Book excerpt: Amos Tutuola, Cyprian Ekwensi and Ayi Kwei Armah were pioneers in a literary movement that gathered force and swept across Africa with remarkable speed in the latter half of the 20th century, producing distinctive national literatures in new nation states that were in the process of freeing themselves from the legacy of colonial rule. Seasoned literary critic Bernth Lindfors here analyses their early work.