Abstract
The figure of the abiku , a spirit child who dies before reaching maturity but is given the opportunity to be born again and again, has been used by Nigeria’s writers to represent the possibility of renewal and rebirth for their postcolonial nation. This article will suggest that the abiku in Ben Okri’s novel The Famished Road departs from this standard usage. Okri’s abiku instead embodies a desire for the people of Nigeria to be able to navigate between two seemingly opposed worlds: the secular, commercialized world of Western modernism and the spiritual world founded on Yoruba culture and belief. This literary appropriation of the abiku figure in Okri’s novel finds a parallel in the visual art of the Oshogbo School of Art, particularly in the work of Muraina Oyelami, Rufus Ogundele and Bisi Fabunmi.