This Spanish photographer is reimagining Nigeria’s Yoruba folktales through photos

Cristina de Middel, a Spanish artist and documentary photographer revealed how Amos Tutuola's book My Life in the Bush of Ghosts inspired images from her new series, This Is What Hatred Did.

Related to his earlier work The Palmwine Drinkard, Amos Tutuola's as My Life in the Bush of Ghosts first came out in 1954, a Yoruba folk tale of a boy who escapes war into a forbidden world of ghosts and spirits.

It was celebrated internationally as a richly imaginative take on Nigerian folklore. And it went on to inspire musician David Byrne who, alongside Brian Eno, recorded a groundbreaking, but also initially derided, album with the same name.

In an interview with VICE, Middel speaks on how she was inspired by the haunting and beautiful Yoruba folklores in Tutuola's book:

"I loved the narrative sequence and structure of the book, and the images that would come to my mind while reading it were already very interesting.

I started sketching that and I didn't know what I would do with that, but when I was invited to show the Afronauts, they took us on an excursion to an area called Makoko, where most photojournalists go to take pictures of the cliche of Africa. You know: the poor kids and the poor neighborhood, while they are all happy and smiling.

It's a very stereotypical neighborhood where they smoke fish so there's all this smoke and it's so dark and beautiful at the same time, and spooky and scary and romantic. I felt it was the best place to really try and tell the story because I could talk about the story itself—about the book, which I thought was incredible—and I could really give a chance to the neighborhood to be portrayed from a different angle."

She added that she loves fiction, ghosts and space. And she was glad she was able to use the pictures to dispel stereotypes about Nigerians and people living in Makoko.

"I am more worried about the stereotype about Africa that just talks about poverty and smiling kids with flies around the mouth, so my priority was to fight against that stereotype."

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