You know, I think this is one of the really ambiguous areas in Rowling’s world-building. It seems to me that most of the time wizard politics and wizard struggles parallels rather than directly figures into the struggles of muggles. But on the other hand, the Ministry of Magic briefs the British Prime Minister and sees wizard struggles as having implications for muggles. It’s less clear how muggle struggles impinge on wizards, but the desire of European wizards to keep their magic secret from muggles suggests serious concern about what might happen if muggles took a serious interest in the affairs of wizards.

But maybe this is yet another very European thing about the British wizarding world–the separation of spheres, the notion that something vaguely “religious” should be kept separate from the state? Maybe African wizarding would never have had or want that sense of separation, and that this is another inauthentic thing about the Uagadou I’ve imagined in this little sketch. So sure, maybe wizards could have been involved in the political turmoil of the late 1800s in southern Africa.

I was about to post a comment suggesting that maybe Uagadou was modeled after a European school following colonial intrusion while other schools were vanquished at the same time. Then you not only beat me to it but you did it a lot better than I can imagine.

Just to show you how specialization is a kind of infinite fractal–the very same disagreements that I had with Henry can in some sense be had with me, and yet the very same disagreements can produce an infinitely beautiful spiral inward of imaginings that are more and more enriching of what it is that Rowling set out to do, which is envision a world full of wizards…

1. fictional island in Lake Tana

2. in the countryside outside of Mekane Eyesus (Andabet, the land of scribes)

3. secret entrance in a cave behind a waterfall on the escarpment (there is a nunnery like this–it is not famous–but it basically defines what a secret pocket valley would look like)