Amos Tutuola and the Cognitive Ecology of African Storytelling: A Behavioural Neuroscience Perspective
May 9, 2026 Adejoke Onaolapo, Olakunle Onaolapo
Amos Tutuola's novels, such as The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, are not merely fantastical stories but function as an indigenous cognitive archive. This theoretical review argues that his narratives, rooted in Yoruba folklore and unconventional English, intuitively encode processes like emotional regulation, fear learning, moral conditioning, altered states of consciousness, and predictive cognition. By aligning these narrative structures with principles from behavioral and cultural neuroscience, the paper suggests that Tutuola's work reflects culturally grounded models of perception and behavioral adaptation. Integrating such indigenous frameworks can enhance ecological validity in neuroscience and support culturally informed models of cognition relevant to Nigerian populations.