THE MYTHOLOGICAL ICONS IN
AMOS TUTUOLA THE PALM-WINE
DRINKARD
BY
ONABIYI, MONILOLA ABIDEMI
MATRIC NO: 07/15CD152
A LONG ESSAY SUBMITTED TO THE
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, FACULTY OF
ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN. AWARD OF
THE BACHELOR OF ARTS (HONS) IN
ENGLISH.
MAY 2011.
CERTIFICATION
THIS ESSAY HAS BEEN READ AND APPROVED AS
MEETING OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE
DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS (HONS.) ENGLISH IN THE
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH OF THE FACULTY OF ARTS,
UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN, NIGERIA.
……………………..
SUPERVISOR
…………………………
DATE
………………………
HEAD OF DEPARTMENT
…………………………
DATE
…………………….
EXTERNAL EXAMINER
……………………….
DATE
ii
DEDICATION
This project is dedicated to God Almighty, and to my
parents for the love and care.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I give special thank to God who created me and who has
made it possible for me to get to this stage of my life.
My profound gratitude and appreciation goes to my
supervisor Dr. Mrs. Ibrahim for her scholarly guidance and
advice which greatly helped in writing this long Essay. May God
continue to protect and lead her aright in all her endeavours.
My thanks also goes to Dr. Alanamu for his financial
support and for always being there.
I say a big thank you to Tobi Olushola Rowland for his
moral support and also financial support, God will continue to
bless you.
Lastly, I say thank you to my parent Mr. and Mrs. Onabiyi
and my Junior ones Abiola and Damilola for their love and
prayers. Thank you all and Godbless.
iv
ABSTRACT
This project explores the Amos Tutuola’s Palm – Wine Drinkard
in terms of it’s use of mythological icons. In particular, the
project seeks to explore the novel as an important artifact and a
literary product of social existence. It examines how
“authencity” is signified in The Palm – Wine Drinkard as it is
written by a native artist. In doing so, the project seek to
demonstrate that it is an ambivalence over the value and
significance of The Palm – Wine Drinkard. Instability is also
provoked and acute cultural anxiety is shown in the work of a
“natural artist” such as Amos Tutuola in this case.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page
i
Certification
ii
Dedication
iii
Acknowledgement
iv
Abstract
v
Table of Contents
vi
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
The Meaning of Mythology
1
1.2
African Belief System and Myth
5
1.3
The Yoruba Perception of Myth
8
1.4
The Purpose and Significance of Study
10
1.5
Aims and Objectives
12
1.6
Methodology
14
1.7
Scope of Study
15
1.8
Playwrights Autobiography
16
vi
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1
Nature of Myth
20
2.2
The Influence of Mythology on African Creative
Writers
2.3
44
Essence and Function of Mythology in the African
Society
45
CHAPTER THREE
ELEMENTS OF MYTH IN AMOS TUTUOLA
THE PALM-WINE DRINKARD
48
CHAPTER FOUR
TRADITIONAL AFRICAN SOCIETAL OVERVIEWS
AND CONCLUSION
66
BIBLIOGRAPHY
88
vii
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
THE MEANING OF MYTHOLOGY
Mythology is a collection of traditional stories that express
the belief of values of a group of people. The stories often focus
on human qualities such as good and evil.
Myths often tell the story of ancestors, supernatural
beings, heroes, gods, or goddesses with special powers
sometimes myths try to describe aspects of customs or explain
natural events such as the sun or lightning. These stories
sometimes contain mythical characters such as mermaids,
unicorn, or dragons. All cultures have some type of myths for
example, the classical mythology of the ancient Greeks and
Romans is familiar to most people. The stories of nature
American people are also well known. The same myths can
often be found in different part of the world. For example
1
creation stories related to plants, animals and people are
common among may cultures.
The study of myth is called mythology and myth belongs
to the sphere of will. It does not have a single form or act
according to the simple set of rules, either from epoch or from
culture to culture. Most mythical stories concern divinities
(divine beings). These divinities have supernatural powers –
powers far greater than any humans beings has. But, in spite of
their supernatural powers, many gods, goddesses, and heroes
of mythology have human characteristics. A number of mythical
figures even look like human being and in many cases, the
human qualities of the divinities reflect society idea. Good gods
and goddesses have the qualities a society admires and evil
ones have the qualities the society dislikes.
An old theory, and myth that has enjoyed considerable
vogue, holds that myth is oral narratives which explain the
essences and sequences of ritual performances, thereby
2
preserving the memory of these elements for posterity such that
myth is second to rituals, in terms of evolution. Myth is usually
divided into two groups, the creation and explanatory myths.
Creation myths try to explain the origin of the world, the
creation of human beings and the birth of gods and goddesses
and this type of myth is developed by the early societies.
Explanatory myth, in its own case, tries to explain natural
processes or events. Many societies have developed myth to
explain the formation and characteristics of geographical
features such as lake, rivers, ocean, etc. Some myth through
the actions or particular gods and heroes, stress proper
behaviour and this has to do with the ancient Greek’s strong
belief in moderation; that is nothing should be done in excess.
Thus, one notes that myth involves living and this clearly
indicates the element of struggle in human nature. For
thousands of years, mythology has provided material for much
of the world’s great art. Myth and mythological characters have
3
inspired masterpieces of architecture, literature, music etc.
Mythical beings fall into several groups, these include
‘anthropomorphic’ divinities, which are called from Greek
expression meaning ‘in the shape of man’, these divinities were
born, fell in love, fought with one another and generally
behaved like their human worshippers. Another group of myth
beings include gods and goddesses who resemble animals and
these characters are called ‘Theriomorphic’ which mean ‘in the
shape of animal’ and many of these occur in Egyptian
mythology.
The third group of mythical beings has no specific name;
these beings were neither completely human nor complete
animal. An example is the famous sphinx of Egypt who had a
human head and a horse body. Human beings play an
important part in mythology as myth deals with the relationships
between mortals and divinities. There are two ways in which the
presence of myth in any society may be explained; one is by
4
the way of diffusion and the other is through the independent
working of imagination.
Myth hides nothing and flaunt nothing: it distorts; it is
neither a lie nor a confession; it is an influxion.
1.2
AFRICAN BELIEF SYSTEM AND MYTH
A wide variety of mythologies have developed among
many people that live in Africa; and some of these mythologies
are simple and primitive while others are elaborate and
complex.
African mythology is a living chronicle in the minds of
people. Myth expresses the history, culture and the experience
of the African man and it portrays his wishes and the fears as
he gropes to understand the unknown by disserting and
remolding it to fit his frame of reference. In the study of myth,
the African’s metaphysics is created and his beliefs are
constructed. African mythology as every other form of African
conceptual pattern, emphasise human interaction in life itself. It,
5
thus, explains the context of various African cultures and norms
though spiritual communication which often occurs in African
myth as a means to uplift the living from the sorrows of their
entanglements in the ‘here and now’ philosophy. A myth is
created to enhance this and this is done through reincarnation.
Perhaps the best – known African mythologies are those
of the West African Ashanti, fon, and Yoruba people. Nyame is
the Ashanti sky and fertility god, the rain source for his wife
Arase ya, the earth itself. It is the culture hero trickster Aranse
the spider who acts as the god’s connection to human beings.
Essentially, Arranse corrects the mistakes of Nyame’s creation,
convincing the god to send rain to counteract the extreme heat
of the new sun, and river and ocean banks to contain the water
that would otherwise have flooded the world. Aranse also lives
up to his trickster reputation by succeeding in marrying the high
god’s daughter.
6
Among the fon the supreme deity is Nana Buluku, his twin
children Mahu and Lisa – female and male, earth and sky,
fertility and venality – establish balance in the world. Their son,
Dan, maintain life by controlling the deities who embody aspect
of nature.
The Yoruba sky god is the aloof Olorun, who load children
by the primordial waters, Olokun. These were Obatala of the
sky and Odudua of the earth. Some their union came dry and
wet trail, which produced Orungan, who made live to his
mother, producing the later Yoruba pantheon. The gods of this
pantheon represent various phenomena and human activities.
The concept of African mythology is to justify the African
wisdom and thus the African scholars find their creature
impetus in myth, history and customs. In the light of this
mythical concepts, Africans have been able to find their world –
view and have made intellectual attempt to understand the
phenomenon with which they continually live as Africans. The
7
imprint of myth in the African worldview cannot be obliterated; it
educate African about the details of African cosmological
beliefs, their meaning and their origins.
1.3
THE YORUBA PERCEPTION OF MYTH
The Yoruba cosmogony revolves essentially around the
belief in gods, ancestors, spirits and taboos. For a typical
Yoruba man, most of the divinities are supposed to have been
men and to have been exhausted for their heroic deeds to the
admiration and effection of the people. Therefore he believes
that in order to maintain societal status quo, there is need to
maintain a perfect and cordial relationship between himself and
the gods, it is this realization that brings about deification.
The Yoruba society like any other African society
comprises mainly of farmers and hunters whose means of
livelihood depend mostly on proceeds from the land and forest.
And they being aware of both physical and natural threats like
war, farming drought, flood etc, realize the need to appease
8
and propitiate the spirits and gods of the land at the appropriate
time, for good harvest fruitful hunting, and protection from their
adversaries.
In their bid to achieve all these, they developed festivals
and rituals which most of the time involves a symbolic
enactment of the life of some of the gods. The rituals mostly
contain sacrifice, which is the acknowledged means of
propitiation and purification. Sacrifices are made to the gods
with things that are peculiar to each of them, ranging from inanimated to animated things. It is the priest or priestress as the
case may be, that heeds in the ritual act. The people regard the
priests and priestesses as representatives of the gods.
Modern African playwrights in their bid to present what
can be characterized as a true African drama dive into the
history and background of the people which are manifested in
their myth, legend, folktales, taboos, proverbs, songs etc. They
attempt to depict the sociological, religious, political, economic,
9
cultural and ethical beliefs of the people vis-à-vis their norms
and values. One example of such playwrights is Amos Tutuola,
who, making perfect use of his knowledge about the Yoruba
cosmos, wrote “The Palm-wine Drinkard”.
1.4
THE PURPOSE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
The importance of studying this text is based on
mythology. “The Palm-wine Drinkard” uses mythology and
symbolism to explore various aspect of death. One definite
theme is that death is not an end but a transition. The drunkard
faces death many times and in many ways but lives through the
experiences. In fact, early in the story be pays Death himself a
visit and tricks Death into falling into a net, so that Death can
not go back home again. “So since that day that I had brought
Death out from his house, he has no permanent place to dwell
or stay and we are hearing this name about in the world
(Chapter 1, p. 199).
10
It is usual to hear that these tale express the “traditional
sensibility” of an “African” world view and offer a window into
the inchoate and frightening world of the primitive imagination.
So general statement would be quite misleading. The story and
the narrative and visionary techniques reflect one particular and
identifiable aspect of a complex and sophisticated tradition.
In the oral tradition the folktale - a rural and cautionary
story but clearly recognized as fiction and entertainment – had
free range of this random and arbitrary world. Because they
were intended for entertainment and instruction, these tales
could be as horrific, frightening and bizarre as the inauguration
could render them. They require the willing suspension of
belief.
“The Palm-wine Drinkard” tells the story of a young man
whose sole occupation is in drinking palm-wine, and lots of it.
His father provides him with a palm-wine tapper who keeps him
11
supplied when the palm-wine tapper dies, the palm-wine
drinkard decides to undertake a journey to find him.
Through his journey he tricks men, gods, and ghosts,
saves many people, and ends up meeting all kinds of different
ghosts and creatures. The story is fantastic and well worth the
read.
The story is told in Nigerian English as it existed when
Tutuola wrote the book. The writing style gives it a very unique
and different feel which really adds to the folktale feel and
makes it seem more real.
1.5
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The most significant aim of myth is based on the element
of supernatural and mysteries. This is done to create fear in
bath the minds of the reader. In traditional African literature
most of things done are shrouded in mysterious. Thus modern
African playwrights rely heavily on these apparatus to create
the desired effects in their text. African modern literature in its
12
attempt to capture the mystic effects of the traditional literature,
relies on costuming which has to correspond with the culture
and belief of the Africans.
The former aim at the most general statement, focus on
myth as one general factor in human thought, the teller
emphasise the variety of myths. Efforts are made on one hand
to father the inner meaning of myth because of the
authoritative, indeed revelatory function they have for human
existence, while on the other hand, there is tendency to deal
with myth in term of general theory of man that may be inspired
biologically, psychologically or any other way.
The original Greek term for myth (mythos) denotes “word”
in the sense of a decisive, final pronouncement. Myth present
extraordinary events without trying to justify them, people have
sometimes assumed that myth are simply unprovable and false
stories and thus have made the word a synonym for fable.
13
However, through indept study of myth was discovered that
there are distinct differences between myth and fable.
All survey of myth scholarship done by inquests,
anthropologists, folklorists and literary critics reveal that a
concensus of what the term ‘myth’ means has never seen
achievement within any of these fields let alone among them.
Even a simple rehearsing of the arguments that has taken
place would lead us far away from our topic, so we will need to
accept for the time being the working definition of myth in this
work.
1.6
METHODOLOGY
The study is purely applied research, it is based on an
extensive library research of published and unpublished
materials. There is no doubt, however, sharing the same sociocultural background with the playwright, the present researcher
has a good insight into the study. This, in fact, does not make
14
the study a basic research rather it is an applied research of
critical examinations of Amos Tutuola’s mythic text.
1.7
SCOPE OF STUDY
This study, however, shall focus on Amos Tutuola myth.
One of his text, “The Palm-wine Drinkard” shall be critically and
analytically examined base on the above topic, mythological
icons in Amos Tutuola’s “The Palm-wine Drinkard”. To really do
justice to this pre-occupation, the present researcher shall also
adopts a form of comparative study of the text.
The study shall be divided into four chapters: Chapter one
states the rationale behind the study and it also spells out the
scope, organization and methodology of the study. Chapter two
is review of relevant literature on nature of Amos Tutuola’s text,
whilst in chapter three we shall examine the mythological
element in Tutuola’s work. Chapter four, the last chapter,
concludes the study.
15
1.8
PLAYWRIGHTS AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Amos Tutuola was born 1920, Abeokuta, Nigeria. He was
a Nigerian writer. He had only six years of formal schooling and
wrote in English and outside the mainstream of Nigerian
literature. His stories incorporated Yoruba myths and legends
into loosely constructed prose epics that improvised on
traditional themes. His best – known work is “The Palm-wine
Drinkard” (1952), a classic quest tale that was the first Nigerian
book to achieve international fame. His later works include the
tale The Witch – Herbalist of the Remote Town (1981), Yoruba
Folktales (1986), and Village Witch Doctor (1990). Tutuola
hoard his first folk stories at his speaking mother’s knee when
he was about 7 years old, one of his father’s cousins took him
to live with F. O. Monu, an Ibe man, as a servant. Instead of
paying Tutuola money, he sent the young boy to the salvation
Army primary school. He attended tages High School for a
year, and worked as a houseboy for a government clerk. His
16
father Died in December 1938, Tutuola had to end his studies.
He tried his luck as a farmer, but his crop failed and he moved
to Lagos in 1940, during World War II he worked for the Royal.
Air forces as a blacksmith, and stores a number of other
vocations, including selling bread, and messengering for the
Nigerian Department of Labour. In 1946 Tutuola completed his
first full – length book, “The Palm-wine Drinkard”, within a few
days – “I was a story teller when I was in the school”, he later
said. Next year he married Victoria Alake.
“The Palm-wine Drinkard” and His Dead Palm in Tapster
in the Dead’s Town by Amos Tutuola is the novel that gained
Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola acclaim in the west and criticism
at home. The book was based on Yoruba folklore, but was
largely his own.
17
Amos Tutuola achieved only sixth grade education due to
financial constraints following his father’s death. He later tried
his hand at farming without success, then pursued the
blacksmith trade. He served as a coppersmith in the West
African Air Corps of the British military in World War II. After the
War Tutuola had to take a job as a messenger, and it gave him
time, between errands, to write down stories he had heard. His
first novel, “The Palm-wine Drinkard” and his Dead Palm-wine
Tapster in the Deads’ Town, became the subject of much
controversy because of its frequently ungrammatical, though
stylist and vivid, writing. A landmark work, it was the first novel
to be published by a Nigerian author, and also the first novel by
a black African to be written in English. The work is classified
as a novel, but there has been some debate about whether this
designation is accurate, since “The Palm-wine Drinkard”
incorporates so much oral tradition. Indeed, this novel has
provided many with their first glimpse into Yoruba folklore “The
18
Palm-wine Drinkard” draws heavily on traditional folktales,
which has been another source of controversy, prompting some
claim that the work plagiarizes the intellectual property of the
Yoruba people.
19
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1
NATURE OF MYTH
Distinguished philosophers and folklorists represent
opposite extremes in the study of myth. The Oxford English
Dictionary defines myth “as a purely fictitious narrative usually
involving
supernatural
persons,
action,
or
events
and
embodying some popular idea concerning natural or historical
phenomena” myth is a collective term used for one kind of
“symbolic communication and specifically indicates one basic
form of religious symbolism as distinguished from symbolic
behaviour (cult, ritual) and symbolic places or objects”. Myths in
(plural) are specific account concerning gods or superhuman
beings and extraordinary events or circumstances in a time that
is altogether different from that or ordinary human experience.
Myth occurs in the history of all human traditions and
communities and it is a basic constituent of human culture.
20
Wole Soyinka describes it as “a continuous source of the
knowledge needed for critical problems in man’s existence: war
and peace, life and death, truth and falsehood good and evil”.
Every myth presents itself as authoritative and always as an
account of fact no matter how completely different they may be
from ordinary world. It is properly distinguished from legend and
allegory but often used vauely to include any narrative having
fictitious elements.
1
Rigther Williams in Myth and Literature, says that myths
“are accounts with an absolute authority that is implied rather
than stated; they relates events and states of affair surpassing
the ordinary human world, yet basic to the world”. The time in
which the related events take place is altogether different from
the ordinary historical time of human experience (and in most
cases in un arrangenable long ago). The actors in the
narratives are usually gods or other extra ordinary beings such
21
as animals, plants or specific of real men who changed human
condition with their deeds.
2
Frazer in the Golden Bough says that “myths are
reenactment in figurative language of events once acted out in
magical ceremonies”. Echero attaches much importance to
myth partly because it gives form and meaning to experience.
Myth he argues, gives clear outlines to dramatic action whose
sequence of events is invariably of a deliberate kind” from this
talk of a pattern of ordered events. It is obvious that he is
concerned with the Aristotelian unified plot structure, with
logical cause and effect progressive in time.
3
Butcher also says that:
Myth is the unwritten literature of an early
people whose instinctive language was poetry.
It has their philosophy their history and it is
enshrined
in
both
their
conscious
and
unconscious theories of life. It recorded all they
know about their own past, about their cities,
22
families, the geographical movement of their
tribes and the exploits of their ancestors.
According to G. S. Dirk, myths are of vague and uncertain
category and one man’s myth is another man’s saga, legend or
folktale. What we need to decide is the basis upon which the
term myth need to decide is the basis upon which the term
myth can be applied to general consent and that will entail
separating instances for which doing other terms
are
preparable description. What remains may turn out to be a
class of phenomenon grouped formally, by the possession of a
particular narrative quality to tendency to be experienced on
special kinds of occasions rather than by something essential to
the concept of myth itself.
One of the theories about myth is that all myth are about
natural phenomenon; that is the sum, the moon, wind and
earth. The greatest exponents of this theory is Max Muller who
thought that myth were found through a misunderstanding of
23
names especially those attached to celestial objects. It may,
however, seem absurd, yet it is obvious that some myth are
concerned with such matters. The myth of the sky being forcibly
separated from the earth, that the world might exist between
them is an example of nature myth.
“Isidore Okpewho in Myth in Africa: A Study Its Aesthetic
and Culture Relevance; strongly objected to the theory that
myths are allegories of nature. He proposed that myths should
be considered as characters for customs, institution, or beliefs.
By this theory Okpewho meant something close to explanation
in a loose sense but devoid of theoretical qualities what this
theory implies is that in a traditional society every custom and
institution tends to be validated or confirmed by myth which
states a precedence for it but does not seek to explain it in any
logical sense.
It is possible, however, to stress the scared character of
myth and therefore its uniqueness. It is also possible to
24
describe and list theories of various accounts and thus place
myth and other narrative side by side. Which ever way one
learns, in the delineation of myth, it is useful to venture
comparison and contrast with other manifestation of oral
literature, like fable, fairy tales, folktales, saga, legends etc.
Many of which shares in one or more of the features of myth
without being mythical.
Fairy tales or folktales tell of extraordinary being and
events and in that respect, resemble myth, though differ
remarkably in other respects. The time suggested by fairy tales,
is the time of man’s ordinary experience. Whereas the typical
fairy tales or folktales open with “Once upon a time …” the
typical myth begins with “in the beginning ………” folktales
carry no authority like myth and even if sometimes a moral is
presented, the outstanding quality is entertainment thus we can
see that these narrative differs from myth even though they also
allude to some supernatural things.
25
Folktales are concerned essentially with life and problems
of ordinary people, they are not aristocratic in nature. They are
not concerned with target problem like the incentaility of death
or institution matters like the justification of kingship, their social
pre-occupation are restricted to the families for entertainment
and in some cases didactic that is importing some moral
values.
Fable on the other hand can be referred to as fictitious or
untrue story about animal and other animated things. Like myth,
it originated from Greek word (mythos) prominent among the
Yoruba is the fable about tortoise and its cunning ways. Saga
are tales with claim to truth and in that respect, they resemble
myth. The time of action, however, is a specific time in the past
(not unspeaed as in fairytales, nor altogether different times as
in the case of myth). The protagonists in saga are usually great
ancestor of the race or rotation.
26
The nature of myth was simply that the gods become
more and more like human beings and were supposed to be
more directly involved in human affairs. Myths make use of
magical features to influence the world. They are ultimately,
ancients of deep complex and half felt elements of human
nature and that is why they are told against a distant
background. All myth offer a cause or explanation of something
in the world.
In a typical African society, the natural, social, cultural,
biological and spiritual facts are explained by myth. The
function of narration and explanation go together. The beliefs
and values of the society the entrenched in myth thus, it is
significant in traditional system of education. Myth represents
an historical inner reality of the people, though that reality is
necessarily revealed in objective correlatives tens that we can
recognize.
27
Furthermore, a great number of myths answer question
about nature and foundation of ritual and cultic customs.
Dynasties and ruling families of the world found justification of
their position in myth, which state that they originated in the
sacred world of the gods. The descriptive function of myth
linked with the authoritative presentation of facts that transcend
ordinary reason and observation. Myth can describe that origin
of the world, the end of the world. Thus myth is capable of
describing when persons using reason and observation can
never see for themselves.
5
Jason weaver says;
Aside from the transmogrifield strangeness of
folk and fairy tales, Amos Tutuola’s 1952 novel
The palm-wine drinkard is unlike almost
anything else in print. Nebulous comparisons
naught be made with Orid’s metamorphoses,
Kafka’s inconclusive parable or Alice in wonder
hand. But things behave very differently from
even these European garquyles in Tutuola’s
28
twilight world. I know nothing about the author’s
own relationship to Nigerian culture I would
rather meet him as a stranger on the road;
enchanting and a little spooky.
What everyone knows is that David Byrne and Brian Eno
named their album of bricotage and technological tribalism after
Tutuola’s second novel “My life the Bush o9f Ghost” both
claimed they had never actually read the book, but it would
have been a wholly appropriate influence in Brians ‘stop making
sense lying and the circuit breaking Eno.
What is so vital about the palm-wine Drunkard is
Tutuola’s absolute dedication to the fantastic. All laws of the
probably are flauted and everything is elastic. Details are hasty
and sketched and sentence often end with a blunt “etc.” Thing
are most often described by the element s that mark them out,
make them what they are for brently, places and things are
named by their description. “The Red-people in the Red Town”
29
or rather wonderfully. The skull as a complete Gentleman”. The
latter is a bore cranium that lures body parts and a nice suit and
poses in the market place as a kind of Bryan Ferry in order to
lure pretty young women. Events are compressed, time
collapses, a decade passes in a sentence. It is, appropriately, a
drunken logic.
6
Dylan Thomas Says;
The hero of this “brief, thronged, grisley and
bewitching story”, is a devoted drinker of palmwine…
So devoted that drinking palm-wine is his only occupation his
father lures an expert tapster to supply his son with drink, and
before long he is drinking (with some help from his friends) a
total of 225 kegs of palm-wine a day, one day disaster strikes.
The tapster dies in a fall from a palm tree, and our hero is
unable to find a suitable replacement. “When I saw that there
was no palm-wine for me again, and nobody could tap it for me;
30
then I thought within myself that old people were saying that the
whole people who had died in this world, did not go to heaven
directly, but they were living in one place somewhere in this
world. So that I said that I would find out where my palm-wine
tapster who had died was”.
So begins this unusual small epic, written by a civil
service messenger with six years of elementary education,
steeped in Yoruba story telling traditions but peppered with
modern-day references, crowded with strange monsters and
improbable event told with perfect sincerity, and entrenched
with psychologically charged imagery that would make even a
non-Freudian sit up and take notice, this tale violates dozens of
grammatical rules and novelistic conventions yet provides in
abundance the one indispensable quality of literature: it is alive.
7
David Amason says;
31
Tutuola’s style was the chief appeal to
outsiders,
and
that
he
was
read
with
condescension.
The Palm-wine Drinkard burst onto the world literary scene in
1952, and was an immediate and smashing success. This was
balanced by Tutuola’s cool reception by Nigerian critics.
Most western critics deny that they treat Tutuola and
condescendingly, and attempt to prove their point by treating
Nigerian critics with condescension, making their aspirations
toward progress.
8
Paul Edwards says;
[The Palm-wine Drinkard] is more commonly
admired for its free – running fancy than for
anything that could be called its structure, and
apart from its archetypal form of the quest,
there might appear to be little evidence of
patterning …
Indeed what seems to be a clear instance of the absence
of form is the introduction of the tale of the quarrel between
32
earth and heaven into the novel’s closing pages. But I suggest
that it might be less arbitrary than it appears.
9 D. a. n. Jones says;
Tutuola
was
Welshman
like
who
a
had
seventeenth
just
century
discovered
the
sweetness of the English tongue.
Anyone who enjoys Nigerian writing in English must
salute Amos Tutuola, the man who made the breakthrough in
1952 with The Palm-wine Drinkard. It is appropriate that the
founder of a literature should be a working class man, an early
school – leaven, making poetic use of the idioms of the
unlettered.
10
Layren Grantz says;
Tutuola’s novel also marks the emergency of
debates about what African literature should be
like.
Western literary figures – most significantly Dylan
Thomas, who pushed for the novel’s publication – praised
33
Tutuola’s unique prose style and use of Yoruba oral tradition.
The “exoticism” of The Palm-wine Drinkard made it a
phenomenon throughout Europe, where it was road in over a
dozen languages. However, in Tutuola’s native Nigeria, the
novel gained more critical responses. Tutuola’s use of “pidgin”
English, superstition, and a protagonist who claims to drink
“Palm wine from morning till night” led some Nigerian
intellectuals to worry that the book fell into European
stereotypes of “backward” and “shiftless” Africans. Despite this
initial controversy, later Nigerian writers such as Chimia Achebe
embraced the text and encouraged leaders to reconsider the
novel.
Tutuola’s work depicts the travels of its titular character,
the self-described “palm-wine drunkard”. For those unfamiliar
with the beverage, palm-wine is an alcoholic drink made from
the sap of palm tree, which must be collected by a tapper.
Tutuola’s protagonist was such a tremendous thirst for wine
34
that he must employ “an expert palm-wine tapster” who taps
over two – hundred kegs of the drink per day. Unfortunately for
the drinkard, one day his tapster falls from a palm tree and dies.
No other tapster can satisfy his thirst for wine, so the drunkard
seeks the wisdom of the elderly in his village who were saying
that the whole people who had died in this world, did not go to
heaven directly, but they were living in one place somewhere in
this world”. Believing that his tapster resides in “Deads Town”,
the Drinkard summons all his “juju, or magic, and set hoping to
find and re-employ the dead man. Early readers focused
extensively in Tutuola’s use of the English language, debating
whether or not it was appropriately literary. While Dylan
Thomas called Tutuola’s prose a “Young English” and
enthusiastically endorsed the text, Nigerian critics considered it
“broken English” that merely reinforced conception of African
primitive. To be sure, when compared to the works of other
Anglophone African authors such as Achebe or Wole Soyinka,
35
Tutuola’s prose does ring strange. However, this reviewer
agrees with Michael Thelwell’s suggestion in his introduction to
Tutuola’s novel that the author employs “an English whose
vocabulary is bent and twisted into the service of a different
language’s nuances”. As readers grow accustomed to the
prose, it becomes clear that Tutuola’s is neither a “young” nor a
“broken” English, but rather a Yoruba – English that operates
with a rhythm and interval logic all its own. This makes for
fascinating read, and students of linguistics or oral literatures
would likely find this aspect of Tutuola’s novel fruitful for
research.
Tutuola’s Yoruba – English is also significant given that it
speaks to the blending of cultures and languages that
permeates the novel as a whole. For while most of the text has
its grounding in traditional Yoruba tales, there are also
numerous moments that reveal the colonial situation from which
the novel emerged; comparison utilizing twentieth century
36
military technology such as bombs and planes, and references
to the Christian god merge readily with Yoruba inspire spirits
and duties. Writing almost a decade prior to Nigeria’s
independence, Tutuola appropriates from various vocabularies
as best serves his purpose, crafting a tale that offers a glimpse
into Nigeria’s traditional heritage and its then colonial present.
While it has been nearly sixty years since its original
publication, The Palm-wine Drinkard still proves a rich text for
analyses by students of African and post-colonial literatures.
Tutuola became the first Nigerian writer to achieve
international recognition. This adaptation of Yoruba folktales
into nonstandard English represents one of the first works of its
kind, and Tutuola is credited with founding a uniquely African
literary form. Influencing critical reception of the Palm-wine
Drinkard was the early appearance of a laudatory review by
Dylan Thomas, and the ensuing critical attention gave Tutuola’s
work a cultlike status in the western world. Nigerian critics,
37
however, were skeptical of Tutuola’s skill and complained that
his work was both ungrammatical and unoriginal, being unduly
similar to the work of D. O. Fagunwa, a Yoruban chronicler of
tales in the vernacular. Tutuola’s next five works, all derived
from oral tales and written in English, received comparatively
less attention but established him as a consistently skillful story
teller. After his fifth work, Ajaiyi and His Inherited Poverty
(1967), Tutuola did not publish until the recent appearance of
The Witch – Herbalist of the Remote Town (1982).
Tutuola’s works usually concern a naïve or moral weak
character who is either inspired or forced to embark on a
spiritual journey. During this journey, he often encounters
danger, confronts spirits from the underworld, and has sudden
insights which enable him to live a more pious life. Because of
the spiritual themes, allegorical characters, and symbolic plots,
Tutuola’s works have been called mythologies or epics rather
than novels. An early Tutuola critic, Gerald Moore, analysed
38
Tutuola’s use of mythology, comparing mythological patterns
occurring in literature throughout the world. Other critics have
also recognized in Tutuola’s literary quests elements similar to
those of 10John Bunyan’s pilgrim’s progress and other important
quest literature says;
Since Tutuola was formally educated only
through the six grade, most critics consider a
conscious
emulation
of
world
mythology
unlikely. Rather, they attribute these similarities
to Tutuola’s knowledge of Yoruban oral tales,
which have universal themes as their basis.
It is his reliance on traditional stories which prompted well
– educated Nigerians to question Tutuola’s originality. However,
other respected critics maintain that Tutuola adapts and
expands the legendary sources to create original versions.
In The Witch – Herbalist of the Remote Town, Tutuola
again follows the mythological pattern of the quest theme. The
story’s protagonist, in search of a potion to render his wife
39
fertile, meets with children from the spirit world. The protagonist
undergoes mental changes which Tutuola depicts through
physical transformations and allegorical confrontations between
the protagonist and the various aspects of his personality.
There is overwhelming agreement that Tutuola has here
maintained the philosophic, symbolic, and imaginative qualities
of his first works.
African bush, wild, shrubby landscape through which the
drinker of palm-wine (a naturally alcoholic beverage that is
tapped directly from trees) travels during most of the novel.
Occasionally, he and his wife discover a road, but they are
soon driven back into the uncharted bush. The setting is never
specifically stated, but it may be inferred. The author is
Nigerian, and he incorporates Yoruba myths and legends into
his loosely connected narrative. The setting is either West
Africa or a magical landscape that physically resembles West
40
Africa. Though Tutuola did not consider himself a writer, more a
collector of stories.
When I started reading the story itself, I found a
class of literature that was completely different
from East and West.
This is not merely a folk tell, the writer has got
unimaginable way of thinking in his brain. When you read the
first paragraph of the text you will find you are shocked. The
book is so interesting that you can’t stop reading until it is
finished.
The Palm-wine Drinkard is a myth and cannot really be
read as a novel. It is in style and contexts very similar to the
numerous myths relayed by Joseph Campbell in his volumes of
mythology, the masks of God. But Amos Tutuola offers no
explanations and so the reader is left in the dark.
Wole Soyinka and Femi Osofisan are into the African past
with different attitudes to myth and history. Their works portrays
41
a deep concern and yearning for myth as an instrument and
source of inspiration for example Wole Soyinka draws
inspiration from myth of Ogun while Femi Osofisan concerns
him self with reinterpreting myth for revolutionary purpose, that
is trying to find solution to the vices in the society. This is shown
in all their text.
J. P. Clark uses myth as a way of confirming or
reaffirming the authencity of mysterious surrounding the gods
and supernatural powers that are beyond the control of ordinary
human being. In some of his works he perfectly brings out the
relationship between human beings and gods. He portrays how
human beings are just tools in the hands of the gods and vividly
shows that man’s destiny is controlled by the gods.
Margaret Laurence notes that the book “has been
compared to orphans in the underworld, to Bounyan’s pilgrim’s
progress, to Drante, to the journey of Odyseus”.
