Petals of Blood

by

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

Abdulla Character Analysis

Abdulla is Wanja’s employer, business partner, and one-time lover. He is also Joseph’s guardian. As a young man, he works in a factory that exploits workers and calls in the colonial police to break up strikes. Abdulla joins the fight for Kenyan independence from England because he dreams of communal Kenyan ownership of the country’s factories and land. During the struggle, Abdulla fights alongside Karega’s brother Nding’uri; when Kimeria informs on Abdulla and Nding’uri, Abdulla escapes but Nding’uri is executed. Abdulla vows revenge on Kimeria. Later, during guerilla fighting, Abdulla is shot in the leg and crippled. After independence, Abdulla learns British and British-affiliated Kenyan soldiers have massacred his family. Encountering a homeless child in the street, Abdulla names the child Joseph, tells him he’s Abdulla’s brother, and adopts him. Abdulla cannot find employment because no one will hire a crippled man. Eventually, he flees to rural Ilmomrog to be an anonymous shopkeeper. In Ilmorog, Wanja convinces him to send Joseph to school and hire her to help around the shop. Eventually, Abdulla and Wanja start a Theng’eta brewery. When Wanja wants to sell her share to help her grandmother Nyakinyua, Abdulla agrees to sell the business to Mzigo. Afterward, Abdulla becomes an impoverished fruit vendor; he resents Wanja, whose new business, a brothel, funds Joseph’s high school education at Siriana. Yet one night, he gets a letter saying Joseph is doing excellently in school and goes to tell Wanja. They have sex, and Abdulla feels like a new man. The next week, Kimeria comes to town—and Abdulla, knowing he is one of Wanja’s brothel clients, decides to get his delayed revenge. Yet when Abdulla approaches the brothel, he finds it on fire—and he rescues Wanja rather than kill anyone. As the novel ends, Abdulla is happily considering passing the torch of history to Joseph, who is developing a revolutionary consciousness. Abdulla’s story represents how to be completely free from colonialism, post-Independence Kenya must overthrow capitalist systems: Abdulla originally fought for communal Kenyan ownership of land and factories, and economic injustice thwarts every attempt he makes to succeed under capitalism.

Abdulla Quotes in Petals of Blood

The Petals of Blood quotes below are all either spoken by Abdulla or refer to Abdulla. 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 2 Quotes

‘But boys were always more confident about the future than us girls. They seemed to know what they wanted to become later in life: whereas with us girls the future seemed vague . . . It was as if we knew that no matter what efforts we put into our studies, our road led to the kitchen and to the bedroom.’

Related Characters: Wanja (speaker), Karega, Abdulla, Kimeria, Joseph
Page Number: 44
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

To redeem the land: to fight so that the industries like the shoe-factory which had swallowed his sweat could belong to the people: so that his children could one day have enough to eat and to wear under adequate shelter from rain: so that they would say in pride, my father died that I might live: this had transformed him from a slave before a boss into a man.

Related Characters: Abdulla
Page Number: 164
Explanation and Analysis:

‘I saw in the cities of America white people also begging . . . I saw white women selling their bodies for a few dollars. In America vice is a selling commodity. I worked alongside white and black workers in a Detroit factory. We worked overtime to make a meagre living. I saw a lot of unemployment in Chicago and other cities. I was confused. So I said: let me return to my home, now that the black man has come to power. And suddenly as in a flash of lightning I saw we were serving the same monster-god as they were in America.’

Related Characters: The Lawyer (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Wanja, Karega, Abdulla, Nderi wa Riera, Fraudsham
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 198
Explanation and Analysis:

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 9 Quotes

‘Are there pure facts? When I am looking at you, how much I see of you is conditioned by where I stand or sit; by the amount of light in this room; by the power of my eyes; by whether my mind is occupied with other thoughts and what thoughts. […] Even assuming that there were pure facts, what about their selection? Does this not involve interpretation?’

Related Characters: Karega (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Abdulla, The Lawyer
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 293
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

‘I was surprised to see it on sale . . . but it did not taste the same.’

Related Characters: Karega (speaker), Wanja, Abdulla
Related Symbols: Flowers/Theng’eta
Page Number: 337
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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Abdulla Quotes in Petals of Blood

The Petals of Blood quotes below are all either spoken by Abdulla or refer to Abdulla. 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 2 Quotes

‘But boys were always more confident about the future than us girls. They seemed to know what they wanted to become later in life: whereas with us girls the future seemed vague . . . It was as if we knew that no matter what efforts we put into our studies, our road led to the kitchen and to the bedroom.’

Related Characters: Wanja (speaker), Karega, Abdulla, Kimeria, Joseph
Page Number: 44
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

To redeem the land: to fight so that the industries like the shoe-factory which had swallowed his sweat could belong to the people: so that his children could one day have enough to eat and to wear under adequate shelter from rain: so that they would say in pride, my father died that I might live: this had transformed him from a slave before a boss into a man.

Related Characters: Abdulla
Page Number: 164
Explanation and Analysis:

‘I saw in the cities of America white people also begging . . . I saw white women selling their bodies for a few dollars. In America vice is a selling commodity. I worked alongside white and black workers in a Detroit factory. We worked overtime to make a meagre living. I saw a lot of unemployment in Chicago and other cities. I was confused. So I said: let me return to my home, now that the black man has come to power. And suddenly as in a flash of lightning I saw we were serving the same monster-god as they were in America.’

Related Characters: The Lawyer (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Wanja, Karega, Abdulla, Nderi wa Riera, Fraudsham
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 198
Explanation and Analysis:

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 9 Quotes

‘Are there pure facts? When I am looking at you, how much I see of you is conditioned by where I stand or sit; by the amount of light in this room; by the power of my eyes; by whether my mind is occupied with other thoughts and what thoughts. […] Even assuming that there were pure facts, what about their selection? Does this not involve interpretation?’

Related Characters: Karega (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Abdulla, The Lawyer
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 293
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

‘I was surprised to see it on sale . . . but it did not taste the same.’

Related Characters: Karega (speaker), Wanja, Abdulla
Related Symbols: Flowers/Theng’eta
Page Number: 337
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: