My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (12 page)

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s I simply found myself under this fruit tree I stopped there for more than half an hour, because everything had been changed as before I left them. Of course, I believed that the fruit tree is near my town, otherwise I should not know at all that I am near my town. But as I stood under this fruit tree, thinking with doubtful mind that—“This fruit tree is marked as a ‘Future-Sign’ before I entered the bush” there I saw that two strong men held both my arms at my back unexpectedly and without hesitation they tied me with rope, then one of them put me on his head and both kept going inside the bush at the same time. They were slave-traders because the slave trade was then still existing.

After some days they reached their town which is foreign to mine. So having taken me to their town I was again sold to a man who took me to his town. But as there was no other transport to carry loads more than by head as now-a-days, so I was carrying heavy loads which three men could not carry at a time to long distances which I would travel for ten days with many other slaves. But as my body was full of sores, so
it was debarring my boss getting loads from those who were giving him the job. For this reason he started to wash the sore of my body with a sponge and sand perhaps it would
be healed and also flogging me severely if I cry or shake while he was washing the sore. Having done this every day for one month and when it was not healed, then he sold me again to another man who took me to the slave market, because I was not useful for any purpose in respect of the sore. Having reached the market he chained me to a tree together with the other slaves that we met there, all of us were in a straight line. But within four hours all the rest slaves had been sold and nobody buys me because of the sores. When he waited with me till about two o’clock and when he believed that no one could buy me that market day, then he was loosing the chain from me, and when he was about to return to his town a rich man came to the market, he looked round but saw no more slaves except me, because he kept late, then he came to my boss. He priced me very poor and my boss agreed, he told him to pay any amount that he likes to buy me, but when he stood before me and looked at me for many hours he said—“I cannot buy sores for my town.” Then he went back to his town. But as nobody buys me and I remained unsold, so my boss was flogging me repeatedly along the way back to his town.

When he was taking me to this market for several market days without seeing anybody to buy me, then he said—“If I take you to the market once more and if nobody buys you on that market day as well so if I am returning from the market to the town I will kill you on the way and throw away your body into the bush, because you are entirely useless for any purpose, even I have told several of my friends to take you free of charge but none of them accepts the offer, because I can
no longer remain with you and your sore which is smelling badly to everybody, even the smell is also disturbing my friends and all my customers to come to my house again before I bought you.” But when the following market day was reached, the day he would kill me if there is nobody to buy me, luckily, this rich man came late to the market on that day as well, then he came to me because all the rest slaves had been sold, except me. When he came he asked from my boss how much he would sell me, but my boss told him to pay any amount that he likes. After he heard so, he stood looking at me for about an hour, then he looked round the market, but saw no more slaves, except me, then he said—“I will buy you, because I ought to sacrifice to my god with a slave for some months to come, so that I may kill you for the god.” Having said so, he paid three shillings and sixpence to my boss and he received it from him with many thanks and also thanked God greatly that I leave him.

This is a great pity that I was lost in the Bush of Ghosts for twenty-four years with punishments and when I came out of it I am caught and sold again as a slave, and now a rich man buys me and he is going to kill me for his god. This is what I said before I was following him and his follower who followed him to the market was pushing me along the road to the town. Not knowing that this rich man is my brother who left me on the road and ran away before I entered the Bush of Ghosts. Having reached the town which is my town, they put me among his slaves in the yard, but the sore of my body still remained with me. So I was living and working with the rest slaves, but as this slave yard was far from
his house he was only coming there occasionally to inspect us. But as he hated me more than the rest slaves because of the sore, so he would tell some of the rest slaves to flog me in his presence for many hours as I was not useful and also at that time it was their rule that every useless slave should be severely beaten every day, because every slave buyer recognised slaves as non-living creatures. Of course, I believed that I am in my town and my mother with my brother or my family are there also, but I did not know them again and they did not know me as well.

But in those days a slave is too common to approach his master or any of his master’s family to talk or to discuss anything with him or her, so that I had no right to describe myself to my master who is my brother, that I am a native of that town and again it was hard to describe myself to the rest slaves because they were foreigners, I did not understand their language. But one day, when my mind was at rest my brother who is our master came to inspect us in the yard, as he was talking to us I listened to his voice well, and it was the same as before we left each other, again I looked at his forehead carefully which had a small scar before I left him and this scar was there as well, so through these two signs I believed that he is my brother, but still I was unable to talk to him at all, otherwise he would order the rest slaves to kill me on the same spot without hesitation.

One day, when I thought over that I am in my home town, but I could not see my family even I am a slave too in my town, so after a while I remembered the song which my brother and I were singing when we were eating the
two slices of cooked yam which our mother left for us before she went to the market on the very day that we left each other, then I was singing this song and mentioning his name in this song several times. But as his name was mentioned, so whenever his wives were hearing the name they would be flogging me, and I did not understand what they were flogging me for. And as I was singing this sorrowful song every day, so one day, they reported me to him that—“Your slave who has sores on the body is mentioning your name whenever he is singing a kind of sorrowful song, hence all the slaves are strictly banned to mention their master’s name.” Having heard so he told them to go and bring me before him.

