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

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DEDICATION This project is dedicated to God Almighty, and to my parents for the love and care.

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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.

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ABSTRACT This project explores the Amos Tutuolas Palm Wine Drinkard in terms of its 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.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page Certification Dedication Acknowledgement Abstract Table of Contents CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 The Meaning of Mythology African Belief System and Myth The Yoruba Perception of Myth The Purpose and Significance of Study Aims and Objectives Methodology Scope of Study Playwrights Autobiography 1 5 8 10 12 14 15 16 i ii iii iv v vi

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CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 2.2 Nature of Myth The Influence of Mythology on African Creative Writers 2.3 Essence and Function of Mythology in the African Society 45 44 20

CHAPTER THREE ELEMENTS OF MYTH IN AMOS TUTUOLA THE PALM-WINE DRINKARD CHAPTER FOUR TRADITIONAL AFRICAN SOCIETAL OVERVIEWS AND CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY 66 88 48

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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

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

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 Greeks 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 worlds great art. Myth and mythological characters have

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

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 Africans 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,

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 gods connection to human beings. Essentially, Arranse corrects the mistakes of Nyames 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 gods daughter.

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

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

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,

cultural and ethical beliefs of the people vis--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).

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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the study a basic research rather it is an applied research of critical examinations of Amos Tutuolas mythic text.

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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 Tutuolas 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 Tutuolas text, whilst in chapter three we shall examine the mythological element in Tutuolas work. Chapter four, the last chapter, concludes the study.

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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 mothers knee when he was about 7 years old, one of his fathers 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

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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 Deads 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.

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Amos Tutuola achieved only sixth grade education due to financial constraints following his fathers 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

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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.

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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.

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Wole Soyinka describes it as a continuous source of the knowledge needed for critical problems in mans 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.
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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

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as animals, plants or specific of real men who changed human condition with their deeds.
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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.
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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,

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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 mans myth is another mans 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

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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

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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 mans 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.
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Jason weaver says; Aside from the transmogrifield strangeness of folk and fairy tales, Amos Tutuolas 1952 novel The palm-wine drinkard is unlike almost anything else in print. Nebulous comparisons naught be made with Orids metamorphoses, Kafkas inconclusive parable or Alice in wonder hand. But things behave very differently from even these European garquyles in Tutuolas

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twilight world. I know nothing about the authors 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 Tutuolas 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 Tutuolas 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

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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.
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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;

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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.
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David Amason says;

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Tutuolas 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 Tutuolas 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.
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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

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earth and heaven into the novels closing pages. But I suggest that it might be less arbitrary than it appears. 9 D. a. n. Jones says; Tutuola was like a seventeenth just century the

Welshman

who

had

discovered

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.
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Layren Grantz says; Tutuolas 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 novels publication praised

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Tutuolas 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 Tutuolas native Nigeria, the novel gained more critical responses. Tutuolas 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. Tutuolas 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. Tutuolas protagonist was such a tremendous thirst for wine

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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 Tutuolas use of the English language, debating whether or not it was appropriately literary. While Dylan Thomas called Tutuolas 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,

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Tutuolas prose does ring strange. However, this reviewer agrees with Michael Thelwells suggestion in his introduction to Tutuolas novel that the author employs an English whose vocabulary is bent and twisted into the service of a different languages nuances. As readers grow accustomed to the prose, it becomes clear that Tutuolas 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 Tutuolas novel fruitful for research. Tutuolas 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

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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 Nigerias independence, Tutuola appropriates from various vocabularies as best serves his purpose, crafting a tale that offers a glimpse into Nigerias 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 Tutuolas work a cultlike status in the western world. Nigerian critics,

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however, were skeptical of Tutuolas 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. Tutuolas 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). Tutuolas works usually concern a nave 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, Tutuolas works have been called mythologies or epics rather than novels. An early Tutuola critic, Gerald Moore, analysed

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Tutuolas use of mythology, comparing mythological patterns occurring in literature throughout the world. Other critics have also recognized in Tutuolas literary quests elements similar to those of 10John Bunyans pilgrims 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 Tutuolas 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 Tutuolas 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 storys protagonist, in search of a potion to render his wife

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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

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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 cant 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

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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 mans destiny is controlled by the gods. Margaret Laurence notes that the book has been compared to orphans in the underworld, to Bounyans pilgrims progress, to Drante, to the journey of Odyseus.

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Gerald Moore says that all of the authors 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 monsters 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 Tutuolas story.

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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 Osofisans 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.

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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 individuals 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

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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.

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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.

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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

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constituents upon which it existence is based. They also act as continuous source of the knowledge needed for actual problems in the peoples 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

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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

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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 mans destiny.

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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 theyve 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 youd 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.

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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 peoples 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 peoples beliefs and norms. He

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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 peoples mythology. He emphasizes the supremacy of the gods

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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 heros 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

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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. Heres 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 cows horns, his body was almost core red with black long hair like a horses 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.

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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

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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

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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 (Deaths) 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

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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 Heavens 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

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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

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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 Tutolas 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. Tutuolas writing seems inherited from an oral background. It shares the same splashy colour, the incredible and the memorable. The Palm-

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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

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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

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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.

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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,

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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

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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 mans 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

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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 tradition. with Usually myths beings are and

concerned

extraordinary

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 Soyinkas and Osofisans 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 politicians 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 Osofisan contemporaries undertakes the ness into myth,

very

opposite

trajectory. As Soyinka centre the dramatic conflict within Elesin Obas 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 Rudolfs 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 Buttmarns propostion to Amos Tutuolas

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

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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,

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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 Bunyans Pilgrims 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

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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 todays 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

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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 peoples 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.

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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.

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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

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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)

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