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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 new year, the people of Ilmorog bless those of the delegation who journeyed to the city on their behalf: Munira, Karega, Wanja, Nyakinyua, and especially Abdulla and his donkey. They do not yet know that in a year’s time, people from that journey will come to Ilmorog and completely alter it. During that time, Munira bikes around alone and mostly avoids Abdulla’s bar, while Karega and Wanja spend a lot of time together.
This passage foreshadows that Ilmorog’s delegation will have unexpected, potentially undesirable consequences. Since Ilmorog undertook the delegation to petition its political representative, this foreshadowing suggests that Kenya’s postcolonial political system may not work well for rural poor people.
Themes
Much later, in the account he writes in prison, Munira claims he wishes he had rescued Karega from Wanja. Yet he recalls how as Karega and Wanja’s relationship developed, he himself became more and more sexually obsessed with Wanja. He secretly followed her and Karega and watched their love “flower.” Absurdly, he began thinking that their non-marital relationship might be corrupting the children.
Munira’s regrets about not “rescuing” Karega from Wanja betray his misogyny: he now thinks of female sexuality as a lure that leads men astray. His fear that Karega and Wanja are corrupting the children shows his hypocrisy; he had no such worries when he was the one having sex with Wanja. The language that describes Wanja and Karega’s love “flower[ing]” connects their romance to the novel’s flower symbolism, in which flowers represent Kenya’s frequently exploited potential. Thus, their figurative romantic “flower[ing]” indicates both the potential of their relationship and its vulnerability to harmful forces.
Themes
Munira hired three new teachers for Ilmorog from Limuru. One day, he gathered all the teachers at Abdulla’s and started talking about teaching, arguing that as authorities over malleable minds, they had a responsibility to teach only facts, not politics or “propaganda about blackness.” Karega disagreed, arguing they couldn’t teach only facts because facts always involved perspective, interpretation, and “selection.” He went on to point out that “the oppression of black people,” the African diaspora, and African resistance to invaders were facts. He concluded by arguing that the children needed to know these things for their own “liberation.” The other teachers seemed impressed, and Munira felt wrong-footed. Then Wanja walked in and made intense eye contact with Karega before saying hello to anyone else. Later, unable to “resist the evil thought,” Munira biked to “the headquarters.”
The word “propaganda” has a negative connotation, implying political manipulation. When Munira mentions “propaganda about blackness,” he implies that all teaching about race must be politically motivated, not factual. Karega argues that because facts always involve “selection,” the distinction Munira makes between factual and political education is false: all curricula have a political perspective implicit in what they teach or omit. Since all education is political, Karega thinks students should learn what “liberat[es]” them. After the argument, shame and sexual jealousy motivate Munira to give in to some “evil thought”—though the novel does not make clear at this point what the thought is.
Themes
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