Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Petals of Blood, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonialism and Capitalism
Education
Gender, Sexuality, and Exploitation
Religion, Hypocrisy, and Delusion
Land and Nature
Summary
Analysis
In the year after Wanja leaves, a former Kenyan independence fighter of Asian descent, who has protested post-independence wealth inequality and alliances with imperialist countries, is assassinated. Drought continues to afflict Ilmorog. One day, Ilmorog farmers, including Njuguna, are sitting outside Abdulla’s. They’re discussing the drought, the possible failure of Mwathi wa Mugo’s powers, and the U.S. and USSR’s plans to send astronauts to the moon, when Munira joins them. They ask Munira when school will start; he tells them that unless he gets another teacher to help him, he won’t be able to keep the school open and that he plans to travel to Ruwa-ini to appeal to Mzigo.
The ethnically Asian Kenyan freedom fighter’s assassination suggests that while in the novel’s view, indigenous Africans may have a special relationship to their ancestral land, any person who dies for Kenyan freedom counts as Kenyan. Since the freedom fighter protested capitalism and imperialism, his death hints that pro-capitalist forces will use violence to prevent greater economic equality. The farmers’ discussion of Mwathi wa Mugo hints that in the face of natural calamities like drought, the townspeople are coming to doubt traditional beliefs and practices.
Themes
After Wanja left, Munira kept traveling to Ruwa-ini hoping to run into her, but he never did. Eventually he recommitted to teaching and tried to forget her. Now when he goes to Abdulla’s, Abdulla mostly ignores him, so he’s glad to encounter the farmers. The farmers, continuing to discuss the U.S. and USSR’s quest to reach the moon, suggest God is angry at the astronauts’ hubris and is punishing humanity with drought. They lament their children’s desertion of Ilmorog for city jobs. Njuguna recalls that his son complained he worked too hard at farming for too little profit; another farmer says the land used to yield more before white colonizers cut down the trees and over-farmed the soil. Then the farmers begin fighting with Abdulla about whether Abdulla’s donkey eats too much grass.
The farmers speculate that God is using drought to punish humanity for astronauts’ technological arrogance; with this speculation, the novel seems to be suggesting that religious belief is anti-science and anti-technology, leading to false beliefs about the natural world. By contrast, when the farmers note that their children are leaving the farms for the city and that white colonizers degraded the land, they are accurately noting the negative effects of capitalism and unsustainable European environmental practices on their rural, agricultural way of life.
Themes
One day, as the drought continues, the elder farmers approach Abdulla and convey a request from the town that he get rid of his donkey. Abdulla is furious, thinking of the donkey as “his other leg.” He mutters that the elders want to drive him out of Ilmorog. Overhearing this, Joseph worries that they’ll have to leave Ilmorog and won’t get to go to school anymore. He wishes Wanja were still in town.
Despite Abdulla’s crippled leg, he receives no social support and must work to live—which means he relies on his donkey, “his other leg.” This shows how the capitalist imperative to make money can cause difficulties to various groups, such as disabled people, in the absence of legal protections or a social safety net. Joseph’s worry that he’ll have to go back to work reveals that he values his education—not all students have bad experiences like the ones Munira and Karega had at Siriana.
Themes
Two henchmen of MP Nderi wa Riera arrive in Ilmorog. They bring news of the Kiama-Kamwene Cultural Organization, a new entity intended to “bring unity between the rich and the poor and bring cultural harmony.” The henchmen say the people of Ilmorog need to travel to Gatundu to have tea and bring 12 shillings and 50 cents with them. The people of Ilmorog are confused and angry. Nyakinyua tells the henchmen that Ilmorog doesn’t have the money and doesn’t need tea—they need water and their children back. When the henchmen claim that other tribes under sway of the recently assassinated “Indian communist” plan to steal from Ilmorog, the incredulous and infuriated women of Ilmorog threaten them and chase them back to their car.
