Petals of Blood

by

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

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Chui is Munira’s classmate and one of Karega’s headmasters at Siriana. Later, when Wanja becomes a sex worker, Chui is also one of her clients. As a student at Siriana, Chui is charismatic and popular, nicknamed “Shakespeare” due to his appreciation of the English playwright William Shakespeare, and “Joe Louis” after the famous African American boxer due to his skill beating white opponents in European football (American soccer). When a racist British headmaster at Siriana, Fraudsham, insists the Kenyan students eat poor-quality food and only wear shoes on Sundays, Chui leads a strike against the racist policy. Siriana expels both Chui and Munira for participating in the strike. After Fraudsham retires, however, Siriana hires Chui as the new headmaster—and Chui expels several students, including Karega, for striking to demand an Africa-centric curriculum. That Chui opposes oppression as a student but supports it as a headmaster suggests not only that power corrupts but also that Chui needs to “decolonize” his mind after undergoing a racist, Europe-centric education: though Chui recognizes Fraudsham’s overt racism, he doesn’t understand that his own reaction to Karega and other striking students betrays a Europe-centric and thus implicitly racist bias. Though Chui continues on as Siriana’s headmaster, he starts to neglect the school in favor of tending to his business interests, illustrating how capitalism frequently corrupts Kenyan elites in post-independence Kenya. He joins the board of directors of the Theng’eta brewing company located in Ilmorog, where he also becomes a client of Wanja’s at the brothel. He dies when Munira sets fire to the brothel in an attempt to kill Wanja.

Chui Quotes in Petals of Blood

The Petals of Blood quotes below are all either spoken by Chui or refer to Chui. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Colonialism and Capitalism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

‘We must always be ready to plant the seed in these last days before His second coming. All the signs—strife, killing, wars, blood—are prophesied here.’

‘How long have you been in Ilmorog?’ asked the tall one, to change the subject from this talk of the end of the world and Christ’s second coming. He was a regular churchgoer and did not want to be caught on the wrong side.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira (speaker), Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo, The Lawyer
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 3-4
Explanation and Analysis:

A man, believed to be a trade-union agitator, has been held after a leading industrialist and two educationists, well known as the African directors of the internationally famous Theng’eta Breweries and Enterprises Ltd, were last night burnt to death in Ilmorog, only hours after taking a no-nonsense-no-pay-rise decision.

Related Characters: Karega, Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo
Related Symbols: Siriana, Flowers/Theng’eta
Page Number: 6
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

He stole a matchbox, collected a bit of grass and dry cowdung and built an imitation of Amina’s house at Kamiritho where he had sinned against the Lord, and burnt it. He watched the flames and he felt truly purified by fire. He went to bed at ease with himself and peaceful in his knowledge of being accepted by the Lord. Shalom. But the cowdung had retained the fire and at night the wind fanned it into flames which would have licked up the whole barn had it not been discovered in time.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira, Wanja, Karega, Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo
Related Symbols: Fire
Page Number: 18
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

We are all searchers for a tiny place in God’s corner to shelter us for a time from treacherous winds and rains and drought. This was all that I had wanted him to see: that the force he sought could only be found in the blood of the Lamb.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira (speaker), Wanja, Karega, Abdulla, Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:
The Journey Quotes

He did not therefore want to hear any more nonsense about African teachers, African history, African literature, African this and that: whoever heard of African, Chinese, or Greek mathematics and science? What mattered were good teachers and sound content: history was history: literature was literature, and had nothing to do with the colour of one’s skin.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira, Wanja, Karega, Abdulla, Chui, The Lawyer
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 206
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

This was the society they were building: this was the society they had been building since Independence, a society in which a black few, allied to other interests from Europe, would continue the colonial game of robbing others of their sweat, denying them the right to grow to full flowers in air and sunlight.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira, Wanja, Karega, Kimeria, Nderi wa Riera, Chui, Mzigo
Related Symbols: Flowers/Theng’eta
Page Number: 348-349
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

‘The junior staff—the workers on the school compound—were going to join us. And one or two teachers were sympathetic. They too had grievances, about pay and conditions of work and Chui’s neglect. This time we were going to demand that the school should be run by a committee of students, staff and workers . . . But even now we are determined to put an end to the whole prefect system . . . And that all our studies should be related to the liberation of our people . . .’

Related Characters: Joseph (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Abdulla, Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo, Fraudsham
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 402-403
Explanation and Analysis:
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Petals of Blood PDF

Chui Quotes in Petals of Blood

The Petals of Blood quotes below are all either spoken by Chui or refer to Chui. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Colonialism and Capitalism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

‘We must always be ready to plant the seed in these last days before His second coming. All the signs—strife, killing, wars, blood—are prophesied here.’

‘How long have you been in Ilmorog?’ asked the tall one, to change the subject from this talk of the end of the world and Christ’s second coming. He was a regular churchgoer and did not want to be caught on the wrong side.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira (speaker), Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo, The Lawyer
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 3-4
Explanation and Analysis:

A man, believed to be a trade-union agitator, has been held after a leading industrialist and two educationists, well known as the African directors of the internationally famous Theng’eta Breweries and Enterprises Ltd, were last night burnt to death in Ilmorog, only hours after taking a no-nonsense-no-pay-rise decision.

Related Characters: Karega, Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo
Related Symbols: Siriana, Flowers/Theng’eta
Page Number: 6
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

He stole a matchbox, collected a bit of grass and dry cowdung and built an imitation of Amina’s house at Kamiritho where he had sinned against the Lord, and burnt it. He watched the flames and he felt truly purified by fire. He went to bed at ease with himself and peaceful in his knowledge of being accepted by the Lord. Shalom. But the cowdung had retained the fire and at night the wind fanned it into flames which would have licked up the whole barn had it not been discovered in time.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira, Wanja, Karega, Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo
Related Symbols: Fire
Page Number: 18
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

We are all searchers for a tiny place in God’s corner to shelter us for a time from treacherous winds and rains and drought. This was all that I had wanted him to see: that the force he sought could only be found in the blood of the Lamb.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira (speaker), Wanja, Karega, Abdulla, Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:
The Journey Quotes

He did not therefore want to hear any more nonsense about African teachers, African history, African literature, African this and that: whoever heard of African, Chinese, or Greek mathematics and science? What mattered were good teachers and sound content: history was history: literature was literature, and had nothing to do with the colour of one’s skin.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira, Wanja, Karega, Abdulla, Chui, The Lawyer
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 206
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

This was the society they were building: this was the society they had been building since Independence, a society in which a black few, allied to other interests from Europe, would continue the colonial game of robbing others of their sweat, denying them the right to grow to full flowers in air and sunlight.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira, Wanja, Karega, Kimeria, Nderi wa Riera, Chui, Mzigo
Related Symbols: Flowers/Theng’eta
Page Number: 348-349
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

‘The junior staff—the workers on the school compound—were going to join us. And one or two teachers were sympathetic. They too had grievances, about pay and conditions of work and Chui’s neglect. This time we were going to demand that the school should be run by a committee of students, staff and workers . . . But even now we are determined to put an end to the whole prefect system . . . And that all our studies should be related to the liberation of our people . . .’

Related Characters: Joseph (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Abdulla, Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo, Fraudsham
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 402-403
Explanation and Analysis: