Amos Tutuola and the Cognitive Ecology of African Storytelling: A Behavioural Neuroscience Perspective

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.

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Abstract

Amos Tutuola (1920–1997) occupies a distinctive place in Nigerian literary history as the first novelist to introduce Nigerian oral storytelling to a global audience through a fusion of Yoruba folklore and unconventional English expression. While his works have been extensively examined within folkloric, postcolonial, and linguistic traditions, their relevance to cognition and behaviour remains underexplored. This theoretical review advances the argument that Tutuola’s narratives function as an indigenous cognitive archive that aligns closely with principles articulated in behavioural and cultural neuroscience. Focusing on The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, the paper examines how narrative structures and motifs intuitively encode processes such as emotional regulation, fear learning, moral conditioning, altered states of consciousness, and predictive cognition within a Yoruba-Nigerian cultural framework. Rather than representing escapist fantasy or literary eccentricity, Tutuola’s storytelling reflects culturally- grounded models of perception, belief formation, and behavioural adaptation shaped by social, ecological, and spiritual realities. By situating Tutuola’s work within contemporary neuroscientific discussions of narrative cognition and culturally embedded behaviour, this review highlights the value of indigenous Nigerian narrative frameworks for advancing behavioural neuroscience research. The manuscript argues that integrating such frameworks can enhance ecological validity, refine interpretations of mental health and behaviour, and support culturally informed models of cognition relevant to Nigerian populations. More broadly, the paper calls for greater engagement between literary scholarship and behavioural neuroscience as a means of deepening understanding of how culture shapes the mind.