💠Lola Lonli: The Palm-Wine Drinkard and his Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Deads' Town
This painting belongs to the "Touching the Roots" series, which includes works that have become certain milestones for me. This incredibly finely crafted painting is inspired by the finest African literature. Illustration to the book of the Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola about journey of Palmwine Drinker.
The Drinker is a position in African society supposing constant degustation of palm wine which is made by Winemaker. Unfortunately the best Winemaker fell from the palm and died, so Drinker went to World of dead to find him.
He had many adventures on the way, made friends with spirits or fought them, found the wife and eventually came to the City of Dead. Everything is going on in opposite way there, people are getting younger and then are born back in usual world.
He found the Winemaker but he refused to come back. On the drawing the moment is depicted when the Winemaker offers bananas and wine to the Drinker and his wife near the walls of City of Dead. The dead people are watching it with embarrassment as they do not eat but spit out the food.
Amos Tutuola is an amazing writer of Yoruba nation, he writes in a style that is quite in line with African traditions. Another Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe, describes the traditions of the Igbo nation in his books.
Some traditions similar to Yoruba, some are different. In this nation, people communicate in a very special way, in their language there are a huge number of proverbs and allegorical expressions. They say almost nothing directly in order to confuse the spirits that constantly surround people.
Spirits are different, some harm people just for fun,some obey powerful sorcerers who direct their actions. The Igbo also have a lot of social rituals associated with the simplest actions. For example, the usual situation, when a neighbor came to visit, takes on the character of a complex ceremony, with strictly established rules.
A person who has come on business will never say this, he will say: "A toad, in broad daylight, just like that, will not jump along the road." And in the same way, in proverbs and allegories, he will state the essence of the matter. After reading any of the works of Amos Tutuola, you will understand what is at stake, the spirits in his books are more real than living people, and people sometimes behave more mysteriously than the spirits themselves.
