Petals of Blood

 This blog is a response to a task assigned by Yesha Bhatt ma’am. This blog deals with Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s novel Petals of Blood, we are assigned a few questions, and among them, this blog will talk about the first chapter of the novel which deals with the Interrogation of all characters.

About Author

Ngugi wa Thiong’o, original name James Thiong’o Ngugi, (born January 5, 1938, Limuru, Kenya), Kenyan writer who was considered East Africa leading novelist. His popular Weep Not, Child (1964) was the first major novel  in English by an East African. As he became sensitized to the effects of colonialism in Africa, Ngugi adopted his traditional name and wrote in the Bantu language of kenya's  people.

Ngugi received bachelor’s degrees from Makerere University, , in 1963 and from Leeds University, Yorkshire, England, in 1964. After doing graduate work at Leeds, he served as a lecturer in English at University College, Nairobi, Kenya, and as a visiting professor of English at North western university, Evanston, Illinois, U.S. From 1972 to 1977 he was senior lecturer and chairman of the department of at  Literure the University of NThe prizewinning Weep Not, Child is the story of a Kikuyu family drawn into the struggle for Kenyan independence during the state of emergency and the Mau Mau rebellion. 

His important work

In English

• Weep Not, Child (1964) is the first novel in English to be published by a writer from East Africa.
• The River Between (1965)
• The Grain of Wheat (1967)
• Petals of Blood (1977) his last novel in English

Written in Gikuyu and translated into English

• Devils on the Cross (1980) 
• Matigari (1986)
• Wizard of the Crow (2006)

His essays

• Homecoming (1972)
• Decolonizing the mind (1986)
• Moving the Centre (1993)
• Detained (1981)
• One the Abolishment of the English Department (1968/ 1972)
• The Asmara Declaration on African languages and Literature (2000)

About the novel

The novel Petals of Blood was published in 1977 and is set in Kenya’s fictional village Ilmorog. The bog begins in the present and moves twelve years in flashback. It deals with the four characters Munira, Wanja, Abdulla, and Karega whose lives are intertwined due to the Mau Mau rebellion. 

Petals of Blood deals with social and economic problems in East Africa after independence, particularly the continued exploitation of peasants and workers by foreign business interests and a greedy indigenous bourgeoisie.

The novel revolves around three men and a woman. The four friends reveal different aspects of their history to each other piecemeal, just as their families had guardedly explained the past to them. The lingering effects of the Mau Mau revolt have affected all their lives and by the end of the novel, each character is wrapped up in his or her own exclusive epiphany about life in Kenya.

All four characters have come to Ilmorog to escape from city life. The novel explores corruption, social inequality, and the betrayal of the ideals of the independence movement. "Petals of Blood" was highly critical of the post-colonial government of Kenya and was banned in the country upon its release. However, it has since become a classic of African literature and has been widely translated and studied.

The novel begins with a glance at its ending: three notable Kenyans—a teacher and two successful businessmen—have died in a fire. Inspector Godfrey, who believes that the police force is “the maker of modern Kenya,” investigates. His suspicion falls on the schoolteacher Munira.

From here, the novel moves back to the beginning of the story. Schoolteacher Munira arrives in the pastoral village of Ilmorog, to take up a position at the village school. Many teachers from the city have come and gone in Ilmorog, and the villagers assume that Munira won’t last. His new neighbors treat him

with suspicion, and few children come to his classes. However, Munira befriends the owner of a local bar, Abdulla, a hero of the Mau Mau rebellion, who helps Munira to settle in the village. Munira also befriends Joseph, a young boy whom Abdulla has adopted. Eventually, Munira is accepted as one of Ilmorog’s own.

Another refugee from the city arrives, Wanja, the granddaughter of a respected Ilmorog elder. She begins working in Abdulla’s bar, helping him to expand the business. Soon, Munira finds himself falling in love with her. Munira and Wanja have a brief relationship, but Munira is married, and when Wanja discovers this, she is bitterly disappointed. She leaves the village for a time; when she returns, she breaks off the affair.

A former colleague of Munira’s, Karega, arrives in Ilmorog to question Munira about events at the school where both used to work. Karega ends up taking a position at the school. That year, the village suffers a long, dry summer and a poor harvest. Karega rallies the villagers and leads them to Nairobi to ask their Member of Parliament for help.

It is a long journey. On the way, Joseph grows very ill. As soon as the villagers they try to get help for Joseph. A minister turns them away, assuming they are beggars. Finally, they are admitted to the house of a rich man, only to be rounded up and imprisoned in the building. They are subjected to questioning by the house’s owner, Kimeria, an unscrupulous businessman who explains to the villagers that he and their MP are allies. Later, he blackmails and rapes Wanja.

Karega and Wanja start seeing one another. Seething with jealousy, Munira schemes to have Karega fired from the school. Karega is forced to leave Ilmorog.

The government begins building a new road­—the Trans-Africa road—right through the village. Workers arrive, and the village rapidly expands. Soon it is a town, New Ilmorog. The farmers of the old village are advised to fence their lands and mortgage them, so they can prove they own them. Banks offer them loans against their harvests to pay for this. When Nyakinyua dies, the bank moves to seize her land, so Wanja sells her brewery in order to buy Nyakinkua’s land. She opens a brothel catering to the new arrivals and is eventually forced to work as a prostitute herself.

Karega returns, telling Wanja that after his departure, he collapsed into alcoholism before finding a job in a factory, from which he has been fired. Though they still love each other, they cannot agree about how to live in the new Kenya, and Karega leaves again. Munira tries to rekindle their

Wanja comes up with a plan to rid herself of the men who have taken advantage of her. She invites them all to the brothel, including Karega and Kimeria. Her plan is to present Abdulla to them as her chosen partner. However, Munira sees Karega arrive and then leave again; in a fit of jealousy, he sets fire to the brothel. The other men die, while Wanja is hospitalized.