When I reached there and stood before him all my body was shaking and my voice was also trembling, because if a slave is selected from many slaves like this no doubt he is going to be killed for a god. Then he told me to repeat the song that I am singing in the yard so that he may hear it. His aim was to kill me on the same spot if I mention his name. But I started to sing this song and before I reached the part that his name should be mentioned he had remembered how we left ourselves on the road under the fruit tree. So at the same moment he shouted with gladness and jumped towards me. After that he told all his wives that I am his brother who had been lost twenty-four years ago. Then the second thing he did he told his orderlies to wash me, after that he brought many costly clothes for me as a king, but the sore of my body still remained there. After this his wives gave me food with drinks, then he sent for our mother and all his friends as well.

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fter a few minutes our mother came, but she did not know me again and I myself did not her as well, and it was this day I believed that “feeling” sometimes proves the same blood if they have left each other for long time that they are the same family, because my brother did not show me to our mother when she came, because he was waiting for his friends to come before he would tell her. So as she sat down behind me she was feeling perhaps I am her son. After a while my brother’s friends came, they sat in the form of a circle and I was in the centre. Then my brother told the whole of us to kneel down to pray. After the prayer he told our mother that I am her son who had been lost since I was seven years old. But when our mother with my brother’s wives with his friends heard so, all shouted with gladness and held me, but when they looked at my body and saw the sore they burst into a cry which lasted for about an hour before it stopped. And it was this day I believed that if “gladness is too much it sometimes becomes weeping”. Having stopped crying our mother started to treat the sore and within a week willy-nilly it has been healed.

After the second day that my brother and mother knew me and I myself knew both of them as well, then he told me how he was captured. Our mother also told
me how she was captured when coming home to rescue us immediately she heard from the market that war broke into the town. She said that she was captured and taken to a town of which she did not understand their language until she left there when resold to a lame woman. She said that the work that she was doing for the lame woman was only to be carrying her wherever she was going to, but she spent only four years with her before she sold her again on the way carrying her to somewhere, because she was feeling hunger and had no money to buy the food. So the lame woman gave mother to the food-seller and took food instead of paying her money. After she was exchanged to this food-seller, the food-seller was not feeding mother at all, so if she worked for her from early in the morning till eight o’clock in the night, then she would start to work from that night till dawn for her living, so by that she had no time at all to rest or sleep both day and night and she was doing so every day for years until she had a chance to escape at night, and again she was captured on the way by another man who was the most famous slave-buyer in his town. All his slaves were performing the same kind of work which only men could be performing, but however she was working as hard as a slave man. When her master noticed how she was working as a man, then he set her free after the 8th year that he captured her.

But when she came back to the town she met none of us in the town and was in a sorrowful life until my brother came after he spent many years in various towns. When he came both of us were expecting you every day to come home but it is in vain and they did not know
that it was in the Bush of Ghosts you were. Our mother told me as above. But one day when I remembered our dead cousin who I met in the 10th town of ghosts I told them about him that he had resettled down in a town in the Bush of Ghosts. I told them that I was educated from him because he had established schools and churches there. Of course when they heard so they were very surprised. They asked me whether I feared him as he had died in our town here in my presence before I left the town, so I replied that if anybody enters into the Bush of Ghosts he or her would not fear for anything within a week he or she had entered into it, because he or she will see “Fear” personally who bought the “Palm-Wine Drinker’s” “fear” before he entered inside the “White-tree” to the “Faithful-mother”. I told them further that it is in the Bush of Ghosts the “fears”, “sorrows”, “difficulties” all kinds of the “punishments” etc. start and there they end.

After that I hinted to them about the “SECRET SOCIETY OF GHOSTS” which is celebrated once in every century. I told them that as it is near to be celebrated I like to be present there so that I may bring some of its news to them and other people. But when both of them heard so again from me, they said that I will not go to the Bush of Ghosts again in their presence. Of course they said this of their own accord, because I dreamed a dream that I am present when this “Secret Society of Ghosts” is performing and I believe so, because my dream always comes to the truth in future, however it may be. So you will hear about this news in due course.

“This is what hatred did.”

Amos Tutuola was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, in 1920. The son of a cocoa farmer, he attended several schools before training as a blacksmith. He later worked as a civil servant. His first novel,
The Palm-Wine Drinkard
, was published in 1952 and brought him international recognition. From 1956 until retirement, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Company while continuing to write. His last book,
The Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories
, was published in 1990. He died in Ibadan in 1997.

THE PALM-WINE DRINKARD

SIMBI AND THE SATYR OF THE DARK JUNGLE

THE BRAVE AFRICAN HUNTRESS

FEATHER WOMAN OF THE JUNGLE

AJAIYI AND HIS INHERITED POVERTY

THE WITCH-HERBALIST OF THE REMOTE TOWN

PAUPER, BRAWLER AND SLANDERER

THE VILLAGE WITCH DOCTOR AND OTHER STORIES