Wild Seed

More than 50 years later, Doro comes to visit Wheatley in the form of an old white man on unofficial business. Anyanwu’s youngest daughter, Nweke, is soon to have her painful adolescent transition to power, and Doro feels drawn to bear witness to her change. Isaac is now much older but visibly spry. Though those born under the watchful authority of Doro’s children show little strife or racial animosity, those discovered as “wild seed” sometimes suffer with their gifts and reveal the prejudices of the outside world. Such is the way with the telepathic Sloanes, who cannot defend themselves from the thoughts of others and who buck under the non-racialized authority of Wheatley. “And as soon as they had produced a few more children, Doro intended to take them both” (148); Doro imagines murdering the tortured couple will be a “kindness.”

Isaac and Anyanwu have been peacefully married for several decades, but Anyanwu still holds a begrudging hatred for Doro, who continues to breed them both with other genetically talented people. Puzzled by her intransigence and satisfied with the number of children she has produced for his village; he intends to kill her as soon as Isaac dies.