Word: aburiria
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...novel was written. Thiong’o’s latest book, written in the African oral storytelling tradition, tackles modern Africa, deftly navigating the way in which its world has been turned upside-down in the 20th century. The 2006 novel is set in the Republic of Aburiria, a fictional African country in the midst of a serious crisis. The Cold War has just ended and the Ruler, installed by the United States to crush the Communists, has found himself sidelined by the Americans who no longer find him politically useful. Feeling abandoned and diminished, unsure why this...
...citizens of Aburiria queue for weeks to sign up for jobs that don't exist, while the poor lie dying in the streets. But their bloated, inept Ruler is more concerned with building a tower to heaven. Hopeless, the people turn to a wizard who cures their emotional ills using a mirror and advice so good it seems like magic. For the fictional Aburiria, think Africa. In Wizard of the Crow, Kenyan author Ngugi draws a folkloric tale out of the continent crippled by inequality, corruption and aids. But he sees the funny side, too. Wizard of the Crow...
...into a novel that would take the next eight years to finish. Originally published in Ngugi's mother tongue, Gikuyu, and now translated into English, Wizard of the Crow is an epic satire on the state of modern-day Africa. Set in the fictional "free republic" of Aburiria, Wizard of the Crow pits a bloated, inept dictator - whose solution to the country's crippling poverty is to build a tower that reaches heaven - against a wizard who cures his clients with emotional therapy disguised as sorcery. As lyrical as a bedtime story, but also caustic and earthy, the novel grapples...
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