Title: Wizard of the Crow
Author: Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo
Context: Wizard of the Crow (2004) is a post colonial magisterial comic novel by Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo. The novel sums up the twentieth century Africa in context of 2000 years of world history.
Synopsis: The story is set in the fictitious Free Republic of Aburĩria which is ruled despotically by a single man who is called as the Ruler. The novel has made its landmark in literature of postcolonial Africa. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o though in exile for more than 2 decades has garnered praise and attention worldwide with the scope and power of his work.
Wizard of the Crow set in the ‘Free Republic of Aburĩria commences in ‘the present times’ dramatizes with keenness of observation and caustic humor a war for controlling the souls of the people of Aburĩria. There are a number of contenders including the corrupt Christian Ministry, a descent of wisdom of wisdom and folklore – the eponymous Wizard and the iniquitous Global Bank. Humanity in all its limitless complexity that can surprise almost anyone is revealed the stories fashioned about the ordinary and powerful into the Wizard of the Crow, an impressive and remarkable mosaic. The author’s enigmatic rich and traditional work is indeed a masterpiece and a crowing success thus far in his career.
Other works by the Author:
Novels
1964 – Weep Not, Child
1965 – The River Between
1967 – A Grain of Wheat
1977 – Petals of Blood
1980 – Devil on the Cross
1989 – Matigari
Short Story Collections
1974 – A Meeting in the Dark
1976 – Secret Lives and Other Stories
Other Nonfiction
1981 – Education for a National Culture
1983 – Barrel of a Pen: Resistance to Repression in Neo-Colonial Kenya
1986 – Mother, Sing For Me
1986 – Writing against Neo-Colonialism
2009 – Something Torn and New: An African Renaissance
2012 – Globalectics: Theory and the Politics of Knowing
Children’s books
1986 – Njamba Nene and the Flying Bus
1988 – Njamba Nene and the Cruel Chief
1990 – Njamba Nene’s Pistol
Plays
1963 – The Black Hermit
1970 – This Time Tomorrow
1976 – The Trial of Dedan Kimathi
1982 – I Will Marry When I Want