42
Gerald Moore says that all of the author’s “heroes or
heronries follow out one variant or another of the cycle of the
heroic monomyth, departure, initiation and return”.
11
Chinua Achebe (in the frist Equiano Memorial lecture)
calls Tutuola “the most muralist of all Nigerian writers”. The
Palm-wine Drinkard describes the consequences of inverting
work and play, and though the events are grotesque and
surreal, there are always boundaries to a monster’s power.
Thus:
… arrarchy is held at bay and a traveler who
perseveres can progress from one completed
task to the domain of another and in the end
achieve the creative, moral purpose in the extra
– ordinary but by no means arbitrary universe
of Tutuola’s story.
43
2.2
THE INFLUENCE OF MYTHOLOGY ON AFRICAN
CREATIVE WRITERS
African creative writers have equally felt the urge to utilize
this cultural phenomenon and amongst these writers are Amos
Tutuola, Wole Soyinka, Femi Osofisan, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Olu
Obafemi, Niyi Osundare, Isiodore Okpewho, etc. Each writers
has a pattern of examining the African mythology.
Amos Tutuola uses myth to explain happenings in
everyday life in the society Soyinka moves from historical
contemporaries into myth. In Osofisan’s use of myth and legend
become elastic, transmitted and completely created to suit
contemporary events. Amos Tutuola squeezes myth, legend
and history to extract only the tangible aspects as can source
his own vision.
Myth therefore, provides an avenue for illustrating the
contradictory aspects of society, both from the positive and
negative perspectives.
44
2.3
ESSENCE AND FUNCTION OF MYTHOLOGY IN THE
AFRICAN SOCIETY
Myth is very essential to human race and it is globally
accepted by all cultures. By studying myth, one can learn how
different societies have answered basic questions about the
world and the individual’s place in it. It is through this that
people learn how a particular or significant societal system with
its custom and beliefs. The following might be suggested as a
simplified not working typology and mythical functions. The first
type is primarily narrative and entertaining; the second is
operative, iterative and validatory and third is speculative and
explanatory.
That this typology is schematic is obvious enough, and it
is clearly shown in the first type because all myths are stories
which depend heavily on narrative technique for their creation
and preservation. These techniques together with the artists
creativity cause them to be more entertaining for any purpose
45
that they are meant for. The second typology, in its own case, is
usually rare because it belongs to the special genre of folktales
and legends and it is preserved as relics of the past.
Mythical stories could be compared on the basis of its
generic,
genetic,
or
historical
relationships.
Generic
relationships among such stories are based on the way people
react to common features in their environment. Genetic
relationships is the case whereby a large society may develop a
particular myth then, for some reasons, the society breaks up
into several separate societies, each of which develop its own
version of the myth. The last, in the companion of myth, is the
‘historical relationship’ and this occurs when similar mythical
stories develop among cultures that do not share a common
origin. Various myth of different cultures are compared so as to
discover how cultures differ and how they resemble one
another.
46
Myth is very essential to the human community because it
happens to be the invincible foundation of social life and
cultural continuum. It educates the world about the details of
various cosmological beliefs, their meanings and their origin.
47
CHAPTER THREE
ELEMENTS OF MYTH IN AMOS TUTUOLA THE PALM-WINE
DRINKARD
Traditional African societies have by and large normally
been referred to as primitive societies by the western scholars.
Some of the reasons adduced for this biased assertion …
indude the belief that African societies are devoid of
complexities and challenges of life due to lack of western
education. But contrary to this erroneous belief is the fact that
African, are rich in complex symbolism and wide scope for the
individual to express his own insight and awareness of human
existence.
Past and present literary works by African writers shows
that the cultural, political, sociological economic and ethical
welfare of the Africans are entrenched in these systems and
beliefs which revolve around myths. Myths occur in the history
and traditions of the African communities, they are the basic
48
constituents upon which it existence is based. They also act as
continuous source of the knowledge needed for actual
problems in the people’s day to day activities, war and peace,
life and death, truth and falsehood good and evil.
Among the Yorubas there are various types of myths
created to bridge the gap between the early race and the
present generation. Essential there are myths about the
creation of earth and all the living things. There are also myths
defining the relationship between the people and the gods,
ancestors and other supernatural beings. Myths are also
created to institutionalized events and issues so as for them to
have permanent effect in the people. Virtually all facets of
human endeavouring and linked with one myth or the other.
Literarily, myths play important role in Africa. Most of the
past and present African plays and prose brave there root in the
antecedent myths and ritual performances. African playwright
employ the use of myths acts to pass their message across to
49
their readers. Not only thus, myth act as embellishments used
in bringing out the desired aesthetic values in the text.
Some African writers have been able to perfectly make
use of myth to present their works. Amos Tutuola is one typical
example of these African writers. As a traditionalist, he relies
heavily on myths to creatively present the past deeds and
events in his text. In most of his work he vividly brings into
focus the beliefs of the Yorubas as regards their relationship
with the gods. He present the relationship as one that need
almost loyalty and denotion from the people to the gods.
While exolting the sacred nature of the gods, he also in
some of his work portrays them (the gods) as not being free of
fraulities that are known with lesser beings. In The Palm-wine
Drinkard Amos Tutuola present the mortal tendencies in the
immortals. He presents the human sides of the gods, plague
with strife, struggling for supremacy. In the text the writer show
us that even though the god possessed supernatural powder
50
that makes man to be subservient to them, they (the gods) are
not free or immune against some of other human vices.
The text The Palm-wine Drinkard is based on the myth of
how gods came from somewhere to inhabit the earth with the
people. The Yoruba believe that the gods were ones men who
have got deified because of their past heroic deeds and
actions. In death, these men become gods and the people now
turn to them for protection and guidance.
A general overview of the Yoruba cosmogony shows that
the gods are attributed with specific and peculiar deeds.
Coupled with this is the placing of the gods in hierarchical order
according to their status and functions. The Yoruba believe that
Obatala is the most senior of all the gods. This deity is ranked
next to the supreme being because of the function of moulding
human beings that is attributed to him. They also believe that
he has power to shape man’s destiny.
51
A seldom – discussed aspect of cultural anthropology is
the metamorphosis of our fairy – tales … the imaginative
currency of early youth which are passed on through family and
social structures alike. In America, characters like witches,
ghosts, and other creatures have their genesis in Europe, or
can be traced even further back to ancient Indo – European
cultures (of course, we have our own indigenous tales as well).
These characters and stones have became so diluted over the
years, that they’ve lost a lot of their original cultural meaning or
relevance.
The Palm-wine Drinkard’ is an African tale in it pure
unadulterated form. And its not something you’d want to hear
before bedtime! Amos Tutuola writes an English which lends
the narration a wide – eyed, almost childlike voice … yet in the
face of wild, horrific imagery (e.g. armies of dead babies) the
words are unflinching.
52
Tutuola Amos also used folklore in his text. Folklore is the
traditional beliefs, practices, customs, stories, jokes, songs (etc)
of a people, handed down orally or behaviourally from individual
to individual. It is also known as folklife.
Some African writers are greatly influenced by the cultural
and traditional system of the Africans. In their works, attempts
are made to project and exalt the customs and beliefs of the
Africans. These writers in their attempt to depict the lives of the
people, dive into their past using myth, folktales, legend etc as
guide. Myth is particular acts as a channel through which the
past is being linked with the present. With myth, the writers
creatively fashion but the relevance and usefulness of people’s
past events.
Amos Tutuola as an African playwright derives his
inspiration from the culture and tradition of the Africans in
Yoruba context. In almost all his works he exalt the virtues and
values inherent in the people’s beliefs and norms. He
53
emphasize the use of myth to unravel the mysteries
surrounding customs and traditions of the Africans. Through
mythology he is able to dive into the background of the Yoruba
cosmogony thereby bringing out the gesthetic value inherent in
it.
He employs the use of mythology to portray the beliefs
and relationship of the people with gods and ancestors.
The Yoruba cosmogony is rooted in the belief in gods and
other supernatural being. In a typical Yoruba setting, the gods
and supernatural beings are hold in great reverence. They
believe that the gods act as intermediary between them and the
Supreme Being. Divices like rituals sacrifices, rites festivals are
the various ways the people employ to get in contact with the
gods. The Yorubas look up to the gods for guidance, blessing
and protection against all natural and physical threats. The
nature and characteristics of these gods are explicit in the
people’s mythology. He emphasizes the supremacy of the gods
54
over human being. In some of his text like The Palm-wine
Drinkard, The Witch Herbalist of the Remote Town and so on,
he asserts the vulnirality of both the gods and the people.
