My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (novel)

"My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" is a novel by Nigerian author Amos Tutuola, and the namesake of the Brian Eno and David Byrne album of the same name.

Tutuola's second novel, the story follows an unnamed male protagonist going through many surreal experiences. Elijah Wolfson writing for Time Magazine said that in the novel Tutuola "recontextualiz[ed] previously unrecorded west African mythology by imbuing it with symbols of what was at the time a new global modernity. Consider, for example, one of the key figures of the novel: the “television-handed ghostess,” [...] opening her hands and revealing TV screens on her palms showing footage of the narrator’s family and home village."

Inspiration on David Byrne and Brian Eno

In a 2006 essay that accompanied the re-release of the album, Byrne said that "During the recording both Brian and I had begun reading John Chernoff’s “African Rhythm and African Sensibility” and Robert Farris Thompson’s “African Art In Motion” – two incredibly poetic books that were respectively about music and art, but also seemed to be about a whole lot more. At some point in this African obsession we became aware of Amos Tutuola’s books- and the title of one- “My Life In The Bush of Ghosts”- seemed to encapsulate what this record was about. We hadn’t yet read this particular book (his The Palm Wine Drunkard was more easily available) but the title was perfect, so that became the name of the record.

Wolfson comments on the significance of this inspiration by stating "it’s a testament to his impact, as arguably the first international artist to form a new language by sampling the folk traditions of the global south and the modern imagery of the industrialized West."