47 pages • 1 hour read
Amos TutuolaMy Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1954A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Connection Between the Physical and the Spiritual
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses enslavement.
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts creates a connection between the physical and spiritual worlds by positioning the narrator’s coming-of-age process amidst the background of a mythologized world. At the beginning of the text, the narrator comments that the bush of ghosts is “so dreadful […] that no superior earthly person ever entered it” (7). This statement introduces a connection between the worlds as the narrator implies how “earthly persons,” or humans, already know of the bush’s existence. With this knowledge, the novel expands the physical world to encompass the spiritual and illustrates the narrator’s relationship with his culture’s folklore and mythology. During his time in the bush, the narrator learns of other ways in which the physical and spiritual coexist. For example, the burglar-ghosts’ role of appearing as earthly babies to steal the possessions of humans illustrates how some of the ghosts enter the physical world and interact with the earthly persons.
Through his time in the bush of ghosts, the narrator learns how the worlds not only interact with each other but also share belief systems, including shared religious practices, such as animal sacrifices. When the narrator takes the form of a cow, an older ghost attempts to sacrifice him, illustrating how the ghosts within the novel participate in such practices to appeal to the gods for their benefit. The ghosts’ participation in the attempted ritualistic sacrifice of the narrator as a cow mirrors the ghosts who will go on to eventually worship the narrator as a god. This practice of sacrificial traditions also exists in the human world, as when the narrator’s brother buys him as an enslaved person with the intention to sacrifice him to his gods. Although the specific gods may vary between villages as well as between the ghosts and the humans, shared ritual practices enable both humans and ghosts to connect their physical world with their belief systems.
The Bildungsroman Journey in Non-European Literature
As a non-European bildungsroman, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts incorporates facets of the narrator’s cultural upbringing and provides a perspective on colonialism. The novel traces the narrator’s coming-of-age, exploring how he develops his identity through both the physical and spiritual worlds. In this way, the novel is an example of a bildungsroman, or a novel focused on a protagonist’s growth from childhood to adulthood. As he grows and develops his identity, the narrator explores facets of traditional Yoruba folklore and the influence of Christianity on colonized countries.
The narrator’s coming-of-age process develops through an evolving understanding of how those around him behave and present themselves. Throughout his time with the Super-Lady, the narrator learns that the earthly and ghostly witches and wizards do not align with the beliefs they outwardly present. Specifically, the narrator learns that these magical beings “have no good thoughts except evil thoughts both day and night, even those who are worshipping the heavenly God are also their enemies” (115). With this knowledge, the narrator’s perspective of the world begins to change as he learns that some of the men and women who he grew up with are witches and wizards. With the depiction of “the heavenly God,” the narrative implies that the convergence of belief systems creates strife and tension between community members.
For the narrator, his coming-of-age process allows him to develop his sense of self within a magical and fantastical setting, which diverges from the stereotypical, European bildungsroman portrayals of the same process. Whereas European coming-of-age literature is traditionally naturalistic and non-fantastical, the narrator’s coming-of-age in My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is inseparable from his magical experiences. The narrator begins his journey without an understanding of what “bad” and “good” means, and his coming-of-age process revolves around his developing understanding of these concepts. As he experiences the different towns of ghosts, he learns about how creatures, human or nonhuman, treat each other, providing a developing understanding of not only “good” and “bad” but also of the type of person the narrator wants to be. The narrator’s development from childhood to adulthood is reflected in his growing agency, which comes into play when the television-handed ghostess questions if he will heal her sores to go home. The narrator claims he cannot decide because the ghostess is “dirty” and smelly, but he also cannot say no because he wishes to be with his family. Faced with this inner turmoil, the narrator must explicitly choose which world he wants to stay in. This journey between worlds forces the narrator to have to discover where his beliefs lie, illustrating how his coming-of-age journey is dependent on the cultural and traditional belief systems that he grew up with.
Colonialism and Its Consequences
In the novel, colonialism affects the daily living of the characters as well as how they interact with each other. In particular, the novel portrays the consequences of the insidious relationship between Western colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade. For example, the beginning of the novel illustrates how the threat of the slave trade negatively impacts the narrator’s livelihood. The narrator says that “slave wars […] [are] very common in every town and village” (2); these threaten his community’s livelihood as well as his family’s. As a young child, the narrator is filled with a “fearful and doubtful mind” because of the impending threat of slave traders coming into his town (3). Although the narrator is not kidnapped and enslaved as a young boy, his extended separation from his family while living in the bush of ghosts is a metaphor for the reality of families being separated during colonialism and the emergence of the slave trade. The narrator must also navigate life in the bush, which appears drastically different than his own due to the magical elements, illustrating how enslaved persons had to unwillingly enter new cultural systems and unfamiliar ways of life.
Later in the novel, the narrator discovers his cousin, who died in their town many years before, living in the 10th town of ghosts. The cousin’s character further illustrates colonialism’s effect on African communities. The narrator learns that his cousin brought the Methodist belief system to the bush, mirroring how the British and other colonizing countries brought Christianity with them. The cousin decides to establish a Methodist church in the 10th town of ghosts, like a colonizer searching for “a suitable town” to modify to fit their culture (138). The narrator’s cousin even models the town to reflect European-style houses and systems, such as schools and organized hospitals, that did not originally exist in traditional African communities, further reflecting the widespread impact of colonialization.
