Yesha Bhatt

1. Yesha Bhatt
Department of English, M. K.
Bhavnagar University

2. NgũgĩwaThiong'o
1938
 Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is a Kenyan writer wjo
primarily writes in Gikuyu (language being spoken
in a part of Kenya)
 His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and
essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to
children's literature.
 He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-
language journal Mũtĩiri.
 Ngũgĩ has frequently been regarded as a likely
candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
 In the United States, he is currently Distinguished
Professor of Comparative Literature and English at
the University of California, Irvine

3. Petals of
Blood
 A novel first published in 1977
 Background of Mau Mau rebellion
 Characters are living in a small village
Ilmoro, Kenya
 They are struggling with the new developing
or westernizing Kenya
 Change in Kenya after getting independence
from Colonial rule
 The challenges of capitalism, politics, and the
effects of westernization.
 The characters are connected with the
reference of their past
 This is the first novel of Ngugi wa Thiongo

4. Mau Mau rebellion
 Mau Mau rebellion (1952-1960) was a war in the
British Kenya Colony (1920–1963) between
the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also
known as Mau Mau, and the British authorities.
 Dominated by the Kikuyu people, Meru
people and Embu people, the KLFA also
comprised units of Kamba and Maasai peoples
who fought against the white European colonist-
settlers in Kenya, the British Army
 the rebellion survived until after Kenya's
independence from Britain, driven mainly by
the Meru units
 Suppressing the Mau Mau Uprising in the Kenyan
colony cost Britain £55 million and caused at least
11,000 deaths among the Mau Mau and other
forces

5. Characters
Munira Wanja
Abdulla
Kimeria
Mzigo Chui
Karega
Nyakinyua

6. Characters
 Munira – Schoolteacher goes Ilmorog to
teach
 Karega – Works a teaching assistant –
connects to socialism after Nairobi trip –
joins the struggle of liberation
 Wanja – granddaughter of Nyakinyua –
barmaid – prostitute – Theng’eta seller –
love relationship with Munira, Karega and
Abdulla
 Abdulla – Shopkeeper lost his leg in Mau
Mau rebellion – fond of his shop and
donkey – Joseph (a boy whom he keeps
as brother)
 Nyakinyua – Old lady of the
village – tells stories of past
glory of Africa
 Kimeria – Businessman –
Kenya elite
 Chui – Schoolboy –
headmaster – educationalist
 Nderi wa Riera – Local
politician of Ilmorog village

7. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (Beginning ) Then novel moves back with the arrival of Munira in the village
Ilmorog as a school teacher – he suffers from poor class attendance -
villagers think he would soon leave the village but did not – befriends with
Abdulla (owner of Bar – immigrant to Ilmorog - 1963)
 Past of Characters –
 1) Munira: wealthy Christian – strict father – wanted to do something on his
own
 2) Abdulla: adopted son Joseph – for new start – opened a barshop –
connected with Mau Mau rebellion – lost his one leg
 3) Wanja: to stay near to her Grandmother – barmaid at Abdulla’s shop –
Kimeria seduced her – was having child and abandon it – wants to become
mother again
 4) Karega: to connect with Munira – recalls Chui (popular student and then
headmaster – Karega has shared past with Munira
 Novel starts with the description of main characters Munira, Karega, Wanja, Abdullah .
 (Ending) There are deaths of three Kenyans, two businessmen (Kimeria and Mzigo) and
an educator (Chui) – Munira is accused for the murders of these people
Plot

8. Plot
 Wanja (granddaughter of Nyakinyua – got pregnant with Kimeria –
abandoned her child and came to Ilmorog) arrives and starts working
with Abdulla in his Bar and helps him to expand it. Munira and Wanja
fell in love with each other
 Karega arrives too and soon after that Wanja learns that
Munira is married and in despair she leaves the village
 Weather become harsh and there was no rain in the
village – harvest was not possible – Karega
encouraged villagers – took them to Nairobi – to talk
with their MP (Nderi wa Riera)
 For Joseph (adopted brother of Abdulla), the
journey was not suitable – Abdulla and
Nyakinyua were telling the story of history of
Kenya which inspired Karega – the minister sent
villagers away by thinking that they are beggars
– Kimeria questions villagers - reveals that he
is connected with MP – blackmails and rapes
Wanja

