Bruce Onobrakpeya’s artistic practice has long extended beyond personal memory and cultural history to embrace the rich world of African literature. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with and drawn inspiration from celebrated Nigerian writers, translating their stories into powerful visual narratives while infusing them with his own artistic imagination and cultural experience.
Encounter with Three Ghosts is one such work, inspired by Amos Tutuola’s acclaimed novel My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. In the novel, Tutuola leads readers into a mysterious forest inhabited by spirits; beings who once lived as humans but now exist in another realm with their own customs, laws, and ways of life. Both familiar and unsettling, these ghosts possess extraordinary powers, yet remain deeply flawed, capable of cruelty, humour, confusion and even compassion.
The artwork reflects one of the many encounters within this strange world, where the young protagonist, having fled the violence of war, becomes lost in the bush of ghosts. Throughout his long journey, he is captured, transformed, entertained, punished and repeatedly tested by the spirits he meets. Every encounter blurs the boundary between the human and supernatural worlds, revealing a landscape where survival depends not on strength alone, but on resilience, wit and adaptability.
Rather than simply illustrating Tutuola’s story, Onobrakpeya reimagines it through his own visual language. His distinctive forms, layered textures and expressive figures capture the dreamlike quality of the ghost world while drawing on the symbols, aesthetics and storytelling traditions of his Urhobo heritage. In doing so, he transforms literature into a vivid visual experience, demonstrating his enduring commitment to interpreting African stories through printmaking.
Like many of Onobrakpeya’s works, Encounter with Three Ghosts exists at the intersection of folklore, literature and lived experience. It celebrates the richness of African storytelling while reminding us that myths and legends are not merely tales of the past, they are enduring reflections on fear, identity, transformation, and the resilience of the human spirit.