Ngũgĩ Thiong - Wizard of the Crow

Kamltl opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something and started to wheeze as if he were suffering an asthmatic attack. Then out popped one distinct word: If! Whatever they asked, he responded in the same way: he would attempt to speak, would hiss some sounds, and then out would come If!

The Ruler and Tajirika looked at each other in dismay, sharing the same thought. Each recalled his bout with the illness that had defied every doctor except the Wizard of the Crow. Now, it seemed, the healer needed healing at a time they needed him most to share vital knowledge. Frustrated, they did not know what to do. They tried a few more questions, and his response was always the same.

“His words are stuck,” the Ruler said.

“What shall we do?” Tajirika asked. “How shall we free the trapped words from his mouth?”

“Oh! Not to worry” the Ruler said menacingly. “I might just have to pry his mouth open and pull his voice box out with my own hands.”

The Ruler summoned the soldiers who had brought the Wizard of the Crow before him and asked them to take the man away.

The next morning Kahiga, Njoya, and A.C. reported for duty at the State House and were led in to the presence of the Mighty One. Njoya and Kahiga were surprised to find the Ruler without his usual counselors, Sikiokuu and Machokali. Tajirika seemed to have taken their place at the right side of the Ruler. But how had Tajirika risen so quickly? Through magic, or potent concoctions? This Wizard of the Crow is playing havoc with people’s lives, they both thought; his magic lifts some people a few steps up the ladder of power while bringing others down a rung or two. Not that they were thrilled by Tajirika’s ascendancy. They had, after all, tortured him in the past: would he exact vengeance? There was nothing they could now do about it, so they resigned themselves to what may come.

Their task was to guard the Wizard of the Crow at all times, night and day. There must always be two guards inside the chamber with him and one outside. They were to be the Ruler’s ears. All the sorcerer’s utterances, while awake or asleep, were to be conveyed only to the Ruler, not to be discussed among themselves much less with others, on pain of losing one’s tongue. Njoya and Kahiga were to start their duty inside while A.C. remained outside the door.

The Ruler did not of course disclose to them that the Wizard of the Crow had been in the same room earlier that morning, or that he was suffering from the malady of words, so the policemen did not anticipate any problems.

In fact Kahiga and Njoya were happy when they learned of their assignment because they wanted to speak with the Wizard of the Crow to make amends and reassure him that they had no personal ill will toward him. They were simply messengers not privy to the contents of the message, and they had to do their duty. If he met with trouble, he should not turn his anger against them. But if he should come across good times, he should not forget that they had always been on his side.

No sooner were they inside the chamber than they started chatting him up. They asked: Do you remember us? The word if and the force with which it was uttered almost made them run away; they stayed put only because they knew that fleeing would cost them their jobs if not their lives, and, besides, they had already encountered this if from Tajirika’s confessions. But despite their previous acquaintance with it, the word and its implications instilled fear in them. Had the Wizard of the Crow fallen ill after they had brought him in last night? they now wondered. They kept on trying to engage him in talk, only to have to deal with if. They waited and hoped for a more fulsome utterance, but when it became clear that none would be forthcoming, they decided that Kahiga should take the if to the Ruler.

A.G., who had been stationed outside, now entered the chamber and joined Njoya and the Wizard of the Crow.

Kahiga was a little puzzled to see that the Ruler did not show any surprise at the news. He told Kahiga that as long as the wizard’s only utterance was if, they should not bother to report it. When Kahiga returned, he positioned himself outside the chamber, so he did not immediately pass on the Ruler’s message to the other two. So when A.G. tried to speak to the Wizard of the Crow and he croaked the word if, he just rushed out, gestured for Kahiga to take his place inside, and sped to the Ruler. I just told one of you that if that is the only utterance, you should not bother me with it, growled the Ruler. A.C. returned to his former place outside the chamber. Njoya was the only one who did not fly out to report the word, because Kahiga passed on the message from the boss.

So all three waited day and night, Kahiga and Njoya inside with the Wizard of the Crow, and A.C. outside the door. Food was brought to them, newspapers, too. The Eldares Times connected them to the world outside. They spent the whole day perusing it while they waited for the wizard to go beyond if.

It was the Eldares Times that broke the news about Machokali.

Njoya and Kahiga looked at each other, big-eyed, their bodies aflame with anxiety. This must be the work of the Wizard of the Crow, they thought simultaneously, and both stared at him to see if they could read anything in his face. The wizard was in another world, as always, gazing ahead. The police officers winked at each other, and Kahiga casually turned the newspaper so that the page with the news of Machokali was now facing the Wizard of the Crow while Njoya kept a surreptitious eye on him to see if and how his face would change on reading the headline: MACHOKALI MISSING.

But the Wizard of the Crow seemed completely unaware of his environment, and his face registered nothing.

They resumed their examination of the newspaper article. What day was he reported missing? Again they stared at the Wizard of the Crow. Their supposition of his involvement in the drama of the missing minister was confirmed when they realized that the minister had vanished on the same day they brought the Wizard of the Crow to the State House. It was easy to see the connection. Had Machokali not been entrusted with apprehending the wizard? They felt better knowing that it was not they who had tracked down the Wizard of the Crow; that honor fell squarely on the shoulders of A.C., Machokali’s assistant. All unpleasantness, all the vengeance, would bypass them and fall on A.C. Njoya in particular felt proud of himself, recalling that he had refused to describe the face of the Wizard of the Crow to the artist charged with the Wanted poster and had instead described the face of Sikiokuu. He was particularly confident that he would not face harm from the sorcerer. Machokali was the wizard’s first victim; A.C. would be next.

In all Aburlria, people were asking themselves: How can a cabinet minister disappear, like a goat or a child, without a trace? A Minister for Foreign Affairs, who had so ably represented the Ruler in the courts of the great all over the world-how could he just vanish like that? A minister surrounded by bodyguards day and night-how could there be no witnesses?

Njoya and Kahiga continually whispered their imaginings to each other, but there were times when they forgot that the Wizard of the Crow was present and would raise their voices. This did not unduly worry them, for they assumed that, as he was unable to speak, he was also unable to hear and understand. Day and night they traded stories and speculations about Machokali. They gleaned bits of information and rumors from the papers and those who brought them food.

But nothing they heard or read could make them change or even shake their strongly held belief that the arrest of the Wizard of the Crow had something to do with Machokali’s disappearance.