This is an innovative and original study which offers a new perspective on a Nigerian literary tradition. The author takes issue with the prevalent use of "oral tradition" in the criticism of Europhone written literature as a kind of cultural matrix out of which the written text emerged, and the essence of which it embodies. He proposes instead a view of literary tradition as the outcome of numerous, and varied, strategic acts of positioning in relation to indigenous resources — which vary according to the individual writer's project but also according to the larger social and political context. He constructs a historical framework in which to view these strategies as performed by Samuel Johnson in _The History of the Yorubas_ (1921 [1897]), Amos Tutuola (1950s), Soyinka (1960s and 70s) and Ben Okri (1980s and 90s).