Amos Tutuola was a Nigerian writer, born in 1920 near Abeokuta and died in 1997, known for fiction that draws heavily on Yoruba folklore and oral storytelling traditions. Born to Yoruba Christian cocoa-farming parents and having received only about six years of formal schooling, he wrote in an unconventional, orally inflected English that drew both acclaim and controversy on first publication. He is best known for his debut novel The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952), which follows a man's journey into the world of the dead to retrieve his palm-wine tapster, a work that brought him international recognition and established him as a significant, if singular, figure in the emergence of modern African literature in English.
Facts
Classification
Original Language Connections
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Nigeria, nationality there.
- Also in Language Atlas: English, original language there.
Sources
1. Amos Tutuola (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Wikipedia lead sentence, full opening sentence with parenthetical birth-death datesQuote, Wikipedia lead sentence, full opening sentence with parenthetical birth-death dates
Amos Tutuola (Yoruba: Ámósì Tutùọlá; 20 June 1920-8 June 1997) was a Nigerian writer who wrote books based in part on Yoruba folk-tales.
View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.