9.  Munira, Abdulla and Karega sent for trials and a lawyer offered help
whom Wanja knew – Media started taking interest and they got
enough donations and MP’s attention for his own sake
 Back in the village there was a strong rain – good
harvest – Wanja was reflecting the beauty with
nature – Nyakinyua taught all four how to make
Theng’eta – Karega and Wanja fell in love
 Night of revelations: Karega learned that
his brother was with Abdulla in Mau Mau
rebellion - was betrayed and hanged –
Karega joined school
 Karega was having love relation with
Munira’s sister – reason of her suicide –
Munira was already jealous of Karega
and Wanja
 Karega left the village in despair
 Wanja got upset with this

10.  Village was developing and getting converted into town because
of investment of neo-colonial forces – African politicians - roads
 It has become a tourist destination because of
Theng’eta – Abdulla and Wanja started selling it in
the bar nd people liked it
 Munira was observing this and was lusting for Wanja
– Karenga returned after a year – Nyakinyua died –
shock of loosing land – Wanja and Abdulla sold their
share of bar to Mzigo – he thrown out them and took
both the things
 Wanja started a whorehouse – attracted Chui, Mzigo
and Kimeria (African directors)
 Munira started believing in Christian fantacism –
went to Wanja to convince her but she denied
 Abdulla was happy with Joseph and fell in love with
Wanja and she conceived his child
 Karega planed strike – Mzigo, Kimeria and Chui went
to meet him and then to Wanja’s whorehouse

11.  Wanja wanted to take revenge to the men who done wrong with her and Abdulla
 She called all three men to her whorehouse and kept them in three different rooms –
Abdulla was also supporting in this
 Wanja killed Kimeria with a weapon
 Munira decided to take revenge and put fire in the
whorehouse
 Inspector investigated and Munira
confessed his crime – sent for trial
 Karega was detained but
was determined to Kenya
 Wanja was happy with
the child in her womb

12. Title of the Novel
 Petals of Blood is derived from the poem The Swamp
by Sir Derek Walcott
 The poem is about the nature and how it can be
destructive – how humans should adjust with nature
(Horrors of death – hopelessness)
 The phrase is used initially by a student in Munira’s
lecture to describe a flower but he corrects the lad
stating: “…there is no color called blood…”
 The phrase is also used to describe Munira’s sexual
fantasy, Virginity, and flames.
 In this novel nature plays an essential role – it leads
characters to explore new world which is changing
rapidly with the tag of ‘modernization’
 Connected with the epigraph of the novel

13. Themes
Neocolonialism Love and Passion
- Freedom from colonial power
- Started establishing their own
government and control over economy
- Colonizers and elite Africans were
investing in these businesses
- Market loans – transportation charges
– local corruptions
- Neocolonialism
- Illusion of having power – but power
was of with money and money was of
with investors – ultimate colonialism
- Unhealthy love relationship – passion was
there to harm the other
- Munira is obsessed with Wanja
- Kimeria was obsessed with Wanja
- Wanja was in love with Kimeria first then
Munira (Married), then Karega (who left
her) and in the end with Abdulla (who’s
child she was carrying)
- Karega loved her but wanted to develop
his consciousness towards the
contemporary scenario
- Abdulla can be considered as true lover

14. Themes
Value of Human life Community and Brotherhood
- Life of Town
- Priest denied to support villagers and
the child Joseph
- Kimeria harassed them and raped
Wanja
- MP is also ignoring the people
- Representation of human life’s value
for Elite people
- All started helping when media covered
the story – For their own benefits they
helped poor
- Value of individual is value of
community
- Villagers can only develop their village
- Collective efforts
- Part of wider Africa and Third world
community
- Only collective efforts of people can
help to save their culture – people and
freedom
- Journey to Nairobi

