A música livre: Amos Tutuola e a subjetividade do ente-instrumento

Luiza Almeida

doi:10.11606/issn.2526-303X.i45p%p

Authors

Luiza Almeida UNIRIO

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2526-303X.i45p%25p

Keywords:

Amos Tutuola; Ente-instrumento; Música africana; Oralidade; Filosofia africana

Abstract

Abstract:

Amos Tutuola (1920-1997) was a pioneering Nigerian writer who wrote in English but grounded his narratives in the Yoruba oral tradition. This article investigates the concept of "entity-instrument" in the works The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952) and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1954), demonstrating how musical instruments become subjects endowed with agency and vital force. The analysis reveals that in Tutuola's narratives, musical elements emerge as living entities with transformative and revolutionary power, echoing African epistemologies also present in the works of Bunseki Fu-kiau, Malidoma Somé, and K. C. Anyanwu, among others. The work establishes structural parallels between African folk tales and traditional music of the continent. Finally, it proposes "complementarity" as a field of interconnected forces within a sonic aesthetic continuum that serves communal balance.

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