About Nigerian Author Amos Tutuola
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| Amos Tutuola |
Nigerian author Amos Tutuola was born in the
Southwest State of Abeokuta, Nigeria, near the Ogun River in 1920. His parents
earned meager wages as cocoa farmers in the area. Tutuola had eight children
and held many odd jobs as he grew up but mainly he worked as a records keeper
for the Nigerian Broadcasting Company.
Tutuola's most famous novels are The Palm-Wine
Drinkard written in 1946 and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts in 1954. Tutuola was
Nigeria's first internationally recognized author writing in English. The Palm
Wine Drinkard has been translated into more than 15 different languages.
Most of his writings were based on Yoruba
folktales however; some fellow Nigerians looked on Tutuola writings as using
uncivilized language in his books. Tutuola was also criticized using for
clichéd examples of Nigerian culture and writing folktales was not looked upon
as true fine art. Despite his fellow Nigerians opinion on his writing style, in
1952 the London printing house of Faber and Faber bought Tutuola’s The
Palm-Wine Drinkard.
Welsh poet Dylan Thomas in the Observer
newspaper called the novel “brief, thronged, the grisly and bewitching story”
bringing more attention to the book and to the attention of American and French
literary critics. Notable later works of Tutuola were The Witch-Herbalist of
the Remote Town was written in 1981, Yoruba Folktales in 1986 and The Village Witch
Doctor and Other Stories in 1990.
Tutuola is one of the founders of the Mbari
Club, the writers' and publishers' organization in Ibadan, Nigeria. In Ibadan
1961, the capital city of Oyo state, Nigeria, the Mbari Club was created for
African writers, artists, and musicians. Mbari is the Igbo’s word for creation.
Amos Tutuola passed away on June 8, 1997, at the age of 76.
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is the journey of
a young African boy who in the forest is left alone and strays into the world
of ghosts. The Palm-Wine Drinkard draws from the Yoruba folktale traditions
told to him by his mother and aunts, Tutuola describes the journey of an ardent
palm wine drinker through a truly nightmarish voyage.
