Gender

While the novel uses the examples of Vinjinia and Jane Kanyori to show that some women participate and comply with the machinations of the Aburirian state, The Wizard of the Crow suggests that ultimately female collectivity can be an important locus for radical thought and action. Whatever the side they support, whether the government or the Movement for the Voice of the People, it is important to note that the novel insists on seeing women as characters as fully developed and complicated as their male counterparts. Indeed, in representing the full range of female experience, the novel answers Nyawira’s early plea to Kamiti: “When will you learn to listen to the voices of women?” (83). It can be argued that the Wizard of the Crow, despite its heavier male than female cast, strives earnestly to listen and to include the “voices of women.”

Nyawira is the...