mythology and africanism - a study
TRANSCRIPT
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MYTHOLOGY AND AFRICANISM. A STUDY OF AMOS
TUTUOLAS THE PALM-WINE DRINKARD(1961) AND WOLE
SOYINKAS THE FOREST OF A THOUSAND DAEMONS(1982)
BY
AJ IBOLA, TOYIN DAUDA
07/15CD034
A RESEARCH PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF
ENGLISH, FACULTY OF ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN, IN PARTIAL
FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF
BACHELOR OF ARTS (B.A. HONS.)
JUNE, 2011
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CERTIFICATION
This is to certify that this research project has been read and
approved as meeting the requirements of the Department of English,
Faculty of Arts, University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.
.. .
Dr. Kayode Afolayan Date
Project Supervisor
.
Dr. S.T. Babatunde Date
Head of Department
.
External Examiner Date
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
To God almighty who owns my soul, spirit and body,who also make me
to witness a day like this wonderful one. To my supervisor, Dr. Kayode
Afolayan. Dr. A. S. Idiagbon, thank you for getting me informed.
Chief S. S. Ajibola; words can not express the depth of my gratitude that
I owe you many thanks for your support, interest and kindness
Mum, thanks so much for being there. Dad; thanks for your great advice
,your words can not be erase in my heart.
My departmental colleagues; Thank you all for carrying me along.
Dr. Mrs. B. F. Ibrahim, thank you so much.
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ABSTRACT
The aesthetic and cultural heritage of Africa are in facets and
mythology is unarguably part of these facets. This research intends to
analyze the underpinnings of mythology evident in the Yoruba cosmology,
as its relevance within African cultural production. Data will be colleted
from Wole Soyinkas The Forest of a Thousand Daemons (1982). And
Amos Tutuolas The Palm-wine Drinkard (1961). Which is in consonance
with the main research objective, that is, to examine mythology and its
reconstruction in the selected works. The application of the theory in
interpreting data subsumes that mythology reveals the primal foundation of
African culture and consequently of history. This research finds out that
mythology is of relevance to the contemporary society. The suppressed
African heritage must be resuscitated, as it has been influenced by the
Western World, and there is no better effort than Soyinkas and Tutuolas
transposition of African culture.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page i
Certification ii
Dedication iiiAcknowledgment iv
Abstract v
Table of contents vi
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Background to the study 1
1.1 Purpose of study 51.2 J ustification of study 6
1.3 Methodology 7
1.4 Scope of study 8
1.5 Structure of thesis 9
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 Literature Review 11
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 The Palm Wine Drinkard: looking at the subtopic of the chapters. 22
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 The Forest of a Thousand Daemons: looking at the subtopic of the
chapters. 30
CHAPTER FIVE
5.0. Conclusion 37
Bibliography 39
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CHAPTER ONE
1.0. GENERAL BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Myth is a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or
hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or natural
explanation, especially and that is concerned with details or demigods and
explains some practice, vie, and phenomenon of nature.
Similarly, Mythology can also be a story about superhuman beings
of an earlier age taken by preliterate society to be a true account, usually
of how natural phenomena, social customs and others came into
existence. A traditional story accepted as history; serves to explain the
world view of a people, can also be an ancient, fictional story, especially on
a sealing with gods, heroes and others.
The term Mythology can also be either the study of Myths, or to a
body of Myths. For example, Comparative Mythology is the study of
connections between Myths from different cultures whereas Greek
Mythology is the body of Myths from ancient Greece. The term Myths is
often used colloquially to refer to a false story but academic use of the
term generally to Mean Passing J udgment on truth or falsity.
In addition, Folklore is unwritten Literature of a people as expressed
in Folk takes, proverb, riddles Songs and others.
Similarly, its also the body of stories and legends attached to a
particular place, group, activity and others so, the Link between folklore
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and Myth is the fact that they are both unwritten literature of people as
expressed in proverbs, riddles, songs and others. In the study of Folklore,
a myth is a sacred narrative explaining how the world and humankind
came to be in their present from. Many Scholars In other filed use the term
Myth In somewhat different ways. In a very broad sense, the word can
refer to any traditional.
