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
Nyakinyua tells the Ilmorog delegation stories at night around a fire. She tells them of Ndemi, the first farmer of Ilmorog, who gave up the nomadic life of a herdsman to make tools and cultivate crops—an innovation that first earned him mockery but then wealth, respect, beautiful wives, and the epithet “He who wrestled with God.” She tells them about Ilmorog’s history as a wealthy locus of trade with Europeans—and as the site of the murder of a white missionary on his way to attempt to convert the King of Uganda. The murder led to white fighters shooting not only men in Ilmorog but also women and children.
Nyakinyua’s stories include both legends and recent history. They represent an informal education that teaches her listeners things relevant to their lives, in contrast to the formal education that schools like Siriana provide, which teaches Kenyan students exclusively about Europe. Nyakinyua’s story about Ndemi illustrates that Kenyan people sought to control nature through tools and cultural practices long before Europeans colonized them. (The Hebrew word “Israel” literally means “wrestles with God”; with Ndemi’s epithet, the novel may be suggesting that Kenya possessed religious concepts analogous to Judeo-Christian ones prior to white missionaries’ arrival.) Nyakinyua’s story about the missionary demonstrates how white Christian evangelization in Kenya involved both local resistance and retaliatory colonial violence.
Themes
Nyakinyua also tells a story about a farmer named Munoru, “bewitched” by European bicycles, who volunteered to fight in the war between British and German colonists. Many Ilmorog men were pressganged into fighting in this war. Those who returned became materialistic and uninterested in farming. Many departed for jobs in other areas, especially cities. Ilmorog declined in population and importance.
The war Nyakinyua mentions here is likely World War I (1914 – 1918), during which Germany and the UK had colonies in East Africa and fought one another there. According to Nyakinyua, the Ilmorog men who fought for the Europeans became disconnected from the land and contributed to Kenya’s urbanization. Nyakinyua connects Kenya’s history of colonialism with its post-Independence socioeconomic situation: capitalist inequality, growing cities, and declining farming populations.
Themes
Nyakinyua breaks off her story, afraid for the children who have joined the delegation for their long journey. When Karega urges her to keep going, Nyakinyua claims there’s nothing more to say. Karega suspects she is holding back some secret knowledge or understanding. Nyakinyua urges them all to go to bed, because they have a long day of travel the next day.
Karega’s suspicion that Nyakinyua is holding back secret knowledge makes clear that he is dissatisfied with the Eurocentric education he received at Siriana. He wants to know more about Kenyan history, and he believes Nyakinyua can educate him.
Themes
Karega, suffering insomnia, walks away from the camp. He thinks about Nyakinyua’s stories, how they seem more truthful and alive than his education at Siriana or what he teaches Ilmorog’s children. He thinks, too, about how greedy European colonialism obliterated so much indigenous work and knowledge and put the current-day people of Ilmorog at the mercy of nature.
Here Karega explicitly compares the formal, Eurocentric education he received at Siriana to the informal education of Nyakinyua’s stories and judges that Nyakinyua’s stories are more truthful. He goes on to think about European colonizers’ destruction of indigenous knowledge, emphasizing that Karega’s Siriana education wasn’t just incomplete but harmful in its omission of Kenyan history and culture. Karega blames the drought on colonial education’s suppression of Kenyan knowledge, suggesting that lost traditional Kenyan farming practices would have been adequate for waiting out the drought.
Themes
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Suddenly Karega notices someone behind him. It’s Wanja. When she asks whether she startled him, he says no—only he’s afraid of snakes and was worried about that. Wanja cautions him to use some euphemism rather than call snakes by name, lest he summon them. He dismisses that as superstition. When Wanja claims that Karega doesn’t think names matter, Karega says that’s not true—for instance, he thinks it’s ridiculous “self-hate” when Africans adopt European names. He just thinks the thing or person you’re naming matters more than the name itself.
Karega, the character most interested in politics, disdains traditional superstitions and beliefs. Through Karega, the novel implies that political progress may require rejecting superstition, spirituality, and religion. Karega’s disdain for African people who adopt European names, meanwhile, suggests that political progress in Kenya will require rejecting not only anti-Black racism but also European culture.
Themes
Wanja asks whether Karega was thinking about names or about the delegation’s journey as he walked. Karega says he was thinking about Nyakinyua’s stories of Ndemi, which he believes truly gesture toward a great past even if they aren’t totally accurate. Wanja says he’s a strange person and gives as an example Karega refusing all alcohol and then showing up one day drunk in a bar. Karega says he just felt beaten down and wanted to forget everything.
Karega believes Nyakinyua’s stories contain a useful truth because they assert that Kenya has a history of which it can be proud, even though some of her stories can’t be taken literally. Thus, Karega suggests that the political or ideological slant of historical accounts may be as important as their factual accuracy.
Themes
Wanja tells Karega that she understands feeling beaten down, but she asks him why he thinks this visit to the city will be different from his last and suggests Ilmorog may turn against him if the delegation fails. Karega believes the delegation should be successful, because “the voice of the people is truly the voice of God” and the MP is, in a sense, their employee. Wanja likes Karega’s optimism but has her doubts.
Karega’s claim that “the voice of the people is truly the voice of God” indicates that instead of holding religion sacred, he holds sacred human equality and political representation. Wanja’s cynicism about politics foreshadows that the people Ilmorog’s delegation appeal to may not share Karega’s egalitarian values.
Themes
Karega and Wanja stand quietly under the moon. Karega stares at a hill in the distance. Wanja tells him that legend says a child who runs around that hill will change sex—a boy will become a girl, and a girl will become a boy. When Karega dismisses the legend as obviously false, Wanja says “fiercely” she wishes it were accurate. She recalls her vow not to have sex until she’s accomplished something and thinks, given Ilmorog’s dire situation, accomplishing something is about as likely as her transforming into a man like Karega. Karega, meanwhile, thinks about Mukami’s suicide and his attempt to write about her memory’s effect on him just before Chui’s arrival at Siriana and his expulsion.
Karega dismisses the legend of the hill without considering what emotional weight it has for Wanja. While the novel may agree with Karega’s anti-superstition view, the scene subtly criticizes Karega for not considering what superstitions, legends, or traditional beliefs mean to others. That Wanja “fiercely” wishes the legend were true implies that she wishes she could become something other than a woman. This wish reminds the reader of the sexual abuse and gendered violence Wanja has suffered. When Karega reminisces Chui and Siriana, meanwhile, it hints that Chui’s arrival had something to do with Karega’s expulsion.
Themes
Wanja asks Karega whether he contemplates the past. Karega, startled by Wanja’s insight, realizes that she reminds him of Mukami. He tells her that understanding the present relies on understanding the past. Wanja disagrees; she says that in times of crisis, history can’t help you, and she’d rather have help than a good story. Then she comments, “Sometimes one would like to hide the past even from oneself,” and begins to cry. Karega asks whether Wanja’s past was very difficult and thinks how many different sides she has—sexually powerful, then sympathetic and helpful, then hardworking, and now sobbing.
Karega’s comments about the past imply two things. First, Kenya’s European colonial past still shapes its present. Second, Siriana failed its students not only because it avoided teaching Kenya’s history but because, in so doing, it prevented them from understanding their reality. Wanja’s admission that she “would like to hide the past” from herself both reminds the reader of Wanja’s sexual abuse and hints that she may have experienced other painful events she hasn’t discussed. Unlike Munira, who sees Wanja primarily as a sex object, Karega in this passage sees Wanja’s sexual and non-sexual aspects simultaneously.
Themes
Wanja can’t make herself tell Karega about Kimeria and what he did to her. Instead, she tells him about the sexual harassment she has experienced from her bosses in bars and the intense desire clientele have to have sex with new bargirls. She attributes men’s desire to be the first one to sleep with a new barmaid to the presence of barmaids all over Kenya.
Wanja was not only sexually abused as an adolescent but also sexually harassed at work. When Wanja attributes the ubiquity of barmaids to male desire, she’s making clear the link between capitalist imperatives (demand for sexy female staff) and harassment working women suffer.
Themes
Munira, joining Wanja and Karega, asks Karega whether Wanja is telling him about her time working in bars. Wanja tells them she enjoyed the feeling of sexual attractiveness and power the work gave her, but it didn’t seem right. She knew women who tried to leave the work. One left and worked as a maid for extremely low pay with a married boss who tried to have sex with her; she returned to working in bars. Another worked on farms now owned by Africans, but she, too, earned so little that she returned to bars.
Wanja’s comments reveal that while being an object of sexual desire may make working women feel powerful, they don’t actually have much power or many options: Wanja’s coworkers didn’t want to be bargirls, but they faced sexual harassment and poor pay in other jobs as well and so settled for working in bars.
Themes
Wanja tells Munira and Karega that when she tried to leave working in bars and return home, her father rejected her, saying he wouldn’t let “a prostitute” live in his house. After working in bars a bit longer, she came to Ilmorog without knowing why. She decided to leave, get rich, and come back to stay. To get rich, she decided to have sex with Europeans—something she had only done once before, with a policeman, who jailed some men Wanja was socializing with for drug possession but let Wanja go free in exchange for sex.
Wanja’s father rejected her and called her “a prostitute” though she wasn’t selling sex for money then—she was simply sexualized on the job. His use of “prostitute” as an insult illustrates how some men disparage sexually exploited women and blame them for their exploitation. Wanja’s story of having sex with a European police officer to avoid jail shows how powerful people, like the police, can use the law to exploit the marginalized.
Themes
Though revolted by European skin, Wanja decided to become a prostitute exclusively for Europeans, but she couldn’t figure out how to dress for or flirt with European men. One night she met a German man in a bar who told her he was trying to find and help a Kenyan girl whom another German man had trafficked for sex in Germany and who had escaped back to Kenya, leaving a baby behind. He offered to pay Wanja to help him find the girl. Though Wanja wondered whether the man was a lunatic, he sounded coherent and was offering a lot of money.
By mentioning the sex-trafficking of Kenyan girls in Europe, the novel connects the legacy of colonialism, capitalism, and the sexual exploitation of women: the power imbalances between European former colonizers and formerly colonized Africans, rich people and poor people, and men and women converge in the phenomenon of Kenyan girls sold for sex to rich European men.
Themes
Wanja went back to the German man’s house with him. He gave her a tour and led her into his bedroom, where a dog accosted her. Wanja, terrified, sat on the bed. The man, aroused by her fear, began trying to take her clothes off. Though terrified, Wanja had the presence of mind to claim she had left her handbag in the car and needed something from it. As soon as she got out of the man’s house, she sprinted away.
The German man tries to take Wanja’s clothes off without her consent while she is terrified, which implies that he means to rape her and concocted the story about saving a sex trafficking victim to lure her to a private place. Thus, the novel suggests that European people who play savior to African people have ulterior motives.
Themes
As Wanja ran away from the German man’s house, a Black man in a car (the lawyer) stopped for her. Sobbing, she told the man her story. He drove her to his house, let her stay there for two nights, and asked her more questions about what happened. Eventually he concluded they wouldn’t be able to take any successful legal action; he drove Wanja to the bus stop and suggested she return to her parents’ house. Then he gave her his card and offered to help her any time. Though Wanja considered going home, she began working in bars again instead.
The lawyer believes Wanja couldn’t take successful legal action against a white German man who tried to rape her—which illustrates that in an unjust society, the law won’t protect marginalized people from injustice. Wanja’s decision to continue working in bars rather than go to her parents emphasizes that their violence and sexism toward her have damaged their familial relationship and removed Wanja’s safety net.