This new political organization wants “unity” and “harmony,” not equality or justice. It represents the unequal capitalist status quo: it wants poor people to shut up and donate what money they have, not protest for their rights. When the henchmen refer to the recently assassinated freedom fighter as an “Indian communist” and claim he has inspired other tribes to rob Ilmorog, it shows that the henchmen are trying to sow racial divisions among poor Kenyan populations to keep them from allying against the status quo.
Themes
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After this incident, Munira bikes to Ruwa-ini to ask Mzigo for more teachers in Ilmorog. At the office, Mzigo tells Munira he’s now officially the headmaster of Ilmorog’s school, which pleases Munira tremendously. Yet when Munira tries to ask for more teachers, Mzigo blows him off, telling him to recruit the teachers himself. Munira, defeated, turns to go. Before he can leave, Mzigo gives him a letter from the Kamwene Cultural Organization inviting him as headmaster to tea in Gatundu with Nderi wa Riera.
Mzigo gives Munira a more important-sounding title but no material help, which suggests that Mzigo doesn’t care about educating rural Ilmorog’s children. He also passes on the same message about “tea” that Nderi wa Riera’s henchmen sent, revealing that Mzigo represents the same pro-status quo forces that are smearing the recently assassinated anti-capitalist freedom fighter.
Themes
Munira, proud and delighted, hurries to Limuru to tell his wife Julia. Entering Limuru, he thinks of the contrast between Limuru’s vivid landscape and his otherworldly religious upbringing. White colonists came to Kenya with their Christianity, capitalism, and cultural imperialism. As a young man, powerful warriors forced Munira’s father Ezekieli to leave his ancestral lands; he decided that the white colonizers had magic more potent than those of the indigenous warriors, so he became a Christian and changed his name to Ezekieli against his own father’s wishes. He exploited the colonial system to appropriate the land of Kenyans who didn’t convert, and he became extremely wealthy while others perished.
Ezekieli converted to Christianity because he wanted access to the power white Christians were gaining in Kenya. Under colonialism, he fared better than other Kenyan people because he shared a religion with their colonizers and thus became wealthy under the capitalist system the British colonial government imposed. Thus, whether or not Christian teaching actually supports capitalism, Christianity and capitalism are associated and mutually reinforcing systems in Kenya.
Themes
Munira married a non-Christian woman, Julia, perhaps to protest his father’s behavior and values—but Julia converted and become a perfect, sex-fearing daughter-in-law, which Munira resents. Munira has a difficult relationship with his father Ezekieli, who holds him in contempt, and wants to “break loose” from him—but doesn’t know exactly how or why.
Here the novel reveals explicitly that the problems in Munira’s marriage derive in part from Julia’s religiosity. Now the reader learns that Julia converted to Christianity after the marriage—and Munira resents it, because he wanted to use his non-Christian wife to rebel against his father and because he thinks her religion negatively impacts their sex life. Munira’s resentment betrays how he tends to see women as tools, possessions, or sexual objects rather than individuals with a right to their own beliefs.
Themes
With his invitation to tea with Nderi wa Riera, Munira is for once glad to return home. He and Julia happily prepare to travel to tea. They take a bus with other teachers and spouses. The bus drives past Gatundu and stops, letting the passengers off in a silent crowd. When one man asks about tea, another man appears, hits him, and vanishes. The assembled people are taken into a hut in groups of 10. After it’s over, everyone feels like they’ve been “taken in” and had their “post-Uhuru expectations” violated. When Munira and Julia arrive home after midnight, Julia accuses Munira of knowing what would happen and not telling her.
At this point, the novel does not clarify what happened to the groups of 10 brought inside the hut, but since a man hit one of the invitees for speaking, the subsequent events may have been violent as well. “Uhuru” is the Swahili word for freedom. If “tea” has violated “post-Uhuru expectations,” it suggests that whatever happened inside the hut, it was not appropriate in an independent nation.
Themes
Munira, thinking how his father Ezekieli stayed Christian against “movement” command in 1952 and lost his ear to guerillas as a result, decides to go talk to him. He confesses what happened the night before; he dwells on a man he heard, a tea worker, who said he had worked on a plantation for Milk Stream Tea estates before and after independence—and that the only difference between before and after was that “some of our people have joined” the capitalists. The tea-worker refused to take the oath—at which point he was beaten until he relented and took the oath.