The subtitle pvodies an accurate glimpse into this strange
book, which describes an epic quest with mythic elements
drawn from Yoruba folktales. The hero’s name is “father of gods
who could do anything in this world” one day he sets out “to find
out whereabouts was my tapster who had died”. Thus begins a
surreal journey through an African underworld. The Palm-wine
Drinkard rescues a beautiful woman from a “complete
gentleman” with rented body parts. After he marries her, the
woman who gives birth to a fully grown child from her thumb.
He turns himself into a canoe, which his wife paddles across a
river. They sell their “death” and lend out their “fear”. They are
captured by a giant who tosses them into a bag when they
finally arrive at the Deads’ town, the tapster gives them a
magical egg. They return to the land of the living when the hero
55
changes himself into a pebble and throws himself across a
river. At home they put an end to a famine.
The journey is so phantasm gone that the imperfect
English becomes a key element. If the languages were brushed
up, the book would not be the same. Here’s a typical passage:
His finger nails were long to about two feet, his
head was bigger than his body ten times, he
had a large mouth which was full of long teeth,
these teeth were about one front long and as
thick as a cow’s horns, his body was almost
core red with black long hair like a horse’s tail
hair. He was very dirty. The Palm-wine
Drinkard is an excellent example of the heroic
journey informed by traditional African story
telling and folktales.
What is so vital about The Palm-wine Drinkard is
Tutuola;s absolute dedication to the fantastic. All laws of the
probable are flouted and everything is elastic. Details are hasty
and sketched and sentences often end with a blunt “etc”.
56
Things are most often described by the elements that mark
them out, make them what they are. For brenty, places and
things are named by their description: “The Red People in the
Red Town” or, rather wonderfully, “The Skull as a Complete
Gentleman”.
The plot such as it is, follows the eldest of eight children.
His “work”, as he puts it, is to drink palm-wine. He is an expert
and drink 225 kegs of it a day. He cannot even drink plain water
any more. The drunkard is supplied by a tapster who falls fatally
from a tree and because nobody can tap palm-wine as well as
this character, the narrator sets off for Deads’ Town to find his
posthumous incantation. On the way, the drinkard finds up a
wife, uses all kind of Juju and meets incredible characters such
as “The Invisible Pawn”, “The Hungry – Creature” and “The
Faithful – Mother in the White Tree is a kind of hotel – cum –
hospital with a great ballroom. Scale is immaterial in the bush. It
57
is like a mutilated episode of “In the Night Garden” or an
adventure from “The Mighty Bush”.
The
transmission
of
folktales
follows
evolutionary
principles. Oral traditions enforce that each retelling of a story
will mutate it according to personal and local bias and that the
most mnemonic elements will carry from one teller to the next.
The hero of this brief thronged, grisley and bewitching
story, “as the Poet Dylan Thomas called it, is a devoted drinker
of palm-wine. So devoted that drinking palm-wine is his only
occupation. His father hires an expert tapster to supply his son
with drink, and before long he is drinking (with some help from
his friends) a total of 225 kegs of palm-wine a day.
One day disaster strikes. The tapster dies in a fall from a
palm tree, and our hero is unable to find a suitable
replacement. “When I saw that there was no palm-wine for me
again, and nobody could tap it for me, then I thought within
myself that old people were saying that the whole people who
58
had died in this world, did not go to heaven directly, but they
were living in one place somewhere in this world. So that I said
that I would find out where my palm-wine tapster who had died
was”.
The Palm-wine Drinkard, armed with a supply of juju, sets
out from village to village in search of his tapster. After seven
months he meets an old man who is actually a god, and who
promises to tell him where his tapster is if he will find the house
of Death and bring him back in a net. “When I reached his
(Death’s) house, he was not at home by that time, he was in his
yam garden which was very close to his house, and I met a
small rolling drum in his verandah, then I beat it to Death as a
sign of salutation”. Annoyed to be visited by a living man, Death
commands the drum strings to tighten around the drunkard
retaliates with his juju by making the ropes of the yams in his
garden” tighten around Death. They released each other, and
59
Death seeming to relent shows the drinkard around his property
and gives him a bed for the night.
After surviving another attempt to kill him the drunkard
succeeds in capturing Death and hauls him back to the village
of the old man, who had hoped to get rid of the drunkard and is
shocked to see him still alive. Death escaped, and as a result
“has no permanent place to dwell or stay, and we are hearing
his name about in the world”.
Many more adventures follow the drunkard rescues a
beautiful young woman from a skull who has equipped himself
as a “complete gentleman” by renting body parts from various
other creatures. The drunkard marries the young woman, and
before they reach the Deads’ Town they face dangers and
challenges on wraith Island, in unreturnable Heaven’s town,
and with the Red – People of Red – Town. They are helped by
faithful – mother and by the benevolent creatures Drum, Dance
and Song and threatened by the Invisible – Pawn, the hungry –
60
creature, and by the eeric sight of 400 dead babies marching
down a road with sticks in their hands. This odd and fascinating
story sends the imagination in unexpected directions.
While
distinctly
African,
the
novel
bears
some
resemblance to the magic realism work of South American
writers such as Juan Rulfo and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In all
of these works the tone is mystical and pre-modern, but told in
the form of a narrative novel which is in essence a modern
form. This contrast is a manifestation of the transition between
traditional culture and the global trend towards modernity.
In the archetypal journey, the hero wins a boon through
succeeding with his quest. The heavenly gift has regenerative
power for the hero and the rest of the world when he returns
from his guest. In the instance of The Palm-wine Drinkard, the
great gift is an egg which would grant desires, this is a mighty
gift which the protagonist wisely uses to combat the famine in
his home, but the greed of the community eventually damages
61
the magic egg. Before he succeeds his guest a symbolic death
and return occurs when the hero and his wife sell their deaths
in the white tree. This kind of death sets the stage for
miraculous rebirth and awakening into a new life from this point
on, the protagonist acts in even more heroic ways and has the
strength to continue his journey because he has been given a
guarantee in his life. Symbolically, the drunkard has overcome
his concerns about mortality before he re-enter the world on his
guest.
When the drunkard repairs the egg, he uses it to punish
the people for their destructiveness and gluttony Tutola’s story
is understandable to many people because it employs an
archetypal story of the heroic guest and uses many universal
images. At the same time, the setting is distinctly African.
Folktales are always tweaking the seeds. Tutuola’s writing
seems inherited from an oral background. It shares the same
splashy colour, the incredible and the memorable. The Palm-
62
wine Drinkard is an intensely visual story, a vivid engagement
with the imagination. One impossible to convey in any other
medium, even anime. The sparseness of descriptive details
works on the reader, like a parasite working on the cortex to
produce vivid hallucinations.
Despite its compansons with other oral traditions, The
Palm-wine Drinkard is a text, very much a work of printed
fiction, rather than transcription. The book makes great use of
parenthesis, abbreviation, appeals to the reader and a series of
charming and sometimes baffling banner headlines (“WHO
WILL TAKE THE MOUSE?” and “AFRAID OF TOUCHING
TERRIBLE CREATURES IN BAG”). These stylistic ties give the
novel an even greater personality and (to this reader) more
mystery and vitality. Within this overarching narrative are two
main story lines, the first concerning the attainment of the
magic egg: the second, its use and abuse. Traditional African
themes of fertility, reciprocity, and destruction, specifically as a
63
direct result of greed are all on display here without the
harshness of a work. Tutuola manages to integrate his
Christian beliefs into his Yoruba heritage and work through
problems of ethical reciprocity. For example, in WE AND THE
WISE KING IN THE WRONG TOWN WITH THE PRINCE
KILLER, there are clear echoes of Jesus’ triumphant entry into
Jerusalem before the sacrifice of the crucifixion. “Then we
mounted the horse. After that they were following us about the
town, they were beating drums, dancing, and singing …” Yet
the story is also purely African, set firmly in the bush.
There are many mirror elements in the narrative such as
the Tohosu baby following the marriage of the narrator and
another that follows the recalibrating of that marriage. Since the
Yoruba believe that life is preserved through children, a
monstrous child that turns the natural order upside down is a
striking and dramatic element. The tohosu baby born from a
thumb rather than womb is voracious, “stronger than the whole
64
town” and a threat to the existence of every one the tohosu
meets. This is one of the strongest ways that greed leading to
destruction is illustrated and is retold in a different form near the
end when the towns people become demanding, voracious for
the food produced by the magic egg.
65
CHAPTER FOUR
TRADITIONAL AFRICAN SOCIETAL OVERVIEWS AND
CONCLUSION
By definition, traditional African society refers to the
indigenous African community as distinct from the European
Influenced town or city in Africa today.
