Abstract

Africa’s oral storytelling tradition holds riches that are still largely untapped. A comparative reading of Amos Tutuola’s ‘The Complete Gentleman’, in his The Palm-Wine Drinkard, and Ama Ata Aidoo’s play Anowa offers clues on how to explore this heritage for the contemporary world. Both writers have adapted the tale of the headstrong/disobedient girl, who refuses all suitors from her own people, only to marry a monstrous stranger. The two authors’ adaptations of this widespread tale from sub-Saharan Africa offer clues both to the immense possibilities of the African folktale heritage and transcendence of once normative biases such as the fear of the stranger and gender inequality.

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