The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola

First published: 1952

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Folktale

Time of plot: Indeterminate

Locale: Nigeria

Principal characters

• The Narrator, a young man
• His Wife,
• The Palm-wine Tapster,
• The Curious Creature, a skull in disguise
• The Faithful Mother, helper of those in trouble
• Dance, the Red-Lady of Red-Town
• The Red-King, her father
• The Invisible Pawn, chief of all bush creatures

The Story:

The narrator lives contentedly as the son of a rich man who retains a palm-wine tapster for his son’s exclusive use. Each day, the tapster draws enormous amounts of palm-wine for the narrator, who drinks it with his friends. One day, after the narrator’s father has died, the tapster falls from a palm tree and is killed. The narrator misses his supply of palm-wine, and his friends no longer visit him, so he decides to go to Deads’ Town to find his tapster.

The narrator’s journey leads him from his town to various parts of the bush—that place outside civilization that is the habitation of all sorts of inhuman creatures. He has many adventures. For instance, he stays with a man who promises to give directions to Deads’ Town if the narrator will find Death and bring him to the town. The narrator tricks Death into coming along to the town. After that, Death cannot return to his former home, and so Death enters the world. The narrator asks again for directions to Deads’ Town, but his host says that he must first rescue his daughter, who had been attracted to a handsome gentleman and followed him into the bush. The gentleman is really a curious creature of the bush. He had returned to the bush and, as he entered, given back each bodily part that he had rented from a human being, until he was nothing but a skull; he then held the young woman captive. The narrator searches for the host’s daughter, finds her, and the two escape the bush.

The two marry and stay in her town until the day a child is born from her thumb, and is instantly able to speak, move, and eat and drink everything in sight. Driven from town because of this insatiable child, they wander into the bush, where they meet three persons named Drum, Dance, and Song. The child is so attracted by their music that he follows them. Released from their terrible companion, the narrator and his wife wander until they get to Wraith-Island. The beautiful creatures who live here have nothing to do but plant their magic seeds and then dance all day long. After an encounter with a huge creature that demands a sacrifice from the narrator for its field and an encounter with a tiny creature that can undo the work of all other creatures, the narrator and his wife leave Wraith-Island with some of the magic seeds.

In Unreturnable Heaven’s Town, they encounter people who call themselves the enemies of God and who do everything exactly the opposite from the normal world. The narrator and his wife are beaten, stoned, scraped by rocks and broken bottles, and finally buried up to their necks. With the help of a friendly eagle, they escape from the town and, after a short recuperation, go on their way. As they pass a huge, white tree, two hands reach out of an opening in the tree and draw them inside. This is the land of the Faithful Mother, whose sole task is to solace and care for those who have experienced great difficulties in the world. As they enter this land they rent their fear and sell their death. When they leave, after staying the maximum allowable three months, they take back their fear, but can no longer be killed, because they had sold their death. This leads to the odd circumstance that they can feel fear in the face of danger, even though the danger cannot kill them.

In Red-Town, the narrator’s wife speaks in riddles for the first time, and it develops that she has the gift of prophecy. Everything and everyone in this town is red-colored because of a mistake the Red-King had made years ago. By facing fearful creatures, the narrator frees them from their curse and settles down to use his magic seeds, soon becoming a rich man. While there, they meet the Red-Lady, daughter of the king and also the person who had been called Dance in an earlier adventure. She and her two companions play together in Red-Town until they play themselves right out of this world—only their names remain. When the narrator hires a farm laborer called the Invisible Pawn, who is really the chief of all bush-creatures, the Pawn’s overenthusiastic completion of his labors angers the townspeople, so again they move on.

After passing through the town of the Wise-King, they reach Deads’ Town and find the tapster, but cannot stay, because “alives” are not allowed to live with “deads.” With a marvelous egg from the tapster, they return to the narrator’s town, where they use the egg to feed people during a famine, until someone breaks the egg. Finally, the narrator ends a cosmic war between Heaven and Earth and the people prosper again.

Bibliography

Ajayi, Jare. Amos Tutuola: Factotum as a Pioneer. Ibadan, Nigeria: Creative Books, 2003. Ajayi, a Nigerian journalist, spent sixteen years researching and writing this first English-language biography of Tutuola. Provides information about his motivations for creative writing and his exploitation by publishers, among other subjects, and includes interpretations of his work.

Asagba, O. A. “The Folklore Structure in Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard.” Lore and Language 4, no. 1 (January, 1985): 31-39. Builds on earlier studies to analyze the novel’s use of folklore motifs and to examine claims that it is a “quest” novel.

Coates, John. “The Inward Journey of the Palm-Wine Drinkard.” In African Literature Today, compiled by Eldred D. Jones and edited by Eldred Durosimi Jones. New York: African Publishing, 1973. Examines the novel as a psychological development with allegorical overtones.

Collins, Harold R. Amos Tutuola. Boston: Twayne, 1969. Good treatment of Tutuola’s writings, using his life and environment as background. Workmanlike survey of aspects and critiques of his work.

George, Olakunle. Relocating Agency: Modernity and African Letters. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003. Examines works by Tutuola and three other Nigerian writers—D. O. Fagunwa, Wole Soyinka, and Chinua Achebe. Uses several modern critical theories, including poststructuralism and postcolonialism, to interpret these writers’ works.

Gera, Anjali. Three Great African Novelists: Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, and Amos Tutuola. New Delhi: Creative Books, 2001. Focuses on the use of the Yoruba and Igbo storytelling traditions in the works of Tutuola and two other Nigerian writers. Describes how the writers adapt these traditions to define themselves and their societies.

Irele, Abiola. “Tradition and the Yoruba Writer: Daniel O. Fagunwa, Amos Tutuola, and Wole Soyinka.” In Perspectives on Wole Soyinka: Freedom and Complexity, edited by Biodun Jeyifo. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2001. Compares Tutuola’s work with the work of two other Yoruba writers.

Lindfors, Bernth, ed. Critical Perspectives on Amos Tutuola. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1975. Reprint. London: Heinemann, 1980. Useful collection of critical comment on all of Tutuola’s works, divided into early reactions, reappraisals, and later criticism.

Owomoyela, Oyekan. Amos Tutuola Revisited. New York: Twayne, 1999. An excellent introduction to Tutuola’s life and works, written by a Yoruba writer and scholar. Argues that Tutuola symbolizes the African tradition from colonialism to postcolonialism. Includes notes, references, selected bibliography, and index.

Quayson, Ato. “Treasures of an Opulent Fancy: Amos Tutuola and the Folktale Narrative.” In Strategic Transformation in Nigerian Writing: Orality and History in the Work of Rev. Samuel Johnson, Amos Tutuola, Wole Soyinka, and Ben Okri. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997. A sound treatment of the element of orality in fiction by Tutuola and three other Nigerian writers. Focuses on Tuotola’s novels The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.