“The central Yoruba tradition—that of the sacred myth
describing the creation, evolution, and jurisdiction of the deities and
historical heroes—represents a remarkably rigorous cosmology of intellectual
coherence and elegance. It is a universe of elemental forces natural and social
with finds metaphoric expression in a pantheon of deities, whose complicated
interrelationships, jurisdictions, and necessities are rationalized into an
architectonic system of knowledge. The sophisticated worldview embodied in this
myth has as its central value the balancing and harmonizing of powerful
forces—natural, numinous, and social.
Out of the interplay of deities,
ancestors, and humanity, through a process of mutual obligation expressed in
language, ritual, and protocol as handed down by tradition, society became
possible. A universe of history, stability, morality, and order was achieved.
But bordering on this system of
stability was terra incognita: the evil forest, the bad bush. Here was the home
of chaos, where random spirits without name or history, of bizarre forms and
malignant intent were to be found. This was the domain of the deformed, the
unnatural, and the abominable. The Sunufo, distant cousins of the Yoruba, have
a mask that expresses this. It has the snout of an alligator, the tusks of a
boar, the horn of a rhinoceros, and the ears of a zebra. It represents an
animal that existed before order was imposed on the world.
In the oral tradition the
folktale—a moral and cautionary story but clearly recognized as fiction and
entertainment—had free range of this random and arbitrary world. Because they
were intended for entertainment and instruction, these tales could be as
horrific, frightening, and bizarre as the imagination could render them. They
required the willing suspension of disbelief.”
Michael
Thelwell, 1984, 188-89
“Introduction”
to Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard
No comments:
Post a Comment