Library Weekly

On 20 June 1920, Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola was born in Abeokuta. His books are partly based on Yoruba folk-tales.

When Amos was seven years old, he became a servant for F. O. Monu, an Igbo man, who sent him to the Salvation Army primary school in lieu of wages. At age of 12, he attended the Anglican Central School in Abeokuta. When his father died in 1939, Tutuola left school to train as a blacksmith, the trade he practised from 1942 to 1945 for the Royal Air Force in Nigeria during WWII. He subsequently tried a number of other vocations, including selling bread and acting as messenger for the Nigerian Department of Labour. In 1946, Tutuola completed his first full-length book, 'The Palm-Wine Drinkard', within a few days.

Tutuola wrote his novels in English. In 1956, after he had written his first three books and become internationally famous, he joined the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation in Ibadan, Western Nigeria as a storekeeper. Tutuola also became one of the founders of the Mbari Club, the writers' and publishers' organization. In 1979, he held a visiting research fellowship at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) at Ile-Ife, Nigeria, and in 1983, he was an associate of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. In retirement, he divided his time between Ibadan and Ago-Odo.

Tutuola died at the age of 76 on 8 June 1997 in Ibadan

Many of his papers, letters, and holographic manuscripts have been collected at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas, Austin.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Selected publications

Publications by Amos Tutuola

The village witch doctor & other stories / Amos Tutuola. - London [etc.] : Faber and Faber, 1990

Pauper, brawler and slanderer / Amos Tutuola. - London [etc.] : Faber and Faber, 1987

Ajaiyi and his inherited poverty / Amos Tutuola. - London [etc.] : Faber and Faber, [1967]

Feather woman of the jungle / Amos Tutuola. - London [etc.] : Faber and Faber, 1962

The palm-wine drinkard and his dead palm-wine tapster in the Deads' town /  Amos Tutuola. - London [etc.] : Faber and Faber, 1962

Publications on Amos Tutuola and his work

A (wo)man for all seasons : Amos Tutuola and the gendering of peace in Africa / Heidi Hudson. - Uppsala : The Nordic Africa Institute, 2019
e-book, film

Drinking from the cosmic gourd : how Amos Tutuola can change our minds / Francis B. Nyamnjoh. - Mankon : Langaa Research & Publishing CIG, [2017]

Amos Tutuola revisited / Oyekan Owomoyela. - New York : Twayne Publishers, cop. 1999

Critical perspectives on Amos Tutuola / Bernth Lindfors. - London [etc.] : Heinemann, 1980

Amos Tutuola: The Palm-Wine Drinkard / Dr. Masood Raja, 10 July 2020

20th-century Nigerian novelists via DBpedia and Wikidata