THE LOOMING SHADOW
By
Written by a young man who walked 2500 miles across Africa to reach America (I will Try) and who is now attending Cambridge University on scholarship, The Looming Shadow is a fresh, direct look at contemporary African village life. Kavukuku village is distressed by the enmity of two brothers-in-law, come to crisis when Matenda lies ill and Musyani is accused of bewitching him. The village headman Mwenimuzi deals with this situation with calm, decision and seeming prudence, using updated old ways to devastate the doctor's accusation. But with Matenda's death comes vengeance: his sons set fire to Musyani's first wife's house, and the deus ex machina in the form of the authorities suddenly intervene, taking them and Mwenimuzi to trial and punishment (he for misrule).... Although an audience may be difficult to particularize and realize, there is nothing alien here and it immediately engages interest.