Soyinka, (1976) Proposed that Myth was created out of ritual. The
later tem must understood in a wide sense, because in primitive societies
everything is sacred, nothing profane. Every action eating, drinking, tilling,
fighting has its proper procedure, which being prescribed, is holy.
Soyinka 1976.
Myth can also be a scientific way of explaining an origin of creation
or the universe. Its the way in which every creation story is logically
investigated and scientifically proved. Myth is historical which must be
proved.
In another vain, Africanism is African style and way of doing thing,
for instance, African way of thought, language, medicine, sorcery, and
witchcraft, secret society that include Ogbooni, Oro, Egungun. African
way of worship, object of worship, places of worship.
Similarly, Africanism is how the people go about in doing and
carrying out their cultural activities.
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Relating Africanism to mythology will be very important in this work,
since myth and culture are closely related and one cannot do without the
other. If myth is a story and Africanism deals majorly with the peoples
culture and way of life, relating and revealing the history of African people,
culture, traditions and moral values through some African mythical figure
e.g. Ogun.
Myth, in this work will critically looked into the history and culture of
the African people, most especially the West people or region.
We have African mythical figures. In the likes of Ogun the god of
Iron, we have Sango god of thunder and Lightening, Orunmila, Obatala.
These entire mythical figures are the Yoruba cosmology of West African
and Nigerian.
Kennedy, (1987) posits that, myths tell us of the exploits of the gods
their battles, the ways in which they live, love and perhaps suffer all on a
scale of magnificence larger than our life.
Ibrahim, (2008) propose that myth affects the cosmic and material
belief of man in his terrestrial and celestial existence.
A belief which to Soyinka, (1962), is the functional essence of man.
The intention of every one is to fulfill his / her heart desires and he or she
does this through laid down stories about some super ordinate powers.
These suggest the concept of functional myth and its relatedness
to mythical beliefs.
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Mazisi, (1980), affairs that change is possible only through myth.
Myth can crate an acute vision defining in a familiar cosmic terms the
future possibilities of a society.
The main characters in myths are usually gods or supernatural
heroes. As sacred stories, myth are often endorsed by rulers and priest
and closely linked to religion. In the society in which it is told, a myth is
usually regarded as a true account of the remote past. In fact, many
societies have two categories of traditional narrative, true stories or
myths, and false stories or fables. Myths generally take place in a
primordial age, when the world had not yet achieved its current form, and
explain how the world gained its current form and how customs,
institutions, and taboos were established.
In many cultures, it is hard to draw a sharp line between myths and
legends. Instead of dividing their traditional stories into myths, legends and
folktales, one that roughly corresponds to folktales, and one that combines
myths and legends. Even myths and folktales are not completely distinct.
In other word, myth, legend, saga, fable some kind of J okes,
traditional stories, in turn, are only one category writing folklore, which also
includes items such as gestures, costumes, and music.
1.1 PURPOSE OF STUDY
Since, myth is a traditional or legendary story, this shows the
usefulness of myth in every society in the world. This work will interrogate
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African world is an example the two authors selected is well grounded in
mythology and understands Africanism very well.
1.3 METHODOLOGY
The functional myth theory will be employed as analytical tool. Since
myth has functions and its this functions, this research work will be looking
at. This concept simply talks about how myths were used to teach morality
and social behavior. It states that myths told about what types of things
should and shouldnt be done and the consequences for those wrong
doing. The functional myth theory also states that myths were created for
social control and served the function of insuring stability in a society.
1.4 SCOPE OF STUDY
This research work will cover all areas that explain the relationship
between the study of mythology and Africanism and will focus on Yoruba
setting, with a particular attention on the Yoruba cosmology from the
selected texts.
Also, this research work will be the fact gathered from Dictionaries,
Internet, personal observation, textbooks, and notebooks. The study will
end after showing the great importance and function of mythology and also
showing Africanism as a rich cultural heritage and historical background
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contrary to what the Europeans thought it was (Cultureless, colorless, and
others).