15. Themes
Local and Global struggle
- Story of a small village Ilmorog, but it
can be the story of any colonized
country and its village
- Struggle is the same
- Ilmorog suggests Kenya – Africa or any
country which was colonized
- First the struggle was at local level
- Modernization made it a global struggle
- Fight with local level corruption
- Fight with global level corruption

16. Themes
Christianity Education
- Spread the value of Christianity
- Power of colonizers
- A religion that dominated people with
colonial and neo-colonial powers
- Eg. Rev. Jerrod (Prist who did not help
villagers) and Ezekieli (father of Munira
– who got impressed with foreigners)
- Munira’s decision to embrace
Christianity – his obsession and
selfishness
- Complex view of education
- Wanja was not able to finish the school
– became barmaid
- Her insistence to make Joseph an
educated man
- Education - when it is shaped by
foreigner
- No history – culture or problems are
defined well

17. Wanja as symbol
- Wanja represents new Africa –
emerging Kenya
- Wanja – from a school girl – barmaid –
whore – mother
- She struggles and develops with the
changing circumstances
- Just to stand with the new changes she
modified her priorities
- She rapidly started accepting the
changes
- Her condition represents African
woman
- Death of Wanja’s child – death of
Kenya children
- Kenya and Africa have a history of
'murdering' their children
- Second child – new hope for Kenya
Africa

18. History, Intertextuality, and Gender in Ngugi’s
Petals of Blood
- Two kinds of historical struggles
- 1. Black World historical
struggle
- Colonialism – marginalization –
constant war – struggle for their
rights
- 2. Kenyan national struggle
- (generational struggle)
- Decolonizing nationalism – Neo-
colonialism – support of
colonizers
- Rejecting the ideology of
Christianity
- History of female struggle –
history of prostitute
- Patriarchal society – place of
female
- Revenge of Wanja – her infant
- Struggle of female in new Kenya
- Concept of ‘working women’
- Sexual exploitation from
childhood – Wanja
- Craving for child and
motherhood
- Born of New Kenya – Infant of
Wanja

19. Re-Historicizing the Conflicting figure of female
 Wanja – as strong woman character
 Power to construct her own destiny
 School girl – Kimeria’s child –
thrown out of school
 Mother – dead child
 Barmaid – Skilled woman - profit
 Lover – Karega – Munira - Abdulla
 Partner in business (business
woman) – Theng’eta production
 Prostitute – tragic condition
 Murderer – Murder of Kimeria
 Mother – Abdulla’s child
 Wanja as tradition breaker – away
from typical woman of literature
 Wanja is not passive –
melodramatic – typical male-
dependant heroine figure
 Drought – Female womb
 Rain – arrival of baby
 Wanja – feminist point of view –
as rising land of Kenya –
connection with mother nature –
Development of her character with
the development of Kenya

20. - Independence of Kenya and Neo-
colonialism
- Loss of independence – despair
- Fanonism – anti-colonial liberationist
criticism – Violence is constructive force
- No other way than violence for
decolonization
- When it is against injustice
- New Ilmorog was emerging – No respect
for people who died for the nation
- Capitalism is controlling everything
Fanonism and constructiveviolence

21. Postmodernism in Petals of Blood
 Connection of Colonial and Post-colonial
 Historical and cultural repositioning
 Hybridity’s imagined threat to cultural purity -
Transformation of a village
 Ambivalence – Nyankinyua v/s Wanja – two
generations
 As Nyakinyua, a heroic old woman, exclaimed
‘Our soil seems tired’ and Njuguna argued
‘Mwathi wa Mugo seems to be losing his
power over the rains’
 Peasants converting themselves to
Christianity
 Mimicking the colonizer
 Ideology – Female representation –
superstition- folk tales – struggle -
individuality