Because the British were Christian, Christianity in pre-Independence Kenya was associated with colonialism and loyalty to the colonial government. Because Ezekieli refused to give up his Christianity, Mau Mau guerilla fighters cut off his ear. This anecdote illustrates that colonizers used Christian conversion to get loyalty from Kenyan people and that, as a result, Kenyan freedom fighters committed acts of violence against other Kenyan people who were Christian. The story of the plantation worker suggests that after Kenyan independence, most Kenyan people remain poor and exploited—only “some” Kenyan people have joined the capitalist class and accessed increased wealth and political control. Nevertheless, “tea” involves beating Kenyan citizens until they profess loyalty to the status quo.
Themes
After hearing Munira’s story, Ezekieli scolds him for being a disappointment and for failing at everything—by being expelled from Siriana, by leaving his wife Julia alone to work in Ilmorog. Ezekieli notes that all his children have been successful except Munira and Mukami. When Munira asks why Mukami died by suicide, Ezekieli blames Mariamu and her sons without providing details.
Though Siriana expelled Munira for protesting racist policies, Ezekieli believes the expulsion reflects badly on Munira—showing that Ezekieli has absorbed the same white-supremacist, Eurocentric beliefs in which Siriana was indoctrinating its students. That Ezekieli vaguely blames Mariamu, the employee he tried to sexually exploit, for his daughter Mukami’s suicide foreshadows future revelations about Mukami’s death.
Themes
Ezekieli tells Munira to walk with him and takes him to the edge of the family estate. Gesturing at the rich land, Ezekieli tells Munira that the family’s wealth comes not just from hard work but from God’s blessing—and that “Satan is working through other tribes, arousing their envy and jealousy,” so he took the oath to protect himself. He praises the KCO and insinuates that God wants poor people to work harder. Munira is utterly baffled that his father refused to swear oaths previously but swore this one now. He protests that the tribes have often worked and lived peacefully together. His father tells him to go back to Ilmorog, work, and stop drinking. Then he walks off.
Ezekieli’s belief that God wants him to be wealthy resonates with “prosperity theology,” a belief among fringe Protestant movements that God will bless you with riches if you believe in him. Many mainstream Christian leaders have publicly argued that the Bible contradicts prosperity theology. Ezekieli’s adherence to prosperity theology highlights that he’s less interested in what Christian scripture says than in using Christian cultural privilege to get rich. His statement that “Satan is working through other tribes” emphasizes that the KCO is dividing Kenyan ethnic groups to prevent anti-capitalist activism.
Themes
Munira decides not to think about the political situation anymore. Feeling eased yet powerless, he bikes to Kamiritho for a drink. There, he unexpectedly spots Wanja. He buys her a beer, and she tells him she’s planning to return to Ilmorog. She has been working at a fancy bar near a golf club where rich men eat and pick up women. Lately, men from different indigenous ethnic groups have been avoiding one another and saying nasty things about one another’s groups. The bar girls were rounded up and forced to attend “tea,” but somehow Wanja managed to avoid it.
Wanja’s story places interethnic tensions and “tea” in close proximity, implying that the same people who organized the “tea” oaths are also stoking interethnic tensions to prevent different Kenyan ethnic groups from banding together to protest the unequal status quo.
Themes
Shortly after the other bargirls had “tea,” Wanja went home with a “regular,” a rich Somali man, only to find her apartment on fire—apparently someone had hoped to burn her and the Somali man alive. Wanja wanted to inform the police, but the Somali man chose to flee instead. When Wanja went to stay with another bargirl, the girl said she’d heard rumors that Wanja was stuck-up, dating a shifta, and hadn’t drunk the tea. The girl suggested Wanja wouldn’t be able to find out who’d set the fire. After that, Wanja decided to return to Ilmorog. She had just stopped in Kamiritho on the way when she saw Munira.