1.5 STRUCTURE OF THESIS
This research work has five chapters.
Chapter one is the general background to the topic; Mythology and
Africanism.
Chapter two is the literature review which will define myth and
Africanism and also talk on what other scholars had say concerning them.
In chapter three, the focus will be on the subtopic of the chapters
of the palm wine drunkard.
Chapter four will also focus on the subtopic of the chapters of
forest of a thousand daemons.
Finally chapter five focuses on the conclusion and
bibliography.
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WORKS CITED
Soyinka W. (1979). Myth, Literature and The African World.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ibrahim B.F. (2008). Themes, Patterns and Oral aesthetic form in
Nigerian Literature. Ilorin: Hay tee Press.
Chinweizu et al. (1980). Towards the Decolonization of African
Literature, Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publication Co. ltd.
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CHAPTER TWO
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
Defining a myth is not an easy pre-occupation because of the many
complexities surrounding it. The term Mythology is loosely used to refer to
a body of myths. A myth is usually in a narrative poem or written play. It is
different from narrative tales only because it is believed to be substantially
true. Myths Originated out of the need to explain certain phenomena,
customs, or beliefs. This explains the relationship between mythology and
Africanism which shows that myths has its own function and importance in
any society.
Cam bell, (1988:22) believed that there were two different orders of
mythology: that there are myths that are metaphorical of spiritual
potentiality in the human being, and that there are myths, That have to do
with specific societies.
Ward, (1911:8) asserts that religion is the effective desire to be in
the night relation to the power manifesting itself in the universe. This
proposes that it is the explanations and character of gods shows by
mythology that aids man to keep his relations with them on the right basis.
It consequently means that the mythic faculty is present in the thinking
process and answers a basic human need.
Kennedy, (1987:624) posits that myths tell us of the exploits of the
gods their battles, the ways in which they live, love and perhaps suffer all
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on a scale of magnificence larger than our life. Considering Kennedys
suggestion, it is clear that for the gods to have the highlighted attributes,
they must have defined cultural background. This shows another
relationship between mythology, Africanism and history. Since Africanism
is African ways and style of doing things, it is also the race, the people
ways of life is their culture.
Culture encompasses tradition, norms, mannerisms, customs and
others. Africanism means the African people world view, peoples
collective Endeavour to live and come to term with their environment. Frere
speculative debates have ensured on the synonymy of myth, Africanism
and history. The notions of what Africanism, history and of what event is
possibly range or vary from place to place, and region to region. It is
difficult to lay down rules discrimination between Africanism and the
mythical, except through a wide range of experience coming from various
region and strata of development.
In an attempt to solve the ongoing, scholars have stated their
opinions by trying to draw a line between, Soyinka differentiate between
European two different world view.
Soyinka, (1979:48) posits that; George strainer observes, in his
diagnosis of the decline in tragic grand our of the European dramatics
vision, a relatedness between this decline and that of the organic world
view and of its attendant context of mythological, symbolic and ritual
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reference. The implication of this, a strange one to the African world
view is that, to expand stories own metaphor the world in which lightning
was a cornice in the cosmic architecture of man collapsed at that moment
when Benjamin Franklin tapped its power with a kite. The assimilative
wisdom of African metaphysics recognizes no difference in essence
between the mere means of happing the power of lightning whether it is by
ritual sacrifice, through the purgative will of the community unleashing in
J ustice on the criminal, or through the agency of Franklins revolutionary
gadget.
Its evident in the above Soyinka that, the African world view is
different from the Europeans. This explains the concept of Africanism.
