A METAPHYSICAL ANALYSIS OF PALMWINE DRINKARD AND

WOLE SOYNINKA’S FOREST OF A THOUSAND DEMONS

 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 the metaphysical analysis of the Yoruba cosmology, as its
relevance within African cultural production. Data will be collected from Wole
Soyinka’s The Forest of a Thousand Daemons (1982). And Amos Tutuola’s The
Palm-wine Drinkard (1961). Which is in consonance with the main research
objective, that is, to analyze 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 Soyinka’s and
Tutuola’s transposition of African culture.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title page

Certification

Dedication

Acknowledgment

Abstract

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 Background to the study

1.1 Purpose of study

1.2 Justification of study

1.3 Methodology

1.4 Scope of study

1.5 Structure of thesis

CHAPTER TWO

2.0 Literature Review

CHAPTER THREE

3.0 The Palm Wine Drinkard: looking at the subtopic of the chapters.

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0 The Forest of a Thousand Daemons: looking at the subtopic of the

chapters.

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0. Conclusion
Bibliography

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The word “metaphysics” is derived from two Greek words “Meta” which means
“after” and “physika” which means physics (or nature). Metaphysics literally
means after nature or after physics which deals with things of the mind, soul
and other things outside this world. The indepth meaning of metaphysics is not
known because people often, mistake it with similar meaning in contexts.
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy. Its definition may not be as definite as
one could know. However, there are different types of definition of metaphysics
by different scholars like Aristotle, Democritus and Plato.

The Oxford dictionary (1995: 533) states that metaphysics is “the branch of
knowledge dealing with the nature of existence, nature of truth and that of
knowledge” Aristotle in his Understanding Metaphysics (1903:170) defines
metaphysics “as the four elation of all sciences as it is the science of being with
the natural world and beyond”. In Aristotle’s case the word “beyond” refers to
the supernatural world or realm. Metaphysics could also be the integration of
the natural world of man with the other world of the unknown according to
Aristotle, it is the science of reality.

The two novels understudy Tutuola’s The Palmwine Drinkard and Wole
Soyinka’s Forest of a Thousand Demons are elemental case studies of
metaphysics as they have it in them, elemental case studies of metaphysics from
the beginning to the end. In their own unique way, these two writers express
their aesthetic visions through their characters which emanates from a common
stock of tradition, the Yoruba metaphysics mythology and collective,
apprehension of the universe.
The significance of their work is this inherent in the symbolic framework and
connotation of their novels. A simple but valid interpretation of Tutuola and
Soyinka’s pattern of situation in their novels suggests that man stand a dynamic,
supernatural, moral and spiritual world lived in by obscure forces and this of
course is a mythical representation of the existential condition of man as
expressed in Yoruba thinking.(79) Tutuola and Soyinka’s personal beliefs of
metaphysics was transferred to their use of characters.

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
Judgment on truth or falsity. In addition, Folklore is unwritten Literature of a
people as expressed in Folk takes, proverb, riddles Songs and others. Similarly,
it’s also the body of stories and legends attached to a particular place, group,
activity and others so, the Link between folklore 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 term
must be 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. It’s 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.

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. 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, myths 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 Jokes, 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 the usefulness of
myth in our contemporary society. This work will also examine the far basis for
Africanism using myth as a bastion, (upholding or defending).

1.2 JUSTIFICATION OF STUDY

This research work will be a contribution towards, recognizing the artistic

prorcy of the playwriting and their uncommon ability to initiate and propagate
cultural heritage in their Drama / texts. This work will work on the contrary
notions surrounding myths and Africannism and the selected texts of the
novelist, Wole Soyinka and Amos Tutuola respectively.

This work will also be looking at metaphysical analysis in explaining the

important and also in function which will be to rehabilitate African cultural
heritage and to show to the European’s that African people have cultural and
historical background. The two texts for analysis will help in analyzing myth
and Africanism better since all the happenings in the test is fictional and also
reveal Africanism that is, African culture and way of life. The message of the
texts was passed across through narrative technique which describe mythology
that involve passing information from mouth to mouth, from one generation to
another in oral form.

Lastly, the researcher chose the authors because they both embraced African
culture and in heritage. Soyinka work on “myth and 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 it’s these 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
shouldn’t 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 contrary to
what the European’s 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.
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.
 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 INTRODUCTION

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 on a scale of
magnificence larger than our life”. Considering Kennedy’s 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, people’s 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 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 Justice on the criminal, or through the agency of
Franklin’s revolutionary gadget.

It’s 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

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.

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.

Wole Soyinka describes it as “a continuous source of the knowledge needed for

critical problems in man’s 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.
1

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

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.

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, 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 can’t
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 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 himself
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 man’s destiny is controlled by the
gods. Margaret Laurence notes that the book “has been compared to orphans in
the underworld, to Bounyan’s pilgrim’s progress, to Drante, to the journey of
Odyseus”.

Gerald Moore says that all of the author’s “heroes or heronries follow out one
variant or another of the cycle of the heroic monomyth, departure, initiation and
return”. 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 monster’s 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
Tutuola’s story.

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 Osofisan’s 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.

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 individual’s 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 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. 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.

2.4 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 society’s 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.

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 life’s
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.

2.5 SOYINKA’S 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 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 Nigerian’s 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 Soyinka’s Idanre. Femi Osofisan settle
the Matter when he acknowledges that he has been one of Soyinka’s 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.

Wole Soyinka’s 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 subscribes to the Yoruba belief that the gods man, and nature
are bound in the interest of the psychic well-being of the universe.

2.6 TUTUOLA’S 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 Juan 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 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 Tutuila’s 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.
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.
 CHAPTER THREE

THE PALM WINE DRINKARD: LOOKING AT THE SUBTOPIC OF

THE CHAPTERS.

3.0 THE PALM-WINE DRINKARD

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 Tutuola’s work the palm –wine drunkard is also a celebration of Yoruba
myths, tales and beliefs. This narrative displays 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 Soyinka’s
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
narrator’s 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 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 0’clock 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 Drinkard’s 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 Tutuola’s 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 Technicolor’s and they were changing color at five minutes
(Tutuola 1952:68-69).

Participation in ritual performances. In the context of Tutuola’s narrative

structure, the Journeys 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 Tutuola’s 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 Tutuola’s 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
Drinkard’s description of his initial entry into the realm of the “dead” When I
saw that there was no palm –wine for me again, and nobody 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 somewhere 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 father’s juju with me and I left my father’s 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 1930’s and 1940’s. What is so vital about The Palm Wine Drinkard is
Tutuola’s absolute dedication to the fantastic. All laws of the probable’s 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).

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
Africa’s 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 surrogate human being. This does
not however totally exclude human characters in some cases. Example abound
in Amos Tutuola’s 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)
WORKS CITED

 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
 CHAPTER FOUR

THE FOREST OF A THOUSAND DAEMONS: LOOKING AT THE

SUBTOPIC OF THE CHAPTERS.

4.0 THE FOREST OF A THOUSAND DAEMONS

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
Africa’s indigenous language. The story which follows is a veritable agidigbo,”
writes the author in the opening section of forest of a thousand Daemon’s. 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. That’s 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 –Ogun’s 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 book’s title suggest—contains much in are than trust game. “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. “The name of the city 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 there’s 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”. There’s too much silence,
there’s 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 storytelling). 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 translator’s 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 keep bad company, that he Start from youth to
pub-crawl”. (It’s 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. Furthermore, 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.

Wole Soyinka’s works were essentially chosen because they portray the value
we cherish in charms. His books teach 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 Africa’s and Nigeria’s 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.
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). Http://wordswithoutborders.org/ wiki/ dispatched/
article/ forest of thousand daemons/.
 CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION

5.1 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. continues to influence writer today. The oral tradition in the
work of some of the early writers of the 20 th 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 Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s 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
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 today’s
world may view cultures of long ago”. The retelling of a tale due to the oral
traditions.

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 primitive of the African. Through their works, the
writers portray to the world the dynamision and complexity that characterized
the African beliefs and customs. They effectively use myth in most of their
works to depict the richness and uniqueness of the people’s customs and
traditions. The writers further portray African as being rich in literature, in
symbolism. Being traditionalists, they use their creative imagination to present
to the world the level of esteem at which their customs and belief are hold.

All in all, the writers have 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.

Finally, Tutuola and Soyinka also used texts reminiscent of his tribe, African
views and cosmology in order to depict the African’s 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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