Hello Friends,
This blog is my response to the task assigned to us by our teacher Yesha Ma'am on Petals of Blood, A novel by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. So read, understand and enjoy. Happy Learning!
Click here to view Teacher's blog and Presentation in it.
About the author
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o born James Ngugi on 5 January 1938 is a Kenyan writer and academic who writes primarily in Gikuyu and who formerly wrote in English. 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. His short story The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright, is translated into 100 languages from around the world.
A Note on the First Chapter of the Novel
Interrogation of all Characters
Petals of Blood starts with the arrest of the four main characters in the novel. Munira is the first to be arrested, and the two officers who come for him treat him respectfully, as he is the headmaster of Ilmorog School. There has been a triple murder in Ilmorog, they tell him, and Munira is wanted for routine questioning. The next person taken into custody is Abdulla, the one-legged bar and shop owner. He has just come from a night in the hospital, and his left hand is bandaged, although we don't yet know why. The officers try to arrest Wanja next, and are greeted by a doctor who tells them she is delirious and hallucinating. He tells them that in 10 days time, she would be recovered sufficiently for questioning.
1. Munira had come from a vigil on the mountain when the police come for him, saying he is wanted at the Ilmorog police station for questioning about recent murders.
Munira is one of the four main characters of the text. He left his wife and wealthy, domineering father to come to Ilmorog for a new beginning teaching school, and did his best to ingratiate himself with the community, although he always remained somewhat of an outsider. He was obsessed with Wanja but she did not love him and this tormented him. He was not very interested in politics or the people's struggle, and he tried to stay out of such conversations. Because he was raised in a Christian home, he retained vestiges of guilt and despair over his own "sinful" behavior, which would, along with his thwarted desire for Wanja, lead him to become a religious fanatic. He desired recognition by his superiors even if they were European puppets; he was characterized by frequent bouts of selfishness, resentment of others, and petulance; with his religious convictions, he tried to "save" all of the wayward people who sinned and got caught up in this life instead of preparing for the afterlife.
2. Abdulla is also approached, and he is locked in a cell at the station.
Abdulla is another one of the main characters. He is a handicapped shopkeeper who lost his leg in the Mau Mau Rebellion, the revolution that gained Kenya its independence. He became friends with Wanja, Karega, and Munira after they all moved to Ilmorog, and helped each other carve out an existence in the village. He lived a small life with his adopted son Joseph and his donkey, though when the village traveled to Nairobi he became expansive in his storytelling; it was as if he were the heart and soul of the group. Intuitive and prone to cynicism and pessimism, he was uncomfortable with the reactions of the people in power they met in Nairobi as well as with all of the changes that came to Ilmorog in the journey's aftermath. The changes in Ilmorog, Karega's departure, and Wanja's move back into being a whore were deeply impactful for him, and he spent the year or so leading up to the murder living in near-squalor and despair. Only Joseph brought him happiness, at least until he and Wanja made love and created a child.
3. Wanja is at the hospital and a doctor says the police cannot see her because she is delirious.
Wanja is the granddaughter of Nyakinyua and is an intelligent, passionate, intuitive, and tenacious woman. As a young woman, she had to leave school because she had a relationship with, and became pregnant by, the wealthy businessman Kimeria. Her father wanted little to do with her, so she struck out on her own and ended up as a barmaid and prostitute. She grieved for the child she had borne and then left to die, always desiring to have a child of her own again. She came to Ilmorog to be near her grandmother, which is where she befriended Munira and Abdulla. She had sex with Munira once, hoping to conceive, but did not want to be in a relationship with him. She did have a relationship with Karega, but he left the village. Finally, she saw Abdulla as a true companion, and it is suggested that he is the father of the child that she is carrying at the end of the novel. It was Wanja who was a core figure in the New Ilmorog, helping Abdulla grow his business and then, after the businessmen shut them down, ran a successful whorehouse. She was tormented with the sense of colluding with evil, but her life philosophy was "eat or be eaten."
4. Karega is asleep when the police come and bring him to the station. People gather outside, thinking he is in trouble for last night’s decision to strike, but the police say it is about murder.
Karega is a serious, motivated, impassioned young man dedicated to the people's struggle. He grew up on Munira's father's land with his mother, but he never knew his older brother Ndinguri, who was executed for being Mau Mau. For a time, he attended the elite school Siriana, but he was expelled for participating in a strike against the strict, oppressive, and neo-colonial school regime. He lost his great love, Mukami, Munira's sister, when she killed herself rather than choose between him and her father. He then came to Munira in Ilmorog hoping to seek advice from the older man. Settling there for a time, he was the one who conceived of the journey to Ilmorog. After the journey he became a teacher at the school but was discontented, thinking the children were not getting a real education in Kenya's past and the current forces at work that colluded to make their lives in Ilmorog difficult. He loved Wanja but left the village and went out into the country to further develop his communist, unionist, and people-centric views. Once he returned to Ilmorog he became a powerful union organizer and was thus targeted by people of power.
5. The headline reads that Mzigo, Chui, and Kimeria, African directors of the Theng’eta Breweries and Enterprises Ltd., were burnt to death last night, and murder is suspected.
Mzigo
In the early part of the novel, he oversaw the local schools as the Education Officer and was Munira's boss. He became a major investor in New Ilmorog and contributed to the failure of Abdulla and Wanja's bar.
Chui
A young man Munira knew from Siriana, famed among his classmates for his neatness and style and admired for his aptitude at everything he put his mind to. Chui was expelled for instigating a strike against the new headmaster, Fraudsham, and little but rumors were heard of him for a time. He was invited back as Siriana's headmaster, but he was not what the students expected: he was a "black replica of Fraudsham" (171), committed to the hierarchy and rules of the school. He eschewed the study of African writers and historians, and he called in the riot squad to disperse a student protest. He became a prominent investor in New Ilmorog.
Works Cited
GradeSaver. "Petals of Blood Part I Chapters 1-3 Summary and Analysis." Study Guides & Essay Editing | GradeSaver, 9 Aug. 2021, www.gradesaver.com/petals-of-blood/study-guide/summary-part-i-chapters-1-3.
"Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, 19 Mar. 2003, en.m.wikipedia.org Accessed 23 Feb. 2022.
"Petals of Blood Summary." Www.BookRags.com, www.bookrags.com/studyguide-petalsblood/chapanal001.html