Amos Tutuola

Amos Tutuola (1920-1997)

Nigerian novelist and short-story writer, whose first published novel, The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952), received international recognition and led to the subsequent surge of interest in African literature in English. Tutuola's books, written in an idiosyncratic English, engage readers vividly in the myth and legend of the Yoruba, an African people inhabiting southwest Nigeria. Imaginative journeys involving encounters with the supernatural—ghosts, demons, and magic—serve as means to spiritual growth and the acquisition of wisdom. Tutuola's ability to recreate in written form the Yoruba oral tradition and to rework and modernize the folklore to his own ends has made his work unique.His other works include My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1954), Simbi and the Satyr of the Dark Jungle (1954), The Brave African Huntress (1958), Feather Woman of the Jungle (1962), Ajaiyi and His Inherited Poverty (1967), The Witch-Herbalist of the Remote Town (1981), The Wild Hunter in the Bush of Ghosts (1982), Pauper, Brawler and Slanderer (1987), and The Village Witch Doctor (1990).