Themes
As the delegation continues its journey, Abdulla’s personality blossoms. Despite his crippled leg, he walks rather than riding in the donkey cart so more children can ride. He tells the children stories and teaches them about plants. One day, the delegation sings a hymn about how only “those who/Would not eat the bread of Jesus” starve. Though Abdulla hates the lyrics, the singing reminds him of when he was a freedom fighter singing songs about Black solidarity and resistance. At that time, he had worked in a shoe-factory whose rich boss exploited the workers; the workers went on strike, only to be beaten up by policemen. He dreamed of driving out the boss, instituting communal ownership, and getting food for his children. This dream made him “a man.”
The stories and knowledge that Abdulla shares with the children make him, like Nyakinyua, a source of good informal education in contrast with the oppressive formal education available at schools like Siriana. The lyrics arguing that “those who/Would not eat the bread of Jesus” starve mean that spiritual nourishment is more important than physical nourishment. Abdulla’s hatred for the lyrics indicates that he thinks this belief is untrue and harmful. His memories of becoming a revolutionary reveal that he joined the rebellion against the British colonizers because he wanted to end exploitative capitalist working conditions and enact socialism in Kenya.
Themes
Walking with the delegation, Abdulla thinks how good it is that Karega came to Ilmorog. Karega brought the conversation in Abdulla’s bar around to African and African diasporic freedom fighters such as Toussaint, which makes Abdulla feel the Mau Mau were “a link in the chain in the long struggle of African peoples.” Abdulla recalls how his freedom fighters’ leader was a half-African, half-Indian man named Ole Masai who definitively sided with Kenyan freedom when he pointed a gun at white policemen and “humiliated” them. Afterward, he wrote a letter to his Indian father demanding he vacate Kenyan land.
The man who scared the exploitative, possibly sexually abusive Indian shopkeeper out of Ilmorog was his own son, Ole Masai. Thus, while Abdulla is interested in commonalities among all African freedom fighters—“Toussaint” refers to Toussaint Louverture (1743 – 1803), a famous Haitian general who fought French colonizers during the Haitian Revolution—Abdulla’s collaboration with Ole Masai emphasizes that being an African freedom fighter requires anti-colonial political commitments, not a purely African racial background.
Themes
Ole Masai and Abdulla talked about various communist revolutions globally, until Ole Masai was killed, and Abdulla, crippled. As Abdulla remembers the mission gone awry, the delegation’s children start yelling about antelope. Abdulla brings down two with a slingshot. That night, the delegation feasts on antelope, and Abdulla tells stories. When Karega asks about Dedan Kimathi, Abdulla tells how one time, when his freedom-fighting group was low on food and men, they received a summons from Kimathi to come to a meeting in Mount Kenya Forest to discuss alliances with other anti-colonial groups in Kenya and internationally.
Abdulla became crippled fighting for Kenyan freedom from British colonial rule in the Mau Mau Rebellion (1952 – 1960). He’s also an excellent hunter with a slingshot, a storyteller, and a former freedom fighter who sacrificed for his country and who was in contact with Dedan Kimathi (1920 – 1957), the Mau Mau Rebellion’s most famous general. These revolutions suggest that while up to this point Abdulla has appeared as a poor, embittered shopkeeper, that is due to his economic and social context, not his ultimate aspirations or his potential.
Themes
Though the trip would be long, Abdulla and the fighters were inspired by the thought of seeing Kimathi. Despite hunger and internal dissension, the fighters made it to the meeting. There, they found a massive gathering singing political songs about “traitors” to Black sovereignty in Kenya. It turned out that Kimathi had been betrayed to the English. Four days after Abdulla’s arrival, the meeting received word that the English had executed Kimathi. After that, the fight for freedom was different.
British colonial forces, with help from Kenyan collaborators, captured the Mau Mau general Dedan Kimathi in 1956 and executed him in 1957. That Kimathi’s death changed the way freedom-fighting felt suggests that his betrayal by other Kenyan people undermined the fighters’ belief in Kenyan solidarity and demoralized them.
Themes
The day after Abdulla’s stories, the people of Ilmorog feel inspired and empowered; they sense the land they travel is “hallowed” by the past presence of freedom fighters. But three days after that, they run out of food and run low on water. Finally, they arrive at a highway through a rich, green neighborhood and find water. As Wanja is tending to the children, feeling painful maternal feelings toward them, she notices that Joseph is sick. When she tells the delegation, they decide to take Joseph to the closest farmhouse to seek rest and shelter where they can treat his illness.
The word “hallowed” means “sacred.” If the Ilmorog delegation feels that the freedom fighters have made Kenyan land sacred, that suggests that people who fight or die for a land—and people connected to the fighters—have a special relationship to it. The title of this section of the novel is “Toward Bethlehem.” Together with the name Joseph, this title alludes to a Christian Biblical story. In Luke 2:1 – 7, Mary is very pregnant with Jesus Christ when she and her husband, Joseph, must travel to Bethlehem to be counted in an imperial Roman census. Because no inns make room for the couple, Mary ends up giving birth unsheltered and putting the newborn Jesus to sleep in a manger. The allusion suggests that as the inns provided no special care for Joseph or Mary despite Mary’s holy child, the Ilmorog delegation may receive no help for their Joseph despite the “hallowed” ground on which they are traveling.
Themes
The closest farmhouse belongs to a white woman, who demands the delegation leave her property before hearing what they want. The next farmhouse has a signpost that reads “Rev. Jerrod Brown.” Though they assume he’s white, they hope he’ll help them because he's a Christian. When Karega, Munira, and Abdulla approach the Reverend’s house, two Alsatians start barking. A security guard and a cook come out to ask Karega, Munira, and Abdulla what they’re doing. Munira tells them they’re with a sick child and need help.
