12 Ngugi wa Thiongo: Petals of Blood

Prof. T. Vijay Kumar

Ngugi wa Thiong’o Petals of Blood

Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1938- )

Novels

Wizard of the Crow (2006)

Essays

Homecoming: Essays on African and Caribbean Literature, Culture, and Politics, (1972)
Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (1986)
Moving the Centre: The Struggle for Cultural Freedom (1993)
Detained: A Writer’s Prison Diary (1981)
“On the Abolition of the English Department” (1968 / 1972)
“The Asmara Declaration on African Languages and Literatures” (2000)

Plays

Petals of Blood (1977)

Title comes from Derek Walcott’s poem “The Swamp”.
Originally titled “Ballad of a Barmaid”. No explanation for change—perhaps not to highlight individual—Wanja.
Deals with the social and economic situation in Kenya after independence.
The urgent need to create a socialist society in which the peasants and workers are no longer exploited by foreign and indigenous capitalists.
The Mau Mau Rebellion of the 1950s.

Petals of Blood: The Context

Ngugi’s fourth and last novel in English.
Released by a Kenyan minister in July 1977, who spoke in defence of intellectual freedom, democratic spirit, free flow of ideas.
Ngugi arrested five months later for indulging in anti-nationalist activities. Spent one year without trial in the Kamiti Maximum Security Prison.
Immediate provocation—his Gikuyu play “I Will Marry When I Want”.

Plot

Three directors of foreign owned Thang’eta brewery burnt to death.
Whodunit plot.
Arrest of four prominent people of New Ilmorog – Munira, Karega, Wanja, and Abdulla—each of whom has a strong reason.
Transformation of a sleepy village into New Ilmorog town, vulnerable to outside exploitation.
Development arrives in form of a new Trans-Africa road through the village
Brings an increase in trade but also results in the farmers being deprived of their lands; lured into taking loans they can’t really afford and all the other familiar features of a capitalist economy.

Characters

Muniara—a school teacher who
Wanja—the Granddaughter of Nyakinyua, the most respected village elder. She is the connecting link among the remaining characters—falls in love with Karega, coveted by Munira, carries the child of Abdulla. An experienced barmaid who flees her past in the city. She falls in love with Karega, although she is still coveted by Munira. She also sleeps with Abdulla because of her reverence for his actions in the Mau Mau rebellion. An industrious barmaid, she helps Abdulla’s shop to become successful, and also sells Theng’eta. She later becomes a prostitute and runs her own brothel before being injured in Munira’s arson attack.
Abdulla: A shopkeeper who lost his leg in the Mau Mau rebellion.
Karega: the representative of Ngugi. Young man who works as a teaching assistant at Munira’s school before becoming disillusioned and heading for the city. After the trip to Nairobi, he becomes enamoured with socialism, and starts to educate himself on its principles and on the law. However, he later becomes disillusioned with the effects of education, and how apt it is in the struggle for liberation. As a youth, he dated Munira’s sister who subsequently committed suicide; this was unknown to Munira until Karega reveals it to him and to others after having drunk Theng’eta.

Petals and Ngugi’s earlier Works

Recurrent themes in Ngugi: Christianity and Guilt
Continuities in themes departure in technique
Christianity: No ambivalence towards it in Petals—it is another weapon in the service of the imperialist forces.
Guilt: No longer an individual burden; product of a system where the culprit goes scot-free and the victim is made to feel guilty; public confessions not only purge the individuals of personal guilt but serve a public purpose as eye-openers to the community.

Themes

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