Pupils, Witch Doctor, Vengeance: Amos Tutuola as Playwright

Although he is known primarily as a novelist, between 1959 and 1982 Amos Tutuola wrote at least three plays—The Pupils of the Eyes, Ajaiyi and the Witch Doctor, and Sword of Vengeance—of all which remain unpublished. After an introductory account of the circumstances that appear to have led Tutuola to develop an interest in dramatic literature, this paper explores the thematic concerns of the plays and relates these to the thematic territory of Tutuola's fiction, in particular to the novel Ajaiyi and His Inherited Poverty. All three plays are shown to provide further evidence of Tutuola's preoccupation with conditions of isolation and marginalization, with the vulnerability of the individual to the schemes of the unscrupulous and greedy, and with the problematic nature of trust. In addition, the paper highlights Tutuola's attempts to develop his craft as a dramatist and in particular the difficulties he appears to have faced in handling the conventions of the dramatic text.