The Shadow King

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes descriptions of war violence and sexual assault. 

Hirut is the protagonist. Her character arc parallels Ethiopia’s own during the Second Italo-Ethiopian conflict. She is a symbol representing Ethiopia and all the women who made roles for themselves in the war. Hirut begins her life with her parents and learns to shoot the Wujigra rifle that her father used in defense of Ethiopia in the First Italo-Ethiopian war. When her parents die, she becomes Kidane and Aster’s enslaved servant. Like Ethiopia itself, she is victimized and enslaved by those looking to take her power. She endures sexual violence and Aster’s abuse even as Ethiopia endures the abuse of colonization. Both Hirut and Ethiopia are victimized but hold their personal histories and rage close to fuel their transformation from victim to victor. By the novel’s end, Hirut becomes the symbolic “image of Mother Ethiopia” and flanks the Shadow Emperor in a charge that kills antagonist Fucelli, reclaims the prison, and inspires the rest of Ethiopia to hold a long offensive that topples the Italians (302).

Both the Chorus and the