The population of the indigenous village society is usually
homogenous, usually comprising only one ethnic or sub
linguistic group. This is opposed to the towns and cities which
have a mixture of ethnic populations. In traditional African
society, the inhabitants are usually farmers, fishermen or
livestock keeper or hunters, depending on the natural
geography of the location. There is division of labour usually
according to sex.
However, in spite of any such division of labour, there is
homogeneity of ideas, customs and habits which are
manifested in the attitudes of the people to supernatural forces,
66
social relation, entertainment and warfare. This means that the
sense of community is very strong and every effort is made to
keep it so and this is accomplished mainly through taboos. It is
such attempt to preserve the culture and identity of the group,
that has linked the contemporary traditional African society with
the founding ancestors.
In Africa, there is no appreciable gulf between the world
of the living and that of the dead. They believe for instance that
Abiku or Ogbanje (child born to died repeatedly) could cross the
threshold between life and death at will. As far as an African is
concerned there exists a constant communication between
these stages. He believes that when an old man dies, he simply
moves away from the living into the world of the spirits, he thus
become an ancestors to be worshiped. Religion, which is strict
adherence to ancestral traditions, and their concept of
supernatural, happens to be an important feature of the
traditional African society. Every socio – cultural phenomenon
67
is usually conceived as originating from the ancestors or gods
or at least requiring their sanction or approval. These ancestor
or gods as the case may be perform, the function of
intermediaries between the Africans and the Supreme Being
who they regard as the creator of the universe and everything
therein.
The belief in the ancestors and the power is shaping even
contemporary traditional African behaviour can be presented in
much clearer terms. The prevalence of religious myths and
rituals represent a reaction to the realities of living for the
traditional African society. The economic, social and moral
persuits of people in these societies are objective in these myth
which the priests and elders control. The African overview is
based on their (Africans) general ideology, which encompasses
set of values, representations and beliefs system and all other
parameters which sustain the society to all ramifications. In
other words these values belief systems of representations in
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firm or dictate the kind of economic, social, religious and
political formation of the society. They also more essentially
dictate the nature artistic production.
As a means of livelihood Africans are generally agrarian
in nature. This to a great extent influence their day to day
activities. It also brings about a traditionally based ideological
concept amongst the Africans. It incorporates values such as
communism which has to do with the way people interrelate
and there is only the idea of mythological modes which is also
close to legend, folktales, proverbs, poetry, dance, song, etc.
The mode of literary production implies the assemblage of
materials and social relations as forces necessary for the
transmission of literary experience to the audience. The mode
of transmission in traditional African setting is oral in nature.
Oral literature is by definition dependent on a performer who
formulates it in words on a specific occasion. Apart from this
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oral nature or artistic production, there is no other way in which
it can be realized as a literary product.
African society being a traditional one, comprised mainly
of farmers and hunters whose livelihood depend mostly on
proceeds from land and forest and they (the Africans) at the
same time, aware of their immediate and external environment
which consist of both physical and natural threats, considered it
pertinent to appease the supreme being through the gods and
seek for protection and guidance.
African literature reflects the view of Africans about the
world and can be appreciated and understood better when
studied and placed within an African context and situation.
African literature seeks to capture and mirror the life of the
people as it relates to their norms and values. It also depict the
sociological, religious, political, economic, cultural and ethical
beliefs of the African. In traditional literature the composition
and performance both occur simultaneously.
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African literature also can be said to evolve from oral
tradition of the people. It finds its subject mainly in folklore
which include traditional belief and values of the African society.
Folktales are popular stories handed down orally from past
generations. They are tales of adventures, heroic deeds of
some people, about mysteries and some other supernatural
things. Oral literature can be said to be dependent on
performers who formulates it in word on a specific occasion,
thereby bringing out the dramatic effect of it.
The fact that African literature finds its subject mainly in
folklore, (that is an aggregate of myth, legends, proverbs etc)
has a number of consequences for it. Primarily it establishes
the fact that African literature is a different land from those
hither to encountered. It differences arises not because it find
its origin in myth but as a result of the nature of the African
society in particular which in itself differ from the greek and the
European societies.
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A fact holds amongst the contemporary Nigerian, writers
that they share common background. That is, they “move back
to their original culture and exploit their resources to produce
work of great vitality. This development, however, is not
unconnected with the new trend that permeates the whole of
African written literature as affirmed by Anodiya:
Certainly
the
most
dominant
trend
in
contemporary African literature is that of writers
going back to their traditional roots to borrow
from oral literature to enrich written literature.
Like their predecessors, the contemporary Nigerian literature
have their text firmly rooted in Nigerian oral tradition still
obsessed with “man’s need to redefine himself within his
environment and to conquer and tame nature”, they largely
deploy the ancestral aspect of oral tradition to envice their
diverse social vision and ideologies. Myth and culture, the basis
of ancestral literature, have been good weapons in their hands
72
via which they prode the activities in their societies as captured
by Danmade that:
Many African works are myths reinterpreted
imaginatively. African writers observe keenly
the events of our society and refrat them
through the mirror of ancient mythologies. They
deploy myths that are particular to their
localities and those that with time, have
assumed continental status.
For our better understanding of the above assertion, suffice it to
define at this stage what mythology is;
Mythology is the study of myths, and myths
themselves, which are stories told as symbols
of fundamental truths within societies having a
strong
oral
concerned
tradition.
with
Usually
extraordinary
myths
are
beings
and
events. They have been one of the richest
sources of inspiration for literature and art
throughout the world.
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Noteworthy, however, in the above definition of mythology, is
that: myth are central to mythology and myths serve as means
of giving explanations to every inexplicable event in the society.
Hence, “myths are the means of conceptualizing and resolving
all possible, unlike able social relationships and thus present
the fundamental structures of human thought”. Thus the
contemporary Nigerian literature, like other African literature,
deploy myths as mirror to reflect the social vices in Nigeria.
Quote obviously, the two literary generation literature in
Nigeria, in term of ideology, are poles apart, this ideological
disparity, not withstanding, the two generations share what
Obafemi referred to as “the common backcloth of the traditional
theatrical performance”. Mean while, unlike their predecessors
(i.e. “vernacular dramatists”) their exploration of myths are in
thienced, to a greater extent, by the Western education they
have acquired and this, in no small measure, dictates their
social vision and ideological beliefs.
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The first generation literature, on the one hand, “tends to
offer metaphysical and tropic interpretations of social and
mythical material”. These they do by making “conscious efforts
to propose a tropic mytho-ritual vision for society through art.
On the other hand, the second generation literature
writers anchor their writings based on the contemporary social
problems in Nigeria with the aim of raising mass awareness of
a positives revolutionary alternatives to the present decadence
sequal to this, they “articulate in their text a dialectical
materialists perspective of art and society via an exciting view
upon a critical relationship with indigenous culture”. Indicating
their ideological disparity Obafemi says:
What distinguishes these younger writers from
their predecessors is their emphatic dedication
to a revolutionary aim towards raising mass
consciousness.
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Without a shadow of doubt, the two generations, in social
vision and ideology, are distinct but the point still holds that they
share the same Nigerian mythic background.
One may expand on this lea by taking a look at Soyinka’s
and Osofisan’s view on myth in dramatic texts. Wole Soyinka,
an epitome of first generation writers says that the major duty of
a playwright is to interpret myths for social awareness. This
duty, he must do even if politician are exploring propaganda to
obscure mythic existence and meanings:
The role of the artist, Soyinka argued, is not to
make myths, but to interpret them, not to give
society an identity but to make it aware of its
essence, however offuserated that essences
has been by the politician’s metoric.
Conversely, Femi Osofisan, an epitome of second
generation, holds the view that an artist can only discharge his
artistic obligation to the society by making new myths:
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The role of a truly committed artist is to forge
new myths to reflect wholesome revolutions in
the society. In Ososfisan, secular myths seem
to be favoured. The world is damped on the
shoulders of man who accepts the challenge by
creating a new social order where there in be
no room for oppression and injustice.
That the two playwright deploy myth in their works to
reflect the Nigeria social vices is an indisputable fact. While
Soyinka deploys myths interpretatively, Osafisan explore the
same myth re-interpretatively. However, it must be noted that
neither of them present the exact old myth of Nigeria.
Delineating this fact, Ibidokun observes that:
Religion is an opium to the mind and so could
religious myth be, to the serious drama of
reality and history. While Soyinka moves from
historical
contemporaries
Osofisan
undertakes
the
ness
into
very
myth,
opposite
trajectory. As Soyinka centre the dramatic
conflict within Elesin Oba’s soul, Osofisan
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pitches his own right in the society. But both
debunk the myths they use.
