Biography Essay

Amos Tutuola is one of the great eccentrics in African literature. Born to Charles (a cocoa farmer) and Esther Aina Tutuola in Abeokuta, Western Nigeria, in 1920, educated no more than six years in missionary primary schools, trained as a coppersmith during World War II, and employed as a messenger and storeroom clerk throughout most of his adult life, he appears to be the kind of man least likely to win an international reputation as an author. Indeed, considering his cultural background, minimal education, and lack of literary sophistication, it is surprising that he began writing at all and even more astonishing that he chose to write in English rather than in Yoruba, his native tongue. His works are crudely constructed, severely restricted in narrative range, and marred by gauche grammatical blunders; yet aided by a remarkably vigorous imagination, he has been able to turn some of...