Violence: The (Un)real, Power and Excess in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow

Abstract

In this article, the nature, form and content of violence are traced through the engagement of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow, situating it in the context of the postcolony. In this context, the conception of the real and unreal qua violence is interchangeable and also entangled. Thus, performativity of power depicts how violence becomes ritualised and institutionalised. The excess of the body is also problematised as a site of exercising state power. These politics of excess are clearly marked by the omnipresence of the Ruler in private and public domains of the citizens of Aburĩria, his plan of constructing the unlimited tower of Marching to Heaven, funded by the Global Bank, and the politics of eating which perpetuates dispossession of the Aburĩrian citizenry. Though the Ruler claims to be mighty and powerful he is still caught in the clutches of the puppetry of colonial power which reduce him to a typical colonial subject.

Opsomming
In hierdie artikel word die aard, vorm en inhoud van geweld aan die hand van ʼn studie van Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o se Wizard of the Crow geskets en sodoende binne die konteks van die postkoloniale geplaas. Binne hierdie konteks is die begrip van die werklike en onwerklike as geweld omruilbaar asook verstrengel. So beeld die performatiwiteit van mag uit hoe geweld geritualiseer en geïnstitusionaliseer word. Die oordaad van die liggaam word ook geproblematiseer as ʼn terrein vir die uitoefening van staatsmag. Hierdie politiek van oordaad word duidelik aangetoon deur die alomteenwoordigheid van die Heerser in die private en openbare domein van die burgers van Aburĩria, sy plan om die onbeperkte toring “Marching to Heaven” (Opmars na die Hemel), wat deur die Globale Bank befonds word, te bou en die eetpolitiek wat die onteiening van die burgers van Aburĩria in stand hou. Alhoewel die Heerser verklaar dat hy magtig en kragdadig is, bly hy vasgevang in die kloue van die skynvertoning van koloniale mag, wat hom tot ʼn tipiese koloniale onderdaan verlaag.