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Nding’uri
Fraudsham is a racist, white, British man who serves as headmaster of the Kenyan boys’ high school Siriana. He expels several students, including Chui and Munira, for organizing a strike to protest Fraudsham’s policy that Kenyan students should eat poor food and rarely wear shoes in order to remain “true Africans.” When the lawyer is a student at Siriana, Fraudsham gives a sermon decrying the execution of Peter Poole, a white man in Kenya who shot his Black servant to death for throwing stones at one of his dogs. Fraudsham is obsessed with his own dog, Lizzy. Lizzy dies while Karega is a student at Siriana. When Fraudsham insists that several students serve as pallbearers at the dog Lizzy’s funeral, the incredulous students refuse, at which point Fraudsham tries to expel them. Many students, including Karega, strike in protest, demanding that an African headmaster replace Fraudsham and that Siriana develop a more Africa-centric curriculum. When Fraudsham cannot suppress the strike, he feels defeated and shortly thereafter retires. Fraudsham’s overt racism and Europe-centric values represent the bad political content of colonial education, which Kenyan students must overcome to “decolonize” their minds.
Fraudsham Quotes in Petals of Blood
The Petals of Blood quotes below are all either spoken by Fraudsham or refer to Fraudsham. 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:
).
The Journey
Quotes
‘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.’
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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 . . .’
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Fraudsham Quotes in Petals of Blood
The Petals of Blood quotes below are all either spoken by Fraudsham or refer to Fraudsham. 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:
).
The Journey
Quotes
‘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.’
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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 . . .’
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