Chinweizu et al, (1980) assets that;
African oral literature is important to the
Enterprise of Decolonizing African literature
For the important reason that is an incontestable
Reservoir of the values, sensibilities, Aesthetics
And achievements of traditional African thought and
Imagination, outside the plastic arts: It serves as the ultimate
foundation guidepost and point of departure for liberating
African literature. It is the only root from which modern African
Literature must draw substance p.10
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It is not unrealistic therefore to posit that are bound to be re-evaluated
recast, or even rejected as the society which produces it develops new
physical and social conditions through history. This re-evaluation to suit the
state of the contemporary society, without the loss of the aesthetics of
mythology is what Wole Soyinka and Amos Tutuola make evidence
through their library mode of play /Drama texts.
NOVELIST REVIEW
A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes
dramatic literature or drama, whose productions through library vision are
pictured in literary output.
Ojaide, (1998:135) an advocate of literature tradition succinctly
assets that;
In Africa, a Dramatist is not only a
Specifically gifted person, but
His gauge of societys condition is more
Perceptive than the man of common
Disposition. He sees through what appears to the
Rest of the society as opaque.
Wanjala, (1983:22) equally observed that, the Dramatist is a student of his
society in that he recognizes the myths, the hoper and aspirations of his
people and strives to recreate them imaginatively to reflect the inner
meanings of the society about which and for whom he speaks.
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The position of the Dramatist, in the society, is most tasking in that he is
saddled with the responsibility of understanding the intricacies and
complexities which his society is enmeshed in and must be able to mirror
the society in which he finds himself.
Udoeyop (1973:15) affirms that,
The Dramatist is not a historian,
or doctor whose only duty is to perform autopsy.
The secret of his divination lies in his sensitivity to
Register accurately the creaks of lifes puppetry to
Create for us an accurate image of the grotesque masquerades he
sees as part of the reality of our society
These assertions confidently show that the African Dramatist is an artisan
who showcases and projects the image of his society. Wole Soyinka and
Amos Tutuola are those Dramatist. They achieve this through
mythodramatism which is the systemization and consequently the
culmination of myth and play or Drama.
SOYINKAS REVIEW
It is one that we can commend to society. Fagunwa is one of the
great pioneers of the fiction Genre In our indigenous language, a trial
blazer in the modernization and preservation of a traditional culture. A
forest of a thousand daemons is a world classic, a story that will be forever
young because it speaks to our fundamental yearning for adventure, thrill
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and wisdom. This shows the functional essence of myth in its relation to
Africanism.
Osofisan added that he was excited because Charms realized the
need to promote Nigerians indigenous culture by investing in the play
unlike. Some companies that promote foreign derived shows.
Osofisan 1979
The Translator, Wole Soyinka explains that four hundred has a
similar meaning in Yoruba to what we mean by a thousand and that
daemon is closer in essence to the Yoruba Imole than gods, deities, or
demons. Soyinka deploys obscure English world to convey shades of
meaning and sort out the many types of creature in this tale.
Though, Soyinka is known with his complexities in his words usage,
but sine a forest of thousand Daemon is not his original work but rather a
translated work of Fagunwa. This makes the words a simple and
understandable one. Even Average reader will read and understand. This
did not attract much criticism compare to Wole Soyinkas Idanre.
Femi Osofisan settle the Matter when he acknowledges that he has
been one of Soyinkas ardent critics to whom he himself has replied with
some of his most famous diatribe but it is also true that all quarrels with
Soyinka are in the end, nothing less than a tribute to his genius that our
disagreement with him represent with all fierceness, the kind of damage
that admires pay to masters. Osofisan 1979
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Wole Soyinkas language is fresh inventive and potential laden.
However, he remains a remarkable craftsman in fusing, enriching,
transforming and elevating the English and Yoruba languages into a
metaphoric unified medium of the celebration of human potential and the
rich cultural heritage of Africa.
Soyinka believes that all religions are metaphors for the strategy of
Man, coping with the vast unknown. He subscribe to the Yoruba belief that
the gods man, and nature are bound in the interest of the psychic well
being of the universe.
TUTUOLAS REVIEW
Tutuola acclaiming west and criticism at home. The book was based
on Yoruba folktales, but was largely his own invention using pidgin English
prose. While distinctly African, the novel bears some resemblance to the
magic realism works of South African writers such as J uan Rulfo and
Gabriel Garcia Marguez. In all of these works the tone is mythical and pre-
modern, but told in the form of a narrative novel which is in essence a
modern form. This contrast is manifestation of the transition between
traditional cultures and the global trend towards modernity.