The white woman’s immediate negative reaction to Black travelers shows that although Kenya has won independence from white colonizers, white people in Kenya still treat Black Kenyans as lesser. The delegation assumes a Christian minister will be more likely to help them, as most Christian denominations consider helping hungry, homeless, or sick people a religious duty. Yet the Reverend’s guard dogs hint that he may not be as willing to help poor strangers as the delegation hopes.
Themes
The cook goes inside, and the Reverend comes out. They see that, counter to their assumptions, the Reverend is Black—and Munira recognizes him as an old religious associate of his father Ezekieli. The travelers explain to the Reverend that they’re traveling from Ilmorog and have a sick child with them. The Reverend, supposing they’re begging for food, invites them into his large, fancy house.
It isn’t clear whether the delegation assumed the Reverend was white due to his European name or his fancy house. Either way, the Reverend’s wealth and European name imply that he may have a conservative, pro-colonial outlook. The Reverend’s association with Ezekieli, whom the novel has portrayed as self-interested and hypocritical in his Christianity, may foreshadow uncharitable, hypocritical behavior from the Reverend.
Themes
Munira is about to explain to the Reverend their social connection when the Reverend pulls out a Bible and reads a passage about Peter miraculously curing a crippled beggar. Then the Reverend says the passage means the Bible frowns on beggary and laziness. The travelers are astonished. Munira is glad he didn’t tell the Reverend who he is, while Karega quotes the Bible passage about Jesus multiplying loaves and fishes for hungry people. The Reverend claims that’s about “the bread and fish of Jesus.” When Munira, Abdulla, and Karega return to the others, Abdulla tells them they should look for a house owned by a non-white, non-clergyperson, while Karega bitterly jokes about the hymn the group was singing earlier—the Reverend could only offer spiritual, not literal, food.
The Reverend’s interpretation of the Bible passage astonishes the listeners because it is so implausible. The New Testament contains many stories of Jesus Christ or his disciples miraculously curing illness or disability, but the New Testament frames these miracles as intended to help people and glorify God, not to get beggars back to work. The miracle to which Karega alludes in response occurs in all four gospels—Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:31-44, Luke: 9:12 – 14, and John 6:1-14. This miracle story, called “the loaves and fishes” or “feeding the multitude,” describes Jesus Christ multiplying a small amount of available food to make sure a crowd that has come to hear him preach doesn’t go hungry. When the Reverend replies that that miracle is really about “the bread and fish of Jesus,” he means the food in the story is just a metaphor for spiritual sustenance. The Reverend’s implausible Bible readings show how his wealth has made him a hypocritical Christian.
Themes
The delegation travels on, checking names on signposts. Most houses are owned by European or Asian people. Then they come upon a house with a signpost reading “Raymond Chui.” Karega refuses to go in; Munira happily volunteers to go, thinking of Chui as his “comrade-in-protest.” As he approaches the house, he hears a women’s singing group performing “native cultural songs.” Then men begin to sing a sexually graphic song usually performed at circumcisions. Suddenly conscious of his own unwashed state, Munira stops at the door without knocking. A woman in a “huge Afro-wig” opens the door, sees Munira, screams, and faints. Munira, terrified Chui and his associates will beat him before asking what happened, flees back to the delegation and tells the others to move quickly away.
Munira thinks of Chui as his “comrade-in-protest,” implying he believes that Chui will treat him well due to their shared history of striking at Siriana. Yet Karega, who encountered an older Chui at Siriana, has a negative reaction to the idea of seeing him. The difference in Munira and Karega’s reactions suggests that Chui may have changed for the worse between his expulsion and his return to Siriana. At Chui’s house, the “native cultural songs” sung out of their ceremonial context and the presumably African woman wearing a “huge Afro-wig” both suggest that the rich partygoers are divorced from Kenyan culture but appropriate elements of it for amusement or fashion.
Themes
By this point, Joseph is very feverish, sleep-talking about his hunger, begging someone not to beat him, and explaining a past life of homelessness. His obvious suffering activates Wanja’s “unfulfilled motherhood,” and she demands they go straight to the next house. Karega and Njuguna go with her; the delegation assumes that Njuguna, being an elderly man, will prove the travelers’ good intentions.
Wanja’s “unfulfilled motherhood,” alludes to Wanja’s adolescent sexual abuse and subsequent pregnancy and should make readers wonder what happened to Wanja’s baby, if she did in fact give birth to a living infant.
Themes
Before Wanja, Karega, and Njuguna reach the house, men appear, grab them, tie them up, take them into the house, and lock them in a room. A little later, a man in a suit (later revealed to be Kimeria) walks in. After he and Wanja stare at each other, the man apologizes for the “precautions” and asks what the travelers want. When Karega explains their journey’s purpose, the man claims he’s friends with Nderi wa Riera—though Nderi was a freedom fighter and the man in the suit was on the opposite side, they’ve since realized they want the same things and are both members of the KCO. Karega wonders who the man is trying to impress. Njuguna asks the man to untie them. The man agrees to send someone and leaves.
This rich man in a suit has imprisoned the poor travelers; that he calls this imprisonment “precautions” suggests he is suspicious that any poor person near his house might be dangerous. It also illustrates that some rich people feel entitled to control and abuse poor people in order to protect private property. The man’s casual admission that he fought for the British but is now friends with Nderi wa Riera, a former freedom fighter, shows that in post-Independence Kenya, former revolutionaries who have gained political power have not maintained their anti-colonial ideals. Finally, the long look the man in the suit shares with Wanja suggests a connection between them.
Themes
One of the men who tied up Wanja, Karega, and Njuguna enters the room, cuts their ropes, and says his employer (Kimeria) wants to speak with Wanja. Wanja follows the employee through the house to Kimeria’s office. Kimeria shuts the office door behind Wanja and says, “At long last.” When Wanja asks why Kimeria is treating an elderly man and a sick child like this, Kimeria claims Wanja’s lying about the others—he sent employees to the gate to fetch them, and they weren’t there. Wanja says he’s lying.
