Verdict: carrot with reservations
Ngugi has also blurred the margins in this intercontinental tale set in Wisconsin in the United States and in Kenya. An unidentified blonde woman is found murdered on the porch belonging to Joshua Hakizimana, a Rwandan professor who teaches genocide and testimony at a US university. A dead blonde girl and a black prime suspect. It’s enough to excite white America, especially in a city where the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan is active.
Indeed the narrator, Ishmael, a black detective, has advice for black criminals: “Do not commit crimes against white people because the state will not rest until you are caught.” Hakizimana isn’t perturbed, he’s even philosophical about the whole thing.
“Detective, where I come from death is a companion, like lover or good friend,” he says in English shorn of prefacing articles.
The educator ostensibly saved thousands from machete-wielding militia during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Some accounts suggest that the school he headed was a refuge for those fleeing the murderous mobs.
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