My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Amos TutuolaMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
"My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" is a Yoruba folktale written by Amo Tutuola. The story remains unfiltered by western grammatical or plotting constraints. It's written directly from the Yoruba dialect into English. The result is a fascinating look into the cultural and literary history of Nigeria.
The Story
We take a journey through the land of the dead with a seven year old boy who does not yet know the difference between "good" and "bad". He is the second son of his father's third wife. His father's other two wives have born only daughters and hates the two boys because they are more likely to inherit the father's properties. Slavers raid the town where they live while their mother is at work. The other two wives gather their daughters and run, leaving the boys without warning them of the danger. Our hero's brother is eleven and is taken by the slavers.
Our point of view character hides in the bush, or what we would call the jungle. He pushes through into a forbidden place, and because he does not yet know the difference between "good" and "bad" he is able to crawl into the Bush of Ghosts (what a Western writer might call the Forest of the Dead). He does not belong there fore he is alive and the inhabitants of this world know this. Our hero thus goes on an adventure the likes of Odysseus or any other epic hero.
*SPOILERS* *SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS*
The boy grows up in the Bush of Ghosts. He encounters Gods and Demons. Ghouls and monsters live in the various towns where he seeks refuge. Everything he sees is incredible, mysterious and hideous He is enslaved and gets free. He falls in love, gets married, has kids. He makes friends and finds family.
After twenty-four years of travel through The Bush of Ghosts he does get out. He finds his way back to his own town in the living world. But he is enslaved right away, meeting the fate he tried so hard to escape.
He is later bought by a wealthy Nigerian with many wives and many slaves. Our hero is covered in sores and is useless to his new master. He is beaten daily for this and the master plans to sacrifice him to his Gods.
This new master turns out to be his older brother whom he lost before fleeing into the Bush of Ghosts. His big brother had been enslaved but was able to become a wealthy master in adult hood. His mother too was enslaved all the while trying to reach her boys. She worked very hard for over twelve years before she gained her freedom and returned at last to the town looking for her sons.
Even though our hero is reunited with his family they don't all together recognize him. His feelings for them are lost. He wants to return to the Bush of Ghosts, but they won't let him.
The last sentence of the story reads: "This is what hatred did".
The Author
Amos Tutuola was a Nigerian storyteller and writer. But like all of us he had to work a very hard job with his hands to keep food on the table. He was only able to achieve six years of formal education before having to go to work. But he had the soul of a folklorist.
He was a traditional storyteller in a modern world. With his hands he was weaving fantastic tails into thin air for the ears and minds of attentive listeners. Read his work as though he were standing in front of you across from a open camp fire describing the heroes and their journeys night after night through illustrations of smoke and stars.
When Tutuola learned how western writers were taking and "adapting" African stories - forging them to fit their ideas of plot and structure he decided he should do something to preserve his beloved Yoruba traditions. He captured the stories as they appeared in his mind and translated them as pure and authentic as he could into English. In this way he created the first Nigerian book by a Nigerian author to reach international fame "The Palm-Wine Drinkard" which is a precursor (though a completely separate story from) "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts"
In the forward for "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts", written by Geoffrey Parrinder it is stated that
"Tutuola's writing is original and highly imaginative. His direct style, made more vivid by his use of English as it is spoken in West Africa, is not polished or sophisticated and gives his stories unusual energy."
He goes on to say:
". . . . perhaps it is fortunate that his schooling ended too early to force his story-telling into a foreign style."
Parrinder concludes his forward by warning the readers that: "The Book has been edited to remove the grosser mistakes clear up some ambiguities, and curtail some repetition. But the original flavour of the style has been left to produce its own effect."
Amos Tutuola died in 1997. He wrote many more stories in the same fantastic vain as this one. If you are a fan of fantasy, folklore or the culture of the Yoruba people I encourage you to check them out.
My Conclusion
Of the two Tutuola stories I've read "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" is my favorite. I came across it years ago during my studies in surrealism fiction. It has stuck with me all this time, especially the parts where the boy spent in the world of the living escaping slavers. As an American I've really only ever heard of the story from this corner of "The Triangle".
This was my first time hearing about what it was like to just be living your life when the slavers showed up. That the ones who captured his people were of neighboring tribes at war with each other. That not all of them were shipped over seas. Some - the elderly, sick and lame were kept to work in their own conquered towns or nearby.
Since first reading this book I have researched the very early days of the slave trade and the West African point of the Triangle. Now I'm curious about the third angle. What did/do English history books say about the slave trade? What is it like growing up Black and British? Or Black in any other European country?
If you have any reading tips that you think will help satisfy my curiosity please suggest them in the comments below.
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