The Theory of Flight Character Analysis

Genie/Imogen Zula Nyoni

Genie is Golide Gumele and Elizabeth Nyoni’s daughter. Her free spirit and resilience make her an inspiration to many. She gestates in a golden egg that Elizabeth lays after having sex with Golide. The… read analysis of Genie/Imogen Zula Nyoni

Vida de Villiers/Jesus

Vida de Villiers, eventual lover of Genie, is a mixed-race descendant of a rich Afrikaner and a Khoisan maid. As an artistic adolescent, he is bullied for his bisexuality but receives unconditional support from… read analysis of Vida de Villiers/Jesus

Marcus Malcolm Martin Masuku

Marcus is Thandi and Dingani Masuku’s son and Krystle’s older brother. He spends his early childhood on the Beauford Farm and Estate, where his parents left him with grandparents while they pursued opportunities… read analysis of Marcus Malcolm Martin Masuku

Krystle Masuku

Krystle is Thandi and Dingani Masuku’s daughter and Marcus’s sister. Krystle begins life as a spoiled, rule-following child who has internalized the sexism and racism of the adults around her. When her parents… read analysis of Krystle Masuku

Golide Gumele/Livingstone Stanley Tikiti

Golide/Livingstone Genie’s father, Elizabeth’s partner, and Minenhle’s brother. He is a tall, charismatic man with albinism. He is born in an unnamed country implied to be Zimbabwe while his father Baines Tikiti… read analysis of Golide Gumele/Livingstone Stanley Tikiti

Thandi Hadebe

Wife to Dingani Masuku, mother to Marcus and Krystle, and adoptive mother to Genie, Thandi grows up on the Beauford Farm and Estate with strict parents. In adolescence, Thandi gets special treatment… read analysis of Thandi Hadebe

Dingani Masuku

Son to Eunice, husband to Thandi, father to Marcus and Krystle, and adoptive father to Genie, Dingani grows up with an occasionally drunk and abusive father in a colonized African country… read analysis of Dingani Masuku

The Man Himself

An unnamed leader in an unnamed postcolonial African country implied to be Zimbabwe, The Man Himself is likely based on Robert Mugabe (1924-2019), Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and President from 1987… read analysis of The Man Himself

Valentine Tanaka

Valentine Tanaka, a man with a humpback who cares about spiritual strength and doing his job well, is the Chief Registrar of The Organization, the postcolonial domestic surveillance agency that The Man Himself founded to… read analysis of Valentine Tanaka

Bhekithemba Nyathi

A journalist launched and corrupted by The Man Himself, Bhekithemba is the grandson of a colonial loyalist, Cosmos Nyathi, who once shook the hands of visiting British loyalty. In 1980, Bhekithemba attends the formal… read analysis of Bhekithemba Nyathi

Eunice Masuku

Mother to Dingani Masuku, grandmother to Marcus and Krystle, Eunice is a sex worker in South Africa when she meets her husband, Dingani’s future father. Though her husband promises her a better life… read analysis of Eunice Masuku

Jestina Nxumalo

A resident of the Beauford Farm and Estate, Jestina cares for children on the farm compound and works as a maid for Thandi’s parents until The Man Himself, threatened by Golide Gumele’s following… read analysis of Jestina Nxumalo

Elizabeth Nyoni

Mother to Genie and partner to Golide Gumele, Elizabeth Nyoni is a self-confident, attractive woman who aspires to be a country singer and idolizes Dolly Parton. She meets Golide during a conflict implied to… read analysis of Elizabeth Nyoni

Baines Tikiti/Bafana Ndlelaphi

Father to Golide Gumele/Livingstone Stanley Tikiti and Minenhle Tikiti, Bafana Ndlelaphi is a travel-loving young man in an unnamed, colonized African country implied to be Southern Rhodesia (pre-independence Zimbabwe). The white colonial farmer on… read analysis of Baines Tikiti/Bafana Ndlelaphi

Beatrice Beit-Beauford

Best friend to Kuki, unexpected buddy to Genie, and art patron to Vida de Villiers, Beatrice inherits the Beauford Farm and Estate—the farm compound where many of the novel’s characters live—from her… read analysis of Beatrice Beit-Beauford

Kuki

Best friend to Beatrice, wife to Emil Coetzee and later Todd Carmichael, and mother to Vida’s first love Everleigh, Kuki begins life as Kuki Sedgwick, a freckly, redheaded girl who embraces conventional ideas… read analysis of Kuki

Emil Coetzee

Husband to Kuki and father to Vida’s first love Everleigh, Emil is a cruel, blond, macho man who is born in South Africa of Afrikaner descent but moves to an unnamed, colonized country implied… read analysis of Emil Coetzee

Esme Masuku

Marcus’s college girlfriend, eventual wife, and mother of his three children, Esme is a sensitive, intelligent, and caring person who is aware—in a way that Marcus himself doesn’t seem to be—that her husband’s possessive… read analysis of Esme Masuku

Minenhle Tikiti

Daughter to Baines Tikiti, sister to Golide Gumele, aunt to Genie, life partner to Mordechai Gatiro/C10, and one-time teacher to Thandi, Minenhle is tortured by Mordechai while the colonial government… read analysis of Minenhle Tikiti

Mordechai Gatiro/C10

A freedom fighter turned and recruited as an intelligence asset by colonial spymaster Emil Coetzee, Mordechai—known as C10—is a famously brutal and effective interrogator for the colonial government until he tortures but fails to… read analysis of Mordechai Gatiro/C10

Goliath

Goliath is a scrawny, scrappy street orphan, leader of an orphan gang called The Survivors, who at one point stabs Vida de Villiers in the shoulder with a broken bottle when Vida tries to break… read analysis of Goliath

Xander Dangerfield

Xander Dangerfield is a very tall, slightly flirtatious worker at an animal rescue or veterinary clinic in the U.S. He meets Krystle Masuku when she is trying to find help for a wounded baby bird.… read analysis of Xander Dangerfield

Minor Characters

David

David is a very intelligent man who became homeless in an unnamed country implied to be Zimbabwe after he couldn’t take advantage of the full scholarship he won to Harvard University because he couldn’t afford to live in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is a long-time acquaintance of Vida de Villiers.

Dr. Prisca Mambo

Dr. Prisca Mambo is the doctor who first diagnoses 16-year-old Genie with HIV and who continues to treat Genie throughout her life.

Prudence Ngoma

Prudence is Baines's wife and Livingstone’s mother. After Baines gets Prudence pregnant, he moves to South Africa without her. He tries to send her money, but she keeps sending it back, which distresses Baines so much that he drowns himself.