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THE PORTAL FOR AFRICAN LITERATURES, WRITERS, AND FILMS
Funmilayo Tofowomo-Okelola, Editor
An Evening with Ngugi wa Thiong'o
"World-renowned as a novelist, playwright, and critic whose oeuvre forms a bridge between earlier African writing and a younger generation of post-colonial writers, Professor Ngugi wa Thiong'o has authored a number of acclaimed works of fiction. Calit2 is co-sponsoring this Literature Department public lecture by the renowned African author and civil rights scholar as part of UCSD's annual Graduate Student Enrichment Program. Ngugi wa Thiong'o is a novelist and theorist of post-colonial literature and Director of the International Center for Writing and Translation at the University of California, Irvine."UCI
Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
From Publishers Weekly:
Starred Review. The fictional Republic of Aburiria chronicled in this sprawling, dazzling satirical fable is an exaggeration of sordid African despotism. At the top, a grandiose Ruler with "the power to declare any month in the year the seventh month" and his sycophantic cabinet plan to climb to heaven with a modern-day Tower of Babel funded by the Global Bank; beneath them, a cabal of venal officials and opportunistic businessmen jockey for a piece of the pie; at the bottom are the unemployed masses who wait in endless lines behind every help-wanted sign. Kamiti, an archetypal New Man with two university degrees and no job prospects, sets up shop as a wizard; with the help of Nyawira, member of both an underground dissident movement and a feminist dance troupe, he dispenses therapeutic sorcery to a citizenry that finds witchcraft less absurd than everyday life. Kenyan novelist Thiong'o ( Petals of Blood ) mounts a nuanced but caustic political and social satire of the corruption of African society, with a touch of magical realism—or, perhaps, realistic magic, as the wizard's tricks hinge on holding a not-so-enchanted mirror to his clients' hidden self-delusions. The result is a sometimes lurid, sometimes lyrical reflection on Africa's dysfunctions—and possibilities. (Aug.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