The wine Drinkard tells the mythological story of a man who follows
a palm wine tapster into the land of the dead or Dreads Town there he
finds a world of magic, ghosts, demons, and supernatural beings. The
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book came out in 1952 and received appraisal from Dylan Thomas as well
as other Western Intellectual figures of the time
However, among many Africa intellectuals it caused controversy and
received harsh criticism. In Nigeria, in particular, some feared the story
showed their people in a negative light.
Specifically, that is depicted a drunk, used pidgin English, and
promoted the idea Africans were superstitious. However, Nigerian novelist
Chinua Achebe defended Tutuilas works stating the stories in it can also
be read as moral tales commenting on Western consumerism.
(From Wikipedia, the froe encyclopedia) The novel, the palm wine
Drinkard draws closely on the traditional repertory of the writers culture.
The novel is also unique with its chain of disjointed episodes. A close
examination of the inner structure of the way, in which individual episodes
are constructed, set in sequence and woven together into coherent design
makes the work to be outstanding. Its style is essentially an oral style. In
syntax as well as imagery and narrative content, Tutuola Sounded exactly
like a Yoruba raconteur.
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WORKS CITED
Cambell, J . (1988). The power of myth: New York Doubleday Ltd.
Ward W. F. (1911). Religious Experience of the Roman People.
London: Fowler P.8
Kennedy X. J . (1987). Literature: An Introduction to fiction, Poetry and
Drama. London: Little Brown and Company.
Soyinka W. (1979:48). Myth, Literature and the African World.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press P.64.
Chinweizu et al (1980). Towards the Decolonization of African
Literature, Enugu: fourth Dimension Publication Co. Ltd.
Ojaide, T. (1998). Poetic Imagination in Black Africa: Essay on African
Poetry in a research in African, Literature. Abiola Irele. (ed). Indiana:
University Press. P135
Wanjala C. (1983). Discovering Easy African Poets In East Africa
Literature: An Anthology. Arne Zetherstern (Ed). New York: London
Publishers.Udeoyop N. J . (1973). Three Nigerian Poets. Ibadan: University Press
P.15
Osofisan F. (2002). Insidious Treason: Drama in a post Colonial State.
Lagos: Concept Publication P. 20.
http://www.wikipedia.com from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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CHAPTER THREE
3.0 The Palm-wine Drinkard: looking at the subtopic of the chapters.
The Palm Wine Drinkard was written based on the style of African Orator,
it is picturesque or episodic, imaginative combined rhetorical forms, and
message. Amos Tutuolas work the palm wine drunkard is also a
celebration of Yoruba myths, tales and beliefs.
This narrative display a pattern: a young individual or small group
will leave the communal site of the village or town to undertake an
adventurous quest in order to resolve a particular problem that effect their
status in society. Tutuila, though, subverts the given heroic stature of
Fagunwas more traditional protagonists and his work displays none of the
strident Christian moralist and didacticism of his precursor. This is evident
in the humorous opening lines of the palm-wine Drinkard, which describes
his narrators status writing his family and society together with his
deucedly unheroic motivations and desire. I was a palm-wine drunkard
since I was a boy of ten years of age. I had no other work than to drink
palm-wine in my life. In those days we did not know other money, except
COWRIES, so that everything was very cheap, and my father was the
richest man in our town. My father got eight children and I was the eldest
among them, all of the nest were hard workers, but I myself was an expert
palm-wine drunkard. I was drinking palm-wine from morning till night and
from night till morning. By that time I could not drink ordinary water at all
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except palm-wine. But when my father noticed that I could not do any work
more than to drink, he engage an expert palm tapster for me, he had no
other work more than to tap palm-wine every day. So my father gave me a
palm-wine farm which was nine miles square and it contained 560,000
palm-trees, and this palm wine tapster was tapping one hundred and fifty
kegs pf palm-wine every morning, but before 2 0clock pm, l would have
drunk all of it; after that he would go and tap another 75 kegs in the
evening which I would be drinking till morning. So my friends were
uncountable by that time and they were drinking palm-wine with me from
morning till a late hour in the night (Tutuila 1951:1).