The rich man who kidnapped the travelers demands to see Wanja alone, hinting at a threat of sexual violence to the sole woman among the travelers. When the rich man says, “At long last,” it makes clear he knows Wanja but hasn’t seen her for a while. His and Wanja’s dispute over whether the delegation is at the gate suggests either that he's lying to confuse Wanja or that the delegation has fled.
Themes
Kimeria demands to know why Wanja ran away from him. Wanja says he “ruined [her] life” and she doesn’t want to talk. When Kimeria asks whether Wanja’s child was a son—his wife has only had daughters—Wanja begs to be released. Kimeria approaches her. When Wanja threatens to scream, Kimeria calls her a “witch,” claims to love her, and offers to keep her in a nice apartment in the city. Then he puts his arm around her. Wanja lurches away and grabs a knife that is on the office desk. Kimeria threatens to call the police and says he won’t let her or her associates leave until Wanja has sex with him.
This passage makes clear that the rich man is the Kimeria who impregnated Wanja when she was very young. Though Wanja states that his abuse “ruined [her] life,” Kimeria does not address the harm he has caused. Instead, he calls Wanja a “witch,” implying that she put a romantic spell on him—so his abuse of her is her fault. Then he offers, essentially, to buy her—to rent an apartment for her in exchange for a sexual relationship. He sees Wanja as a commodity that he, a rich man, can purchase. When Wanja grabs the knife, it reminds readers that Kimeria will later die by arson and that Wanja has a motive to kill him—raising the possibility that Wanja will set the deadly fire. Finally, when Kimeria threatens to call the police, even though he has kidnapped Wanja and the others, it makes clear that the police will side with the rich man over poor, marginalized people.
Themes
One of Kimeria’s employees takes Wanja back to the room with Karega and Njuguna. Another takes Njuguna out and tells him Wanja married Kimeria but left him and is now refusing to have sex with him. Njuguna comes back into the room, explains what the employee said, and suggests Wanja have sex with Kimeria rather than let Joseph die. Karega protests that Wanja’s never met Kimeria before and then asks her whether what Njuguna’s saying is true. Wanja is worried that if she doesn’t have sex with Kimeria, she’ll be responsible for the deaths of Joseph and the others. She says yes to Karega and moves to go out. Karega asks whether she has to go; angry at his naivete, she leaves without answering. Both Wanja and Karega wish death on Kimeria; Karega fantasizes about setting his house on fire.
A village elder and farmer, Njuguna to some degree represents Ilmorog’s traditional, agricultural way of life, which capitalism and urbanization are destroying. Though the novel sympathizes with Ilmorog’s traditional way of life, Njuguna’s assumption that Wanja should submit to unwanted sex to benefit Joseph and the delegation implies a degree of misogyny in traditional communities that the novel is passing a negative judgment on. That Wanja and Karega both fantasize about killing Kimeria makes clear that they both have motives to murder him later. When Karega specifically fantasizes about setting Kimeria’s house on fire, the novel again links fire symbolism with out-of-control, violent emotions such as anger and shame.
Themes
The delegation arrives in the city on Monday morning, and Munira and Karega visit Nderi wa Riera’s offices while the others wait in the nearby Jeevanjee Gardens. But the office secretary tells them Nderi wa Riera is away and won’t return till the next day. When Munira and Karega go back to tell the delegation they’ll have to stay overnight, Wanja suggests calling the lawyer who saved her from the German man. She calls the lawyer from a nearby restaurant phone, and he asks her to come to his office and explain the situation. After she and Karega take the bus to his office and explain about the delegation, he offers to put them all up at his house, which has a back garden.
The Jeevanjee Gardens are public gardens in the central business district of Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. That Nderi wa Riera isn’t available to speak with his constituents seems like a bad sign, suggesting that in post-Independence Kenya, elected officials are less available to the people they represent than they should be.
Themes
As they ride the bus back through impoverished neighborhoods, Karega wonders whether the rural or urban poor are worse off. Wanja believes Karega isn’t speaking because he judges her for what happened at Kimeria’s. She’s angry at his judgment and naivete.
Karega’s curiosity at Nairobi’s impoverished neighborhoods shows his desire to understand economic inequality throughout Kenya. Wanja’s misplaced anger at Karega seems like trauma and projection—other men have shamed her for suffering sexual abuse, so she judges herself and believes Karega will too.
Themes
The delegation travels to the lawyer’s house. By this time, Abdulla has given Joseph an herbal remedy and he is feeling better. Both Wanja and Karega are thinking about Kimeria’s house. When Wanja stealthily leaves the lawyer’s to walk by herself, Karega follows. She tells him to go away, but he keeps following her. Eventually, he thanks her. She apologizes for snapping at him and says she’s “ashamed.” Karega replies that what happened to her “was a collective humiliation”: when one person is “humiliated and degraded,” everyone is.
Here Wanja makes explicit that she feels shame due to her abuse history and is projecting her self-judgment onto Karega. Karega demonstrates his developing political and anti-sexist beliefs when he argues that abuse of anyone is “a collective humiliation”: all humanity should care when another person is “humiliated and degraded”—which entails that men should care when women are “degraded” by misogyny and sexual violence.
Themes
In the evening, the lawyer returns and invites the whole delegation into his house. They notice a sculpture of a male freedom fighter with breasts. Nyakinyua argues the sculpture makes sense because both men and women fought for Kenya’s freedom. When Njuguna claims women are less important, Nyakinyua ignores him and asks the lawyer where his wife is. The lawyer explains she’s currently on an international trip training as a midwife; then he jokes about surprising her with a second wife (Wanja) and additional children (all the children in the delegation.)
When Njuguna urged Wanja to have sex with Kimeria, he seemed to represent a sexist strain in Ilmorog’s traditional, rural culture. Yet Nyakinyua, another village elder, also represents Ilmorog’s cultural and historical memory, and she has no patience for Njuguna’s sexism. Thus, the novel suggests that fighting sexism need not involve rejecting the best elements of Kenya’s traditional, rural, agricultural cultures.
