Wizard of the Crow

I've been working on David's Africa Challenge, and Wizard of the Crow, by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o was recommended as a development book that was a bit more upbeat- so I thought I would give it a try. C and D have been reading it too, so it's been quite the family book club! It seems like a rather daunting novel at 766 pages, but I found it absolutely engaging and great fun to read.

Wizard of the Crow is partly the story of Kamiti, a college educated young man searching for a job in the Free Republic of Aburiria. At the same time, it adds in politics of the country itself, ruled by a dictator known only as the Ruler. As a "free republic", Aburiria leaves something to be desired, and the Ruler is just what he sounds like, with a host of brown-nosing ministers that submit to his every whim. (One minister has his eyes surgically altered to bulge out so that he can be the eyes of the Ruler, another has his ears enlarged so that he can be the ears of the Ruler, another has his tongue enlarged...)

As Kamiti, through an interesting and unexpected series of events, sets himself up as a wizard and begins to have some influence in the community his path crosses that of the Ruler. The book is highly satirical, and if nothing else, made me think a good deal about how countries should be governed, and what a real democracy is. Here's one of my favorite passages in the book (Note Spoiler Alert!)

The Ruler then grandly proclaimed the advent of multiparty democracy in Aburiria, to everyone's shock. But he added that the new Aburirian system was only making explicit what was latent in all modern democracies, in which parties were basically variations of each other. He would be the nominal head of all political parites. This meant that in the next general elections, all the parties would, of course, be choosing him as their candidate for the presidency. His victory would be a victory of all the parties, and more important for Aburirians, a victory for wise and tested leadership.

All in all, I felt that Wizard of the Crow was definitely worth the time it took to read it- it was thought provoking as well as entertaining- a great combination.