Further our argument from the aforementioned point, we
can borrow Buttmann Rudolf’s theological term to categorize
the two types of mythic interaction in Nigeria. Buttman Rudolf a
German
theologian,
in
1941,
proposed
the
term
demythologization when he radically maintained that “the trask
of Christian faith is to reject the mythological setting of the
Gospel and to recover the meaning hidden within the myths”.
That is “to interpret, according to the categories of existentialist
philosophy the essential message in mythical term”. Thus:
……..demythologization refers to the conscious
efforts people make to purify a religious
tradition of its mythological elements.
Applying Buttmarn’s propostion to Amos Tutuola’s
mythological new, we can propose that Tutuola uses myths
mythologically.
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Yoruba religion is intertwined with history, with Yoruba
charming to decend from dimities, and some Kings becoming
deified after their deaths. Itan is the word for the sum of Yoruba
religion, poetry, sing and history. Yoruba divities are called
Orisha and make up one of the most complex pantheon in oral
history. Ifa is complex system of divination, involves recital of
Yoruba poetry containing story and proverb bearing on the
divination. A divination recital can take a whole right. The body
of this poetry is vart and passed on between Ifa Oracles.
The first novel in the Yoruba language was Ogboju Ode
ninu Igbo Irumole (The forest of a Thousand Demons). Written
in 1938 by Chief Damelo Fagunwa (1903- 963). It contains the
picaresque tale of a Yoruba hunter encountering folklore
elements, such as magic, monster, spirits, and gods. It was one
of the first novels to be written in any African language.
Fagunwa wrote other works bared on similar themes, and
remains the most widely read Yoruba language author.
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Amos Tutuola (1920-1997) was greatly inspired by
Fagunwa, but wrote in an intentionally ramblings broken
English, reflecting the oral tradition. Tutuola gained fame or the
palm-wine Drunkard (1946, published 1952), and other works
based on Yoruba folklore.
African literature mostly possess its own specific
character like other literature regims or continents, specifically,
we had literature of the ancient Greece. (The pussical literature)
the Roman literature of the middle ages, the renaissance
literature, the modernist and vamus type of literature which
have bean created in recent time. African literature was it own
distinct period (literary) for instance the older literary production
which most people would tag as residual literature. There is a
type recognized as dominant, and them , the emergent species
of literature. Across this forms of African literature the oral
tradition his been employed to give a distinct African content
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and aesthetic convention to what the literature of Africa most
necessarily be.
Mythology is an essential segment of this African content
and aesthetic. It is used just like a Greek writer did. For
example Sophocles in his Oedipus rex uses Olympus gods as
his form of mythology. In the same way, the African writers
adopt mythological. In poetry there is also mythology.
Mythological poem are always invocatory in nature they are
written in form of a chants, incantations, apostrophized (using
Apostrophe) totemision (totem for worshipping Ogun is dog,
Esus, Palm-Oil etc).
There is a major dimension to mythology especially when
it is rendered within the context of an aesthetic text. This
dimension is the spiritual (supernatural phenomenon the
trapped personality (not so human)).
The relationship between oral and written traditions and in
particular between oral and modern written literature is one of
81
great complexity and not a writer of simple evolution. Modern
written literatures is one of great complexity and not a matter of
simple evolution. Modern African literatures were born in the
educational systems imposed by colonialism, with models
drawn from Europe rather than existing African traditions. But
the African oral traditions exerted their own influence on these
literatures. Myth is both a story and a fundamental structural
device used by storyteller. As a story, it rercalls change at the
beginning of time, with gods as the central characters. As a
storytelling tool for the creation of metaphor, it is both material
and method. The heroic epic unfolds within the context of myth,
as does the tale. At the heart of each of these
aenres is
metaphor, and at the are of metaphor is riddle with its
associate, proverb each of theses oral form is characterized by
a metaphorical process the result of patterned infeny. These
universal art forms are rooted in the specificities of the African
experience.
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Themes in the literary traditions of contemporary Africa
are worked out frequently within the structures laid down by the
imported religion Christianity and Islam and within the struggle
between traditional and modern, between rural and newly
urban, between genders, and between generations. The oral
traditions is clearly evident in the popular literature of the
market place and the major urban centres, created by literary
storytellers who are manipulating the original materials much as
oral storyteller do, act the same time remaining faithful to the
tradition some of the early writers abilities by translating work
into African languages; others collected oral tradition; most
experienced their apprenticeships in one way or another within
the contexts of living oral traditions. There was a clear
interaction between the deeply rooted oral tradition and the
developing literary tradtion of the 20th century. The interactions
is revealed in the placing of literary works into the forms of the
oral tradition. The impact of the epic on the novel, for instance,
83
continues to influence writer today. The oral tradition in the
work of some of the early writers of the 20th century- Amos
Tutuola of Nigeria, D.O. Fagunwa in Yoruba and Mario Antonio
in Portuguese- is readily evident. Some of these writings were
merely initiations of the oral tradition and were therefore not
influential, such antiquarian child little more than netell, recast,
or transcribe material from the oral tradition. But the work of
writers such as Tutuola laid a dynamic effect on the developing
literary tradition; such works went beyond mere initiation.
There are two competing stands in Yoruba literature, one
influenced by the rich Yoruba oral tradition, the other receiving
its impetus from the west. The history of Yoruba literature more
between these forces. The earliest literary works were
translations of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s progress, published as
Ilosiwaju ero mimo in 1866, and the Bible, Published as Bibeli
mimo in 1900. there was an early series of Yoruba school
readers, Iwe Kika Yorba (1909-15), containing prose and
84
poetry. In literature there is traditional literature also referred to
as folklore or folk literature. It encompasses the rituals,
customs, superstitions, and manner of a particular group that
are prosed orally or in writing from one generation to the next. It
is described as being “a window through which children in
today’s world may view cultures of long ago”. The retelling of a
tale due to the oral traditions.
CONCLUSION
Literature is a term used to describe written or spoken
material broadly speaking, “literature” is used to describe
anything from creative writing to more technical or scientific
works, but the term is most commonly used to refer to works of
the creative imagination, including work of poetry, drama,
fiction, and nonfiction. Literature introduces us to new worlds of
experience.
Amos Tutuola like most of the African writers has been
able to debunk the assertion of the western scholars about the
85
primitive of the African. Through his works the writer portrays to
the world the dynamision and complexity that characterized the
African beliefs and customs. He effectively uses myth in most of
his works to depict the richness and uniqueness of the people’s
customs and traditions.
The writer further portrays African as being rich in
literature, in symbolism. Being a traditionalist, he uses his
creative imagination to present to the world the level of esteem
at which his customs and belief are hold. He infuse into his
works, mysticism that characterized the beliefs of the Yoruba as
regard gods and ancestors. The book was based on Yoruba
folktales, but was largely his own invention using pidgin of man
who follows a palm wine tapster into the land of the dead ore
“Dead’ Town.” There he find a world of magic, ghosts, demins,
and supernatural beings. The books earn out in 1952 and
received accolades from Dylan Thomas as well as other
western intellectual figures of the time.
86
All in all, the writer has been able to utilize the various
functions of myth as explanatory and narrative channel through
which natural, social, cultural and biological facts about the
Yoruba are explained. It depicted a drunk, used pidgin English,
and promoted the Idea Africans were superstitious.
87
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PRIMARY SOURCES
Amos Tutuol, The Palm-wine Drinkard and my Dead Palm-wine
Tapster in the Dead Town Faber publisher Ltd, 1952.
SECONDARY SOURCES
Awolalu, J. Omosade. Yoruba Beliefs and Sacrifice Rites
(London: Longman group limited 1979).
Awodiya, Muyiwa. The Drama of Femi Osofisan; A critical
perspective (Ibadan Kraft 1995).
Booth Newell, African Mythology A key to understanding
African religion; (NOK publisher Ltd, New York: 19), p.117
Chidi Amuta, the theory of African literature :implication for
practical critism (London: Book craft lith, bath, 1989).
Clark J.P., Ozili, Oxford University press Ltd, 1960
Cox David, Myths, History and Religion Oxford 1962
Dunmade, Femi. “Tradition and Individual Talent: Aesthetics
and categorization in modern African literature” in
Adegbeja E.E (ed) The English language and literature in
English: An Introductory Handbook (Ilorin: the Department
of Modern European Language, 1999).
Goastpr Theodore H. , Thepsis, New York 1950
88
http: //ww.jrank.or/cultures/pages/4857/African-mythology.html
Kirka, myth, its meaning and functions in Ancient and other
cultures, Cambridge University press, London, 1970), p.
264
Leach, the structural study of myth and Totemism the
Encyclopedia Americana Internal (Connecticut, Danbury:
Grolier Incorporated, 1981, vol. 4 and vol. 19
The Encyclopedia Britannia (London: Encyclopedia Britannia
Inc. vol. 12 and vol. 19)
89