The death of the Drinkards father is swiftly followed by the
accidental death of his beloved palm-wine tapster, which precipitates a
crisis in the social status of the pampered and indolent young Drinkard,
and leads him to go in search of his dead tapster in the land of the Dreads
this passage also illustrates the anachronistic syncretism (out of date, and
reducing language reflection) that is so often a feature of Tutuolas
narrative landscapes. He locates the tale in an indefinite pre-colonial era
when we did not know other money, except COWRIES yet the narrative
goes on to mention such seemingly incongruous modern artifacts as guns,
bottles of wine, and a dance hall in which the lights (.) were in
Technicolors and they were changing color at five minutes (Tutuola
1952:68-69).
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Participation in ritual performances. In the context of Tutuolas
narrative structure, the J ourneys that all his protagonist undertake could be
describe as naturalistic movement or performances which carry both
connotations: as representation of the symbolic process of initiation into
the social and as individuated forms of regeneration and rebirth. Some of
the principal signifiers of ontological transformation in Tutuolas narratives
are the numerous physical transmutations his characters accomplish,
either willingly or through coercion. Anthropomorphism and shape
changing are a regular feature of Yoruba folktales and Mythology and
Tutuolas stories are similarly littered with magical transformations and
episodes involving metamorphism. In the palm-wine Drinkard the young
protagonist Akara Ogun uses, the Magical powers of his juju to change
into a variety of bird, lizard, aero plane and pebble.
(Tutuola 1951:117:40)
in the palm-wine Drinkard there is no hint of danger in the young
Drinkards description of his initial entry into the realm of the dead When I
saw that there was no palm wine for me again, and no body could tap it
for me, then I thought writing myself that old people were that the whole
people who had died in this world, did not go to heaven directly, but they
were living in one place some where in this world. So that I would find out
where my palm-wine tapster who had died was. One fine morning, I took
all my native juju and also my fathers juju with me and I left my fathers
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home town to find out whereabouts was my tapster who had died (Tutuola
1951:9). The Drinkard eventually escapes from the realm of the Deeds by
turning himself into a pebble in other to skip across a river to evade
pursuing ghosts, who he later realizes are forbidden to cross this particular
boundary. Instead of signifying danger for the Drinkard, the crossing of this
threshold actually signifies freedom and escape from danger.
Subsequently, Tutuola undoubtedly followed a form of narrative
structure first employed by D.O. Fagunwa, in his stories written in Yoruba
and published in the 1930s and 1940s.
What is so vital about The Palm Wine Drinkard is Tutuolas absolute
dedication to the fantastic. All laws of the probables are flouted and
everything is elastic. Details are hasty and sketched and sentences often
end with a blunt etc. Things are most often described by the elements
that mark them out, make them what they are. For brevity, places and
things are named by their description.
The Red People in the Red Town or, rather wonderfully, The
skull as a complete Gentlemen. The latter is a bare Cranium that hires
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. (Tutuola 1951:73, 18).
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In addition, 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 drinks
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 tress and,
because nobody can tap palm-wine as well as this character, the narrator
sets off for Dead Town to find his posthumous incarnation. On the way,
the drunkard 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, Inside the white Tree is a kind of hotel
cum- hospital with a great ballroom-scale is immaterial in the Bush. It is
like a mutilated episode of in the Night Garden or an adventure from The
mighty Bush, (Tutuola 1951:69-72, 85-92).
Lastly the palm-wine Drinkard aroused exceptional worldwide
interest. Drawing on the West African Yoruba Oral Folktale tradition,
Tutuola described the odyssey of a devoted palm-wine drinker through a
nightmare of fantastic adventure. Since them, the palm-wine Drinkard has
been translated into more than 15 languages and has come to be regarded
as a master work of one of Africas most influential writers.
