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Juju-Soup: The Witch Herbalist's Solution for Infertility
- Judith M. Johnson, Susan L. Thompson, Gerald J. Perry
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- Journal:
- African Studies Review / Volume 33 / Issue 1 / April 1990
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 23 May 2014, pp. 55-64
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“I was fed up with my wife, I was not happy at all, because in the four years since I had married her she was not pregnant” (Tutuola, 1981: 21). Thus does the narrator of Amos Tutuola's The Witch Herbalist of the Remote Town express his distress at his wife's barrenness. The problem so pained him that he undertook a six-year quest in search of a cure, because to remain childless would be untenable. The issue of fertility and the need to perpetuate the family into future generations inspired Tutuola, whose story examines the singularly important issue of fertility as a social, cultural, and medical concern among the Yoruba of Nigeria and, by extrapolation, the peoples in transition in West Africa.
Amos Tutuola, a clerk in the Nigerian department of labor, has written several quest novels, all of which reflect various aspects of Yoruba culture. A native of Abeokuta in western Nigeria, Tutuola received the equivalent of a Western sixth-grade education. Raised as a Christian, he infuses his works with religious morality coupled with traditional perspectives.
Tutuola's writing career began as a relief from the boredom of his everyday job. He wrote his first novel in a two-day spurt of activity and sent it to what he thought was a publishing house, but which turned out to be a Methodist missionary group. The group forwarded the manuscript to the London publishers Faber and Faber and The Palm-Wine Drinhard was published in 1952 with little revision. Written in a distinct style of nonstandard English, the strange, fantastic story received praise from Western readers and critics, but derision from their African counterparts.
Contributors
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- By James Ahn, Eric L. Anderson, Annette L. Beautrais, Dennis Beedle, Jon S. Berlin, Benjamin L. Bregman, Peter Brown, Suzie Bruch, Jonathan Busko, Stuart Buttlaire, Laurie Byrne, Gerald Carroll, Valerie A. Carroll, Margaret Cashman, Joseph R. Check, Lara G. Chepenik, Robert N. Cuyler, Preeti Dalawari, Suzanne Dooley-Hash, William R. Dubin, Mila L. Felder, Avrim B. Fishkind, Reginald I. Gaylord, Rachel Lipson Glick, Travis Grace, Clare Gray, Anita Hart, Ross A. Heller, Amanda E. Horn, David S. Howes, David C. Hsu, Andy Jagoda, Margaret Judd, John Kahler, Daryl Knox, Gregory Luke Larkin, Patricia Lee, Jerrold B. Leikin, Eddie Markul, Marc L. Martel, J. D. McCourt, MaryLynn McGuire Clarke, Mark Newman, Anthony T. Ng, Barbara Nightengale, Kimberly Nordstrom, Jagoda Pasic, Jennifer Peltzer-Jones, Marcia A. Perry, Larry Phillips, Paul Porter, Seth Powsner, Michael S. Pulia, Erin Rapp, Divy Ravindranath, Janet S. Richmond, Silvana Riggio, Harvey L. Ruben, Derek J. Robinson, Douglas A. Rund, Omeed Saghafi, Alicia N. Sanders, Jeffrey Sankoff, Lorin M. Scher, Louis Scrattish, Richard D. Shih, Maureen Slade, Susan Stefan, Victor G. Stiebel, Deborah Taber, Vaishal Tolia, Gary M. Vilke, Alvin Wang, Michael A. Ward, Joseph Weber, Michael P. Wilson, James L. Young, Scott L. Zeller
- Edited by Leslie S. Zun
- Edited in association with Lara G. Chepenik, Mary Nan S. Mallory
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- Book:
- Behavioral Emergencies for the Emergency Physician
- Published online:
- 05 April 2013
- Print publication:
- 21 March 2013, pp viii-xii
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Contributors
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- By Dag Aarsland, Adrià Arboix, Carlos Bazán, James T. Becker, Sylvie Belleville, Kevin M. Biglan, Sandra E. Black, Mariana Blanco, Rémi W. Bouchard, Bruce J. Brew, David J. Burn, Leonardo Caixeta, Richard Camicioli, Paulo Caramelli, Neil Cashman, Nicholas W. S. Davies, Yan Deschaintre, Rachel S. Doody, Bruno Dubois, Uwe Ehrt, Stephane Epelbaum, Ryan V. V. Evans, Joseph M. Ferrara, Bruno Franchi, Morris Freedman, Anders Gade, Serge Gauthier, Marta Grau-Olivares, Matthew E. Growdon, Will Guest, Marie Christie Guiot, Shahul Hameed, Mirna Lie Hosogi-Senaha, Ging-Yuek Robin Hsiung, Masamichi Ikawa, Rajive Jassal, Vesna Jelic, Peter Johannsen, Edward S. Johnson, Mary M. Kenan, Bert-Jan Kerklaan, Benjamin Lam, Gabriel C. Léger, Gabriel Leonard, Emilie Lepage, Irene Litvan, Oscar L. Lopez, Ian R. A. Mackenzie, Mario Masellis, Fodi Massoud, Paige Moorhouse, John C. Morris, Taim Muayqil, Yannick Nadeau, Inger Nennesmo, Jørgen E. Nielsen, Ricardo Nitrini, Sven-Eric Pålhagen, Robert Perry, Gerald Pfeffer, Machiel Pleizier, Steffen Plickert, Gil D. Rabinovici, Philippe H. Robert, Lothar Resch, Gustavo C. Román, Maxime Ros, Pedro Rosa-Neto, Aiman Sanosi, Philip Scheltens, Christian Schmidt, Eric Schmidt, Jean-Paul Soucy, Jette Stokholm, David Summers, Rawan Tarawneh, Louis Verret, Huali Wang, Bengt Winblad, Makoto Yoneda, Xin Yu, Inga Zerr
- Edited by Serge Gauthier, McGill University, Montréal, Pedro Rosa-Neto, McGill University, Montréal
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- Book:
- Case Studies in Dementia
- Published online:
- 16 May 2011
- Print publication:
- 21 April 2011, pp viii-xiv
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