Shifta is slang for robber, a bandit, or a criminal. Context suggests that the “shifta” in question is the Somali man. Since Wanja never says the Somali man is a criminal, this in turn suggests that nosy people have assumed the man is a criminal merely because he’s foreign—and tried to kill Wanja, both for having a sexual relationship with him and for avoiding the pro-status quo loyalty oath. This situation associates fire with political repression and misogynistic violence.
Themes
To forget “tea,” Munira suggests he and Wanja go drinking. They bar-hop and eventually end up back in a Limuru bar. Munira, feeling “fire-tongues of desire” for Wanja, wants to have sex with her right there—but then they both spot Karega arguing drunkenly with another young man about Kamaru (whom Karega prefers, for “sing[ing] about our past”) and DK.
Someone has just tried to burn Wanja alive, so the description of Munira’s desire as “fire-tongues” is ominous, hinting that his feelings for her are dangerous. “Kamaru” refers to John Kamaru (1939 – 2018), a Kenyan musician who wrote political songs and engaged in activism. Karega’s preference for Kamaru, who sings “about our past,” emphasizes Karega’s interest in Kenyan history and activism. “DK” likely refers to Daniel Kamau (born 1949), another Kenyan musician. Karega’s drunkenness is surprising—the last time he appeared in the novel, he didn’t drink beer.
Themes
Wanja yells Karega’s name. Walking in a drunken zigzag, Karega comes over to join Wanja and Munira. A song about someone refusing to visit their sick mother begins playing on the jukebox. Wanja, looking suddenly agonized, confesses to Munira that the night she ran away from home, her mother was very sick. Much later, while working as a bargirl, Wanja learned her mother had had appendicitis and needed surgery—and the revelation made Wanja laugh.
Wanja’s story about laughing at her mother’s appendicitis betrays how badly Wanja’s mother damaged their relationship by beating Wanja just for walking with a boy. It may also imply that Wanja blames her mother for not realizing that Kimeria was sexually abusing Wanja.
Themes
Karega falls asleep at the bar. Munira suggests he and Wanja take Karega back to the room that Munira rented in Kamiritho. After they get an unconscious Karega into bed, Munira considers approaching Wanja for sex—but then Karega wakes up, and Munira feels abruptly guilty that he let Karega leave Ilmorog without a word after Karega came to see him. Munira inwardly laments that a “hopeful” young person is drowning himself in music and alcohol.
Though Munira is often self-absorbed and detached from other people, his guilt about Karega reveals that he does feel some responsibility toward others—perhaps particularly young former students. His description of Karega as “hopeful” emphasizes that Karega used to have aspirations and goals.
Themes
Karega demands to know where he is. Munira identifies himself and asks what happened. Digressively and incoherently, Karega explains how after his expulsion from Siriana, he couldn’t get a job and ended up selling cheap items by roadsides and begging. He wouldn’t go back to his mother Mariamu’s because he was afraid that she would ask him why he participated in the strike. Sick of begging, he remembered that Siriana had expelled Munira, too, for striking, and he decided to go see him. But when Karega sought out Munira, he hated what he perceived as Munira’s “pleading ignorance and mock surprise” about the strike and expulsion—so he fled and began drinking.
Karega’s poverty after his expulsion underscores how important education is to economic stability—so that, at a school like Siriana, it’s in students’ economic self-interest not to protest the racist curriculum. Thus, Siriana represents how, in a society still suffering the effects of colonialism, those Kenyans who accept the Eurocentric, capitalist status quo succeed while those who protest injustice suffer. Karega’s negative reaction to Munira’s “pleading ignorance and mock surprise” highlights how Munira’s disinterest in politics can hurt the people with whom he interacts.
Themes
After Karega finishes his tale, he suddenly notices Wanja—and they stare at one another, rapt, in a way that causes “fire-tongues of stinging nettles” in Munira’s belly. Wanja tells Karega to come back to Ilmorog; he agrees.
Earlier, Munira felt “fire-tongues of desire” for Wanja. Now, when she and Karega make eye contact, he feels “fire-tongues” of jealousy. Since Wanja has barely escaped death in a fire, the “fire-tongues” in Munira hint that his sexist jealousy and lust may endanger Wanja.
Themes