Fable is usually a very brief story its concern is to explain a problem
in very simple terms, or to point out a moral truth in an offensive manner.
This is why it usually carries a deeper meaning, through a surface story.
More often than not, the characters are mostly animals who act as
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surrogate human being. This does not however totally exclude human
characters in some cases. Example abound in Amos Tutuolas The Palm
wine Drinkard. For example,
At the same time that this
Rod fish saw stood before
Their hold, it was laughing and
Coming towards me
Live a human-being.
(Tutuola 1951:80)
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REFERENCES
Soyinka W. (1979). Myth, Literatures and the African World.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 140-160.
http://www.spikemagazine.come/amos-tutuola-the-palm-winedrinkardphp
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CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 THE FOREST OF A THOUSAND DAEMONS: looking at the
subtopic of the chapters.
The forest of a thousand Daemons was written in 1938 in response
to a literacy contest sponsored by the Nigerian ministry of education. It is
considered the first novel to be written in Yoruba and one of the first to be
written in any of Africas indigenous language.
The story which follows is a veritable agidigbo, writes the author in
the opening section of forest of a thousand Daemons. He only plays a
small part in the novel, as his role is essentially that of amanuensis, talking
down AkaraOgun. It is the talks the old man relates that make up almost
the entire book. Forest of a thousand Daemons is thus a second-hand
take, and an oval account set down on paper ,,, and, as the author notes,
an account that is drummed more than it is merely recounted. My friends
all like the sonorous proverb do we drum the agidigbo, it is the wise who
dance to it, and the learned who understand its language. Thats a lot for
printed word on a page to live up to, and much of the musicality is surely
also lost in translation. (Soyinka 1982:7) Akara Oguns name means
compound of spalls and he has a few up his sleeve to help him in the
adventures he relates. He is a hunter, but the forest --as the books title
suggestcontains much in are than trust game.
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Ali, a most evil forest of a thousand daemons, it is the very abode of
ghommids. P14
But, of course, in his younger days he ventured there though his first
encounter with the powerful supernatural creatures of the forest leads him
to fall right back on:
An appropriate spell egbe,
the rarified, which transports him right back to the safety of his room. Pp
14, 16
AkaraOgun does go on to have a variety of adventures among the many
unusual spirits and creatures of this alter world. There is a creature with
sixteen eyes being arranged around the base of his head, a women who
transforms herself into everything from a tree to an antelope to a roaring
fire, a four headed man (Whose name was fear, Eru) ostrich-king (He
was bird from his neck downwards, the rest was human) and, perhaps
most impressively, tiny, swarming sand elves.
(Soyinka 1982:84, 86).
Akara-Ogun and various friends of his are tested along the way. Betrayal
and Murder are common, and few of the outcomes can be described as
happy. Fed up by the treachery around him Akara Ogun goes on a
slaughtering rampage or two as well.
There are some places where Akara-Ogun feels comfortable, but
more typically, he finds himself in nightmarish locales.
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The name of the city is
Is filth. It is a place of suffering
And contempt, a city of greed and
Contumely, a city of envy and wrangles,
A city of death and diseases a variety city
Of sinners Pp. 44-58.
There is a great deal of rich material here, but the stories are rather
hurriedly told and several times too often theres a reluctance to say much
of anything.
But how many should recount,
how many tell, how much can I tell you
about the many encounters in these places.
I have mentioned I they were numerous than lips
can tell the rest is silence.
Theres too much silence, theres not enough to these adventures, not like
this (which may be a reflection of how much is missed by the reader who is
unfamiliar with Yoruba myth, fiction, and approaches to story telling).
A great deal of language and of the drumbeat of the account is
surely lost in translation. Soyinka does address some of this in his very
brief translators introduction. His rendering does read quite well, but at
times it is obvious what great compromises he had to make: consider just:
Do not permit your child to
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Keep bad company, that he
Start from youth to pub-crawl.