Themes
After the delegation has eaten dinner, the lawyer gathers Karega, Munira, Wanja, and Abdulla in his library and questions them about their goal and their MP Nderi wa Riera. The lawyer seems pessimistic about any chances for true reform, but he suggests the MP may give them “a little charity.” Munira says they wouldn’t mind charity—on their journey, Reverend Brown and Chui treated them horribly uncharitably.
The phrase “a little charity” hints that Nderi wa Riera may think he’s better than the people he represents and that in helping them, he’d believe he was doing them a favor rather than his job. This attitude suggests a dysfunctional political culture in which elected officials fail to respect their constituents.
Themes
The lawyer says he hates to see Black people obeying “the master’s voice.” He believes that after Kenyan revolutionaries defeated the colonizers who “enslaved them to the ministry of the molten beast of silver and gold,” they could have really changed things, but instead they began worshipping the beast themselves. Priests get rich while the people they’re supposed to shepherd suffer poverty. The lawyer accuses himself of “ministering to the monster,” too, because he’s a lawyer, and the current laws protect property—even though he defends those who break the law.
When the lawyer refers to white culture as “the master’s voice,” it reminds the reader of the history of white Europeans enslaving Black Africans (“master” can mean a slaveowner). The phrase “the molten beast of silver and gold” may be an allusion to the golden calf in the Biblical book of Exodus. In Exodus, God frees the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Traveling away from Egypt, the Israelites melt their jewelry and shape it into a golden calf statue, which they worship—offending God. Because the calf is golden, some religious traditions interpret the Exodus story not only as a condemnation of idols but also of worshipping wealth. The lawyer is arguing, then, that white colonizers oppressed Kenya because they worshipped money and wanted to exploit Kenya economically. After independence, the Kenyan elite started worshipping money too instead of rejecting colonizers’ capitalist values.
Themes
The lawyer speculates that when Black revolutionaries had a chance to reject the monster, white people mocked them as uncivilized, and colonially educated Black elites doubled down on worshipping the monster to prove they were “as civilized” as Europeans. He says he went to Siriana after Munira and Chui were expelled and, as his ambition was to become a priest, hated Chui. Then Fraudsham preached a sermon condemning the execution of “Peter Pooles” for shooting an African who threw a rock at Pooles’s dog, claiming that kindness to animals was a true marker of being civilized. The sermon ended with a quotation from Shakespeare, including “the quality of mercy is not strain’d.” The lawyer ended up feeling confused and ashamed that he’d been glad about the execution.
Here the lawyer speculates that Black people educated in colonial schools founded by white people, like Siriana, absorb white values and want to prove to white people they are “civilized”—which leads to them replicating white colonizers’ pathological behaviors. The man the lawyer calls “Peter Pooles” (his name is actually Peter Poole) was the only white person Kenya’s colonial government ever executed for killing a Black person. That Fraudsham quoted Shakespeare while criticizing the decision shows how Europeans misuse their literature and culture to oppress Black people. In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (c. 1596 – 1598), the phrase “the quality of mercy” comes from a speech in which one character is trying to persuade another to forgive a financial debt, not a murder.
Themes
The lawyer traveled to the U.S. to continue his education, where he read that the U.S. cared about “the equality and freedom of man” and yet, in Louisiana, saw a Black man who had been lynched for protecting his sister from a white man’s groping. In cities like Detroit and Chicago, he saw both Black and white workers exploited in factories and white women doing sex work. He returned to Kenya, hoping it would be different “now that the black man has come to power”—but back in Kenya he found another elite minority worshipping the “monster-god” and exploiting the poor.
Though capitalist democracies like the U.S. pay lip service to “equality” and “freedom,” the lawyer sees the U.S. both as violently racist and as economically exploitative of its poor residents regardless of race. In the U.S., racial and economic inequality leads to sexual abuse and commodification: white men use their racial privilege to assault Black women with impunity, while poor white women end up in sex work. When the lawyer returned to Kenya after Independence, he assumed that putting “the black man”—that is, Black people—in power would lead to greater social equality. That it didn’t suggests capitalism as well as white colonialism must be defeated for Kenya to be a truly egalitarian society.
Themes
Each listener reacts differently to the lawyer’s story. Abdulla wonders whether it’s fair that only a few Kenyans get to own the land that many Kenyans bled and died to liberate—though he likes that it’s Black people who now own the land and wishes he had a farm himself. Wanja is amazed white prostitutes exist. Munira is surprised that the lawyer, too, went to Siriana. Finally, Karega feels the lawyer’s story helping him construct a “coherent” picture of reality out of “his own experience and history.”
Abdulla’s thoughts on land ownership suggest that racial and economic justice are not identical, though they are related. He’s glad Black African people own Kenya’s land now, by implication because they have more right to own it than white colonizers do. Hence, there is more racial justice post-Independence than there was under colonialism. Yet economic justice remains elusive: most Kenyan people are still excluded from land ownership. Wanja’s focus on white prostitutes also shows that economic and racial hierarchies are distinct though related: in white-supremacist societies, white people are less likely than people of color to be poor—but poor women’s sexuality is likely to be commodified, regardless of race. That the lawyer went to Siriana—an unlikely coincidence—shows the importance of Siriana as a symbol of colonialism’s afterlife among Kenya’s educated elite. Karega’s sense that the lawyer is providing a “coherent” history emphasizes how dissatisfied Karega is with Siriana’s racist curriculum.
Themes
Munira abruptly asks Karega about his real experience at Siriana. When the shocked lawyer asks when Karega was at Siriana, Karega explains he was expelled three years prior. The lawyer, realizing Karega was expelled during the strike, gets excited. After he returned from America, he tried to use his law degree to help poor people, but he felt complicit in upholding an unjust society. The strike at Siriana made the lawyer hopeful that Black youth, who didn’t feel like they had anything to prove to white people, could liberate the country.
