm
Although every culture has its particular style of folktale, critics have found
many similarities in folktales across a spectrum of cultures. Italo Calvino,
for example, in collecting and transcribing traditional Italian folktales, has
noted the "rhythm" and "hard logic" with which these stories are told. Rhythm,
according to Calvino, is a function of repetition: "The technique of oral
narration in the popular tradition follows functional criteria. It leaves out
necessary details but stresses repetition: for example, when a tale consists of
a series of the same obstacles to be overcome by different people. A child's
pleasure in listening to stories lies partly in waiting for things he expects
to be repeated; situations, phrases, formulas. Just as in poems and songs the
rhymes help to create rhythm, so in prose narrative there are events that
rhyme." "The Village Witch Doctor" is also structured by a rhythm of
anticipated repetitions. The male of each generation of the family in the
story—Aro, Jaye, and Ajaiyi—follows a similar set of experiences and actions.
Both Aro and Ajaiyi go repeatedly to the village witch doctor for advice, and
are repeatedly deceived by him. Aro and Jaye, and their wives, each die
"suddenly" of poverty. Repeated actions are also taken by individual
characters. For example, Ajaiyi has no choice but to pawn his labor for money
three different times in the story.
Language
Tutuola's stories have been noted for their non-standard use of the English
language. These stories, written in English, are loosely based on Yoruba oral
folktales. And, while English was not Tutuola's first language, he also
received only a minimal formal education. As a result, his early novels and
stories were characterized by grammatical errors which the editors chose to
leave uncorrected, in order to capture Tutuola's narrative voice. By the time
"The Village Witch Doctor" was published, late in Tutuola's career, he had made
efforts to improve his use of standard English in his writing. As a result, as
Oyekan Owomoyela noted, "If. . .Tutuola's English in the earliest novels
approximated that of contemporary secondary class two students, and in the
later ones. . .that of secondary class four users. . .certainly by Witch Doctor
he was writing at a level that compares easily with that of high school
certificate holders." Harold R. Collins, however, asserts that, despite the
increasing standardization of Tutuola's use of English in the later stories,
"the language of the new romance is still pure Tutuolan—unschoolmastered and
unedited, robust and sinewy."
Literary Heritage
Tutuola's short stories, written in English, are derived from the oral
tradition of his native African tribe, the Yoruba. Tutuola's literary style is
noted for its preservation of the speech patterns characteristic of oral
storytelling, which boldly defy the dictates of standard written English.
Daniel Fangunwa earlier transcribed similar traditional stories into the Yoruba
language, and some critics have denigrated Tutuola for borrowing too heavily
from his work, while others note that Tutuola has added his own literary voice
to these traditional tales. Tutuola's renditions of stories he heard among his
family and fellow members of his tribal village can also be categorized among
written works of folklore based on oral traditions, such as Italian Folktales,
by Italo Calvino, and Grimm's Fairy tales, compiled from German folktales by
the Brothers Grimm. Tutuola's fiction also belongs to the category of African
fiction written in English which emerged in the latter half of the twentieth
century, roughly commensurate with the achievement of national independence
among many African nations in the years after World War II. As a Nigerian,
Tutuola's work is categorized with other twentieth century West African
writers, most notably the Nigerian Chinua Achebe, whose novel Things Fall Apart
was first published in 1954. Since many African nations remained part of the
British Commonwealth, even after independence, Tutuola's work is also part of
the broader development of English literature of the British Commonwealth.
Media Adaptations
Tutuola' s first novel, The Palm-Wine Drinkard, was adapted for the stage by Kola Ogunmola.
Bibliography and Further Reading
Sources
"Amos Tutuola," in Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 125:
Twentieth-Century Caribbean and Black African Writers, second series,
edited by Bernth Lindfors and Reinhard Sander, Gale, 1993, p. 332.
Collins, Harold R., Amos Tutuola, Twayne, 1969, pp. x, 19-22.
Lindfors, Bernth, ed., Critical Perspectives on Amos Tutuola, Three Continents Press, 1975, pp. xiii-xiv, 3, 73.
Owomoyela, Okeyan, Amos Tutuola Revisited, Twayne, 1999, p. 143.
Further Reading
Larson, Charles R., ed., Under African Skies: Modern African Stories,
Farrar, Straus, 1997.
A collection of short stories by modern African writers such Ngugi wa Thiong'o,
Ama Ata Aidoo, and Chinua Achebe. Includes "The Complete Gentleman" by
Tutuola.
Owomoyela, Okeyan, Amos Tutuola Revisited, Twayne, 1999.
A reappraisal of Tutuola's works and literary influence in retrospect following
his death in 1997.
Quayson, Ato, Strategic Transformations in Nigerian Writing, Indiana
University Press, 1997.
Critical analysis of Nigerian novelists Rev. Samuel Johnson, Amos Tutuola, Wole
Soyinka, and Ben Okri.