47 pages • 1 hour read
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
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Background
Authorial Context: Amos Tutuola
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses enslavement.
Amos Tutuola was born in 1920 in the city of Abeokuta in Nigeria, Africa and is considered the first Nigerian author to have reached international recognition (Brennan, Carol. "Tutuola, Amos 1920–1997." Contemporary Black Biography. Encyclopedia.com.). Tutuola’s Yoruba heritage and upbringing inspired his novels, including My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. After a short education, Tutuola left school following the death of his father, a cacao farmer, and joined the Royal Air Force as a coppersmith during World War II. Following the war, he began translating Yoruba stories into English, and, a few years later, he wrote his first novel, The Palm-Wine Drinkard, which became popular abroad despite being received less favorably in Nigeria ("Tutuola, Amos 1920–1997."). While some early critics questioned Tutuola’s choice to write in English rather than his native Yoruba, others have praised his inventive use of language, which often uses Yoruba grammatical constructs, coins new phrases, and translates Nigerian idioms ("Tutuola, Amos 1920–1997."). Like Tutuola’s first novel, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and his subsequent works were all written in English too. His writing has been translated into at least 15 languages ("Tutuola, Amos 1920–1997.").
Cultural Context: Yoruba
The Yoruba are one of the biggest ethnic groups in Africa, constituting about a fifth of Nigeria’s population (“Yoruba, The.” Harvard Divinity School). Comprised of diverse tribes, the Yoruba are united by a shared culture and common language, also called Yoruba. In traditional Yoruba communities, men primarily farm, hunt, and learn trades like blacksmithing, while women maintain trade and market systems. Historically, many Yoruba were abducted and enslaved in the Americas, causing their belief system to expand to many South American countries, such as Trinidad and Cuba (Ighobor, Kingsley. “Bigger Than Africa: Tales of the Yoruba People.” United Nations, 24 Dec. 2019).
While many Yoruba now follow Christianity or Islam, others continue to observe traditional Indigenous religions (“Yoruba, The.” Harvard Divinity School). Traditional Yoruba religious beliefs comprise of a variety of deities and spirits as well as a creator God. The Yoruba have a creation myth, which encompasses the creator God, along with the creation of two worlds: the spiritual and the physical. In My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Tutuola’s narrative structure draws on the concept of these two worlds as well as the traditional African beliefs of spirits being able to inhabit living and non-living beings.
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