The lawyer hopes that younger Black people will be less invested in white values than the Black elite educated in white-run schools during colonialism, which will make them a better revolutionary force. This hope emphasizes the lawyers’ belief that white-run schools colonized the minds of Kenya’s youth and made it harder for them to resist colonialism and anti-Black racism.
Themes
Karega explains that he was involved in two strikes, both involving Fraudsham and Chui—though not the Chui strike for which Munira was expelled. The lawyer remarks at the coincidence that Munira, too, was expelled for striking. Karega goes on to explain that while the Siriana students believed Fraudsham was powerful and tough, he was obsessed with his dog Lizzy. When Lizzy died, grief-stricken Fraudsham assembled the school and lectured them on the centrality of pets to civilization. The students, incredulous, laughed. Fraudsham insisted four students serve as pallbearers at Lizzy’s funeral; when the students rebelled against holding a “human burial” for a dog, Fraudsham expelled the pallbearers.
When Fraudsham arbitrarily imposes his personal love of dogs on Siriana students, including Karega, and tries to pass that love off as a marker of civilization, he reveals to the students that the colonizers’ claims to be fundamentally more civilized than indigenous Kenyans are themselves false, based on flawed or arbitrary standards imposed by force.
Themes
The students went on strike to protest the pallbearers’ expulsion. After Lizzy’s death, they saw Fraudsham’s weakness and began to sense “contradictions” in his teachings. Though Fraudsham raved at them that hierarchy and obedience were central to civilization and religion, the students refused to go back to class. When Fraudsham was willing to negotiate, suggesting the pallbearers be punished but not expelled, the students began demanding education in “African literature, African history” by an African staff. Eventually, “people in the ministry” visited the school, promised the pallbearers would be punished but not expelled, and begged the students to end the strike. The students did, but Fraudsham, recognizing his defeat, resigned and died shortly after.
When the students realize that Fraudsham’s teachings may be not only wrong but logically impossible, containing internal “contradictions,” it empowers them to reject Fraudsham’s claims that civilization and religion require them to obey. It also destroys the prestige of Fraudsham’s Eurocentric curriculum in their eyes, leading to demands for an Afrocentric education. Fraudsham’s deaths symbolize the waning power of white-supremacist, Eurocentric education over younger Kenyans’ minds.
Themes
The students hoped for an African headmaster and a “populist” system where student leaders were elected, not just chosen as prefects. When Chui became headmaster, the students rejoiced. Yet at his first assembly, Chui quoted a Shakespeare passage arguing for hierarchy’s cosmic importance and refused to teach “African this and that” on the grounds that education was race neutral and all racism must be rejected. He furthermore claimed all Europeans would be safe at the school. When Chui enforced the prefect system even more rigidly and had the teachers teach only Western history and literature, the students went on strike again. Chui brought in police to break the strike. Karega and nine others were expelled.
Though Chui led a strike against Fraudsham’s overtly anti-Black policies, he upholds Siriana’s Eurocentric curriculum, quoting Shakespeare and speaking flippantly of “African this and that.” Chui’s Eurocentric values and expulsion of Karega show that to “decolonize” fully, Kenyan people educated in schools founded by white colonizers need to reject European values as well as overt racism. Chui’s relative conservatism also suggests that decolonization is a long process; Karega, a generation younger, is more radical and more invested in equality than Chui is.
Themes
After Karega’s story ends, Munira expresses confusion about why Karega and the other students went on strike and what they really wanted. Karega can’t express exactly what they wanted but says “the phrase African populism seemed to sum it all.”
Munira’s confusion about why Karega went on strike suggests that he, like Chui, understands protesting overt racism but not subtler forms of white supremacy and Eurocentrism. The word “populism” has many definitions, but it broadly refers to the view that political power should rest with the common people and not the rich or elite. Karega’s somewhat confused desire for “African populism” indicates that he desires racial and economic justice but hasn’t fully worked out the details of his political commitments yet.
Themes
When Nderi wa Riera first became an MP, he socialized with everyone and advocated for reforms to help the poor. But when “foreign-owned companies” started helping him make money, he began socializing with rich people only and investing in “the tourist industry.” He rejected socialism but continued to insist on “African culture, African personality, Black authenticity,” especially in his businesses.
Nderi wa Riera’s history illustrates how business interests, especially “foreign-owned” ones, can corrupt politicians in postcolonial countries. His investments in “the tourist industry” and in “African culture” suggest that he is commodifying Africa and Blackness for white tourists’ entertainment to make money.
Themes
After Riera returns from his trip—where he was investigating complaints about European sex tourists preying on African teenagers at one of his resorts—he learns from Kimeria at a bar that some constituents from Ilmorog have come to see him about a drought. He immediately assumes the drought isn’t real—otherwise he would have read about it in the newspapers—and the delegation is a ploy by another politician who wants his power.
This passage connects European tourism in Africa with rich European people’s exploitation of Kenyan girls—suggesting that tourism is a harmful industry that reinforces power imbalances between richer and poorer countries. Riera’s complicity with sex tourism and refusal to take Ilmorog’s drought seriously reveal his corruption.
Themes
The next afternoon, Nderi wa Riera meets Wanja, Abdulla, Njuguna, Karega, and Munira in his offices. When Riera learns that only Njuguna is originally from Ilmorog, he takes it as further evidence the delegation is really a plot against him. When Riera casually comments that unemployment is a global problem only family planning can solve, Karega argues family planning is about Western countries trying to reduce “our population”—China feeds its large population, after all. Riera, struck that he used to think like Karega, claims China is only able to feed its people by political repression. He argues for “realism.” Wanja, upset, asks whether women shouldn’t have children anymore; Riera claims they should have only as many children as they can feed.
