Deeper Meaning

So, I started off Tutola's novel and dreaded reading page after page of utter nonsense. I had no idea that his words had a deeper meaning behind them. Instead I wondered why in the world we had to read such a weird novel where the author had so many grammatical errors and the ghosts were plain confusing. Then, when we started to discuss how the ghosts are actually representing colonialism, I began to appreciate the novel more. In some ways, I think this novel had a bigger impact on one's mind than did the styles of Achebe and Dangerembga. The author managed to create a whole new world, the Bush World, that was basically a depiction of what colonization looked like in the eyes of a seven year old. In Nervous Conditons, we got the general idea that colonization is bad. In Things Fall Apart, we concluded that colonization was usually bad but it was also good for some people like Nwoye. In My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, however, the answer is not as simple. The other towns in the Bush World were horrible making us hate the effects of imperialism but then the 10th town was wonderful making us wonder whether colonization was really that bad. So, back to that question we were asked in class: Is Tutuola endorsing colonization or not? I think that this question might not actually have a straightforward answer. Maybe Tutuola is just trying to get us to think deeper about the implications of colonization.