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Sama El Feky
African Literature
Dr. Mounira Soliman
Monday, February 29, 2016
Response paper on Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard
A Sarcastic Joke Turned Into A Masterpiece
Triggering worldwide exceptional interest, The Palm-Wine Drinkard has been regarded
as a genius folktale of one of Africa's most powerful writers, Amos Tutuola. The controversial
1952 novel is the first Nigerian book to achieve international fame, as it had been translated into
more than ten solid languages. The story simply follows an unnamed male narrator who is
addicted to palm-wine, especially since he started drinking when he was just ten years old. A son
of a rich man, the narrator had his own tapster that served both him and his friends as palm-wine
is considered extremely exclusive, making the man sort of popular and valuable among his
friends. After the tapster dies from falling off a tree though, the same tree that produces palm for
the wine, the unnamed man enters Dead’s Town to try to literally bring the tapster back from
death. Desperate as he was cut off from his greatest addiction, the man travels through magical
and supernatural adventures that would not only give him valuable life lessons and tests but also
his future wife and oh, a magic egg with endless palm-wine.
A classic quest tale with a lazy rich boy, the story pretty much revolves around a bunch
of freakishly weird events that happen throughout the drinkard’s journey and his way to
overcome them. Tutuola, who is Yoruba, incorporates so much oral tradition through myths and
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legends by translating Yoruba folktales in a humble and distinctive way. He draws the culture of
Modern Nigeria in an over the top epics that are meant to give the readers a glimpse of pure
Yoruba folklore, when understood. The subject or even the concept of the story, however, is not
as controversial as the writing, specifically the language, itself. Not only the first Nigerian to
publish a novel but also the first black African to write in English, Tutuola presented his writing
in a very ungrammatical yet unique way that certainly raised a few eyebrows, including mine, in
awe, disapproval and most importantly pure interest.
The Palm-Wine Drinkard caused a few or rather many debates about what African
Literature should actually be. While the novel became an epic phenomena throughout Europe, in
Tutuola’s own country however, Nigeria, it surprisingly received endless criticism as native
Nigerians believed the use of unusual English, magic and a drinkard for a protagonist only fed
into European stereotypes of unsophisticated Africans. Whether it’s broken English or modern
young English, Tutuola’s language should simply be considered its own. Both the language and
the writing should be a kind of Yoruba-English that is not only original but also twisted in a way
that it can instantly grab reader’s attention and most importantly keep it, simply because of how
new and awkward it is.
Dead’s town, Skulls and strange creatures, the novel is certainly too much to
comprehend, especially considering it’s a folktale as in there is some truth to it. My main
struggle while initially reading the novel was to differentiate what is fiction and what is actually
real. Considering it is not even written in standard English, the novel gives me the feeling of a
bunch of waves, which are in the form of weird events, attacking me to the point that I can’t
breath or think anymore. It is simply too exaggerated that some readers, including me, obviously
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wonder why in the world it has made such a tremendous impact. I realised, however, that the fuss
is not so much about the actual plot but more about the author, his culture and his deepest
intentions. My best guess is that this novel is a big joke, a big sarcastic joke that was simply not
understood by neither international critics nor Nigerian critics. International critics simply
analysed the story from its originality more than anything, as in the writing, the language, the
over-exaggerated events and weird concept, while Nigerian critics analysed it from a personal
point of view, meaning it was too sensitive for them to really get the whole picture behind the
folktale. An ordinary reader who is not linked, personally or career wise, to the novel would be
the best judge as it perhaps needs an open-mind more than anything. Tutuola gathered a bunch of
Yoruba stereotypes and put them in a wacky world to tease those who believe Africans are way
behind and undeveloped. He indeed seems to me to be this creatively crazy author who wanted
nothing more than to tease, confuse and even shock international readers at how the African
reality supposedly is when it obviously is not in such way at all. Africans think, believe, work
and live just like any other population. I mainly believe The Palm-Wine Drinkard is a genius
novel because Tutuola’s distinctive sense of sarcasm turned the folktale into this controversial
piece of literature that would sure last for a lifetime and the joke is quite possibly just lost in
translation to some readers.