Riera wants to solve unemployment and its corollary, poverty, through family planning—(i.e., he thinks poor people should have fewer children). This “solution” blames poor people’s individual reproductive decisions for economic inequality. Riera’s comment about family planning upsets Karega because it strikes Karega as eugenicist; when formerly colonial Western countries talk about solving global poverty through family planning, he suspects they really want to minimize “our population,” (i.e., Black Africans). It upsets Wanja, too, because it denies poor women’s right to have children if they want them.
Themes
Riera changes the subject and asks Abdulla about himself. Abdulla tells a parable about a hare and an antelope that fell into a hole. The hare suggests that he jump onto the antelope’s back and then out of the hole, at which point he can help the antelope out. The antelope agrees. But when the hare gets out of the hole, he lectures the antelope on his irresponsibility for falling into the hole and leaves him there. After telling this parable, Abdulla walks out of the office.
Abdulla’s parable mocks Riera’s comment about family planning. Riera is the hare, Kenyan people are the antelope, and the hole is poverty. Riera left poverty because Kenyan people voted him into office and gave him the opportunity to make investments and get rich; now that Kenyan people have helped him out of poverty, he refuses to help them and instead blames their poverty on their supposed irresponsibility.
Themes
Riera concludes the delegation is a plot against him. He recalls how he and some friends came up with the idea to make everyone “drink tea” after the ethnically Indian political reformer was assassinated and how the people of Ilmorog chased away the men who ordered them to attend tea. Aloud, he assures Wanja, Njuguna, Karega, and Munira that he’ll help them even if they aren’t from Ilmorog. They explain they left more people from Ilmorog waiting outside the building, and Njuguna tells Riera about the drought. Riera realizes it will look bad that he didn’t know about a drought in the area he represents. When he discovers Munira works for Mzigo, he guesses Mzigo was bribed to send in Munira as an agent to weaponize his constituents against him.
Riera refuses to believe Ilmorog has a real problem. Instead, he nurses the paranoid suspicion that their request for help is a plot his enemies hatched. His callousness toward his constituents and his paranoia suggest that power and money have corrupted him. That Riera organized the “tea” (i.e., the forced anti-communist loyalty oath) shows his opposition to economic reform and his willingness to use violence against people who disagree with him politically.
Themes
Riera suggests they go outside and find the other travelers from Ilmorog. When he arrives, the people of Ilmorog applaud him. Then he gives a speech in which he tells the delegation to return to Ilmorog, sell their remaining livestock and raise money, gather “traditional” performers, and make another delegation to Gatundu. He says he’ll lead the delegation, and they’ll “put the name of Ilmorog on the national map.” As he ignores the people who point out Gatundu was the location of “tea” and that they’re already starving, the assembled people of Ilmorog begin throwing rocks and trash at him. He flees.
Riera ignores the delegation’s economic situation when he tells them to sell their livestock and raise additional money for another delegation. Their livestock are dying, they are impoverished, and they are appealing to him in a last-ditch attempt to get aid. Riera’s focus on commodifying “traditional” life in Ilmorog and his desire to make Ilmorog famous rather than simply help its people betray that he’s more interested in tourism and business than public service.
Themes
Riera returns with police and points out Munira, Abdulla, and Karega, whom the police take away for questioning. Nyakinyua tells the remaining people of Ilmorog that they must protest the arrest.
The police obey Riera without verifying that Munira, Abdulla, and Karega have done anything wrong. In an unjust, unequal society, the police serve not justice but order, the status quo, and the powerful.
Themes
The lawyer arranges to have Munira, Abdulla, and Karega tried the next day, so they aren’t held a long time in jail. He successfully defends them against charges of “acting in a manner likely to cause a breach of the peace” and talks passionately about Ilmorog’s drought and the delegation’s epic journey seeking help. The press dubs Munira, Abdulla, and Karega “Good Samaritans” and publicizes Ilmorog’s trouble in sensational language. As a result, clergymen, including Rev. Jerrod Brown, organize a church committee to see what can be done; later, they pray for rain. Government officials claim they’ll investigate and write a report. People donate food to the delegation. Finally, college students call Ilmorog’s drought an effect of “neo-colonialism” and demand “the immediate abolition of capitalism.”
The charge of “acting in a manner likely to cause a breach of the peace” is so vague that it could target any person whose behavior police officers don’t like. This vagueness shows that laws aren’t necessarily just or fair. The phrase “Good Samaritans” alludes to a parable in the Gospel of Luke, about a Samaritan—a member of an ethnic/religious group with whom Jewish people had poor relations—helping a Jewish stranger who has been robbed and beaten. The Good Samaritan is a role model in Christian ethics, and “Good Samaritan” can refer to any person who helps strangers. The term is being applied to Munira, Abdulla, and Karega because they aren’t originally from Ilmorog but are helping Ilmorog. The Rev. Brown—who did not act like a Good Samaritan when the delegation asked for his help—wants to aid Ilmorog now that the papers have publicized their case. This again shows his religious hypocrisy. The students’ calls for “the immediate abolition of capitalism” satirize protestors who want dramatic outcomes but take no concrete steps to bring those outcomes about.
Themes
Angry and humiliated, Nderi wa Riera plots how to turn the situation to his advantage—a situation he still believes is a political maneuver against him by some enemy. Recalling he started the KCO to “use culture as a basis of ethnic unity” and support “active economic partnership with imperialism,” he decides to strengthen the presence of KCO in Ilmorog, develop Ilmorog economically, and involve the people of Ilmorog in business. After thinking it over, he also decides the lawyer must have orchestrated the plot against him. He vows to destroy the lawyer one day.
Given Riera’s loyalty to business interests, it seems he wants to focus on “culture” and foster “ethnic unity” to keep poor people from organizing for economic justice across ethnic groups. His “partnership with imperialism”—with countries that colonized Africa—suggests that international capitalism is colonialism by another name. His conclusion that the lawyer organized the delegation to hurt him foreshadows later conflict between Riera and the lawyer.
Themes