(Its clear what he means, but obviously the pub has no place in his
setting).
The Literal meaning of the books title is The Brave Hunter in the
forest of 400 Deities, but the translator non other than Wole Soyinka
explains that four hundred has a similar meaning in Yoruba to what we
mean by a thousand, and that daemon is a thousand, and that daemon
is closer in essence to the Yoruba imale than gods, deities or demons.
Soyinka deploys obscure English words to convey shades of
meaning and sort out the many types of creature in this tale. After an
unsetting encounter with a warrior named Agbako, whose sixteen eyes are
engaged around the base of his head, the here is greeted by a beautiful
woman who spells things out for him:
Akara-Ogun, you are aware that
Even as dewilds exist also;
Even as spirits exists so also
Do kobolds, as kobolds on this earth, so are
Gnomes, as gnomes so also
Exist the dead. Pp 22-25
These ghommids and trolls together make up the entire thousand and one
daemons who exist upon earth.
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Further more, like the better known novel The palm wine Drinkard
by Amos Tutuola, forest of a thousand Daemons is based in Yoruba
Folktales, but although it come earlier than in English), it is less grotesque
and more traditional in tone reason is that it is told not in the odd but
powerful broken English of Tutuola but in the sophisticated, sometime
antique language of its translator.
The language of forest of a thousand Daemons is sometime
awkward, and Soyinka seems to have preserved its flavor.
Recounting the third day of his journey, the hunter says:
I ate, filled up properly so that my bony protuberated most roundly:
Yet peculiar as it sometimes is, the book has life, and helps gap between
oral tradition and the modern literature of Nigerian one of the most fertile
on the continent.
D.O. Fagunwas works were essentially chosen because they portray the
value we cherish in charms. His books teaches lesson in perseverance,
hard work, determination, teamwork, patriotism and others. We also
believe that these values are essential for nation building.
Charms also realized the need to promote Africas and Nigerias
indigenous culture by investing in the play unlike some companies that
promote foreign derived shows. By selecting this work charms is
rendering an immeasurable service to the preservation of African Culture.
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WORKS CITED
Soyinka W. (1982). Foreword in The Forest of a Thousand Daemons.
Thomas Nelson (Nigeria) Ltd. P.3
Soyinka W. (1982). The Forest of a Thousand Daemons Thomas
Nelson (Nigeria) Ltd (7-140).
Hettp://wordswithoutborders.org/ wiki/ dispatched/ article/ forest of
thousand daemons/.
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CHAPTER FIVE
4.1 CONCLUSION
Mythology and Africanism are indispensable in the analysis of a
literary text. They aid and demonstrate textual form as well as how
conclusions are reached in literary interpretation.
In this study, we have been able to carry out mythology and
Africanism analysis of the texts by looking into the heroic quality of the
protagonist in the texts, also hard work, doing extra ordinary to achieve
some basic goals in life, charms was also emphasis in portraying Africa
culture which reflects the concept of Africanism and mythological essence
in the texts.
Finally, Tutuola and Soyinka also used texts reminiscent of his tribe,
African views and cosmology in order to depict the Africans heritage and
their oral literature. He also showed that man cannot succeed without first
facing some difficulties or obstacles in life and defeating some inevitable
challenges in the world.
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REFERENCES
Lind fore, B. (1973) Folklore in Nigeria Literature. New Yolk: African
publishing company.
Soyinka W. (1982). The Forest of a thousand Daemons: Thomas
Nelson (Nigeria) Ltd.
Amos, T. (1961) The palm-wine Drinkard. Ibadan: Spectrum Books
limited.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Sources
Amos T. (1961) The palm-wine Drinkard Ibadan: Spectrum Book
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Soyinka W. (1982). The forest of a thousand Daemons: Thomas
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Secondary Sources
Cambell, J . (1988). The power of myth: New York Doubleday ltd.
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http://www.spikemagazine.com/amos-tutuolathepalm-wine-drinkard
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http://wordswwithoutbordes.org/wiki/dispatches/article/forestofa thousand.
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