Legal Dispossession in the Postcolony: A Critical Legal Studies Reading of Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow

Every human society has a controlling mechanism that guides its members into behaviours that conform to the standards that the society has set for itself. This means that the legal system is crucial in the functioning of society, and postcolonial societies are no exception. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to analyse the legal system and philosophy in the imaginary postcolonial state in the Free Republic of Aburiria in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s The Wizard of the Crow and to interrogate the extent to which it can defend and safeguard the freedom of the masses. Using Critical Legal Studies as a theoretical foundation, this paper defends the standpoint that the legal system in the postcolonial fictional state in Ngugi’s novel cannot guarantee the freedom of the masses because it has been crafted to protect the leaders and their cronies and prolong their stay at the helm of political power.