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Symbols
In Petals of Blood, flowers—in particular, the flowering plant Theng’eta—represent the potential of Kenya and Kenya’s people, which capitalist oppressors exploit. In the first major scene involving flowers, the schoolteacher Munira takes his students outside to teach them about flower anatomy. The students discover flowers with “petals of blood,” suggesting the bloodshed Kenya suffered to achieve its independence from British colonial oppression. Then one student finds a faded red flower whose insides a worm has eaten, which in turn suggests how a small capitalist elite in Kenya has collaborated with European capitalists to exploit—and metaphorically devour—Kenya’s natural resources and its people.
This symbolism becomes more focused with the introduction of Theng’eta, a native plant with “four tiny red petals.” Historically, the people in the Kenyan town where the story takes place brewed Theng’eta as a traditional drink that could inspire visions and bring fertility; the British colonial government attempted to ban the drink, which they believed made Kenyans rebellious. Theng’eta’s backstory associates it with Kenyan culture and freedom. Yet after small business-owner Abdulla and barmaid Wanja begin brewing Theng’eta in larger quantities and selling it for profit, they lose their brewery to a more successful businessman, Mzigo—who patents Theng’eta to prevent others from selling it. After Theng’eta is privatized, it loses its cultural, historical, and spiritual properties; it becomes a mere alcoholic drink to dull the minds of poor workers who don’t want to face their oppressed reality. Moreover, a company based in the U.S. and UK buys Mzigo’s Theng’eta company while leaving Mzigo and his fellow Kenyan elites Chui and Kimeria to run the business. Thus, the Theng’eta flower pointedly represents how a small group of Kenyan elites, with backing from European capitalists, have privatized and exploited Kenya’s common culture and resources to the detriment of ordinary Kenyan people.
Flowers/Theng’eta Quotes in Petals of Blood
The Petals of Blood quotes below all refer to the symbol of Flowers/Theng’eta. 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:
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Chapter 1
Quotes
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.
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Chapter 10
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‘Even with you, I was hoping, but it did not work out. With him it has been different. I want him. I really want him. For himself. For the first time, I feel wanted . . . a human being . . . no longer humiliated . . . degraded . . . foot-trodden . . . do you understand? It is not given to many: a second chance to be a woman, to be human without this or that “except,” “except” . . . without shame. He has reawakened my smothered woman-ness, my girlhood, and I feel I am about to flower . . .’
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Chapter 11
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‘I was surprised to see it on sale . . . but it did not taste the same.’
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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.
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Flowers/Theng’eta Symbol Timeline in Petals of Blood
The timeline below shows where the symbol Flowers/Theng’eta appears in Petals of Blood. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
Sleeping after a nighttime Theng’eta Breweries Union meeting, Karega is woken by policemen who want him to come to the...
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...newspaper runs a special edition about the murders of Mzigo, Chui, and Kimeria, directors of Theng’eta Breweries. The newspaper notes police have detained a “trade-union agitator;” the victims had just voted...
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Chapter 2
...of Ilmorog. In June, he takes his class outside to teach them the anatomy of flowers. When one child starts shouting about “a flower with petals of blood,” Munira corrects him,...
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...goes to check on the schoolchildren and resolves not to ponder insoluble questions like the “flower with petals of blood”; when he returns home, the woman is gone.
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...singing and dancing to celebrate. The crops have changed, and people now walk around with flowers stuck to their clothes. Yet they worry that the pattern of rain and sunshine has...
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...her father. The man gave Wanja’s family presents for Christmas, including a dress with a flower pattern for Wanja. Unbeknownst to Wanja’s parents, he began taking Wanja out in the city...
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...and walk her home afterward. Abdulla and Munira leave, the latter thinking happily about “beautiful flowers.”
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Chapter 3
...read—was looking for “a new force that will make the seed [of revolution] sprout and flower,” when what he needed was “the blood of the Lamb.”
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...he’s from Limuru. He explains he’s Mariamu’s son, used to work on Munira’s father Ezekieli’s flower farm, and attended Siriana until a year ago. When Munira says he knew Karega’s older...
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Chapter 7
...Munira reads an article describing Chui, Mzigo, and Kimeria. It notes they were owners of Theng’eta Breweries & Enterprises, Ltd.; it laments that, with their deaths, their plan to buy out...
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...Wanja joins them, looking thoughtful. She shrugs off Munira’s lustful stare and tells them about Theng’eta, a plant the people used to brew and drink on special occasions such as circumcisions....
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...walk to Nyakinyua’s. Wanja explains to the others that they finally managed to find the Theng’eta, a small plant “with a pattern of four tiny red petals.” Nyakinyua opens the pot...
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...Wanja, Karega, Munira, and Abdulla gather at Nyakinyua’s with the town elders to drink the Theng’eta. Everyone takes off their shoes and puts any money they’re carrying, “the metal bug that...
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Nyakinyua begins passing the Theng’eta around. When Munira drinks it, he has a vision that conflates past, present, and future,...
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Karega picked flowers at Mukami’s father Ezekieli’s pyrethrum fields to earn money for tuition. Mukami would sometimes help...
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...is shaking Karega and asking whether Karega is Nding’uri’s brother. Abdulla composes himself, drinks some Theng’eta, and explains: Nding’uri was Abdulla’s friend. They were both involved in the Mau Mau rebellion....
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Chapter 8
...other women into the bush and gotten lost. Then he dreams he’s playing on the flower farm of Ezekieli, Mukami’s father, while an exhausted Mariamu works. They go home, women come...
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Chapter 9
...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.
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Chapter 10
...and invites her inside. She asks him whether he remembers, on the night they drank Theng’eta, asking her why she’d come back to Ilmorog. She tells him that she was afraid...
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...Karega, who gave her back her womanhood and made her feel she was beginning to “flower.” Then she accuses Munira of getting Karega fired. She demands that Munira get Karega his...
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...and an impromptu “festival” forms. To cheer Abdulla up, Wanja suggests they sell food and Theng’eta to the tourists. Abdulla thinks that’s a great idea, and indeed, Theng’eta is a huge...
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Chapter 11
...their land and have a fancy building. Trusting in Riera, the people of Ilmorog expect “flowers to bloom.”
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...she didn’t, and he felt she was intentionally tormenting him. He began drinking too much Theng’eta and reading horoscopes, applying each one to his life. For a while he carried on...
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...use and cultivation.” Suddenly, he has the idea to invent a hugely popular advertisement for Theng’eta and win Wanja’s love by increasing her profits. One night, drunk, he stands up at...
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...but he mainly reads advertisements. Munira recalls how he was reading the newspaper, drunk on Theng’eta, when he came upon an advertisement for a public auction of Nyakinyua’s land and property....
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...asked Munira to explain, but he could only babble about title-deeds. He went home, drank Theng’eta, and wondered what would happen to Nyakinyua, who was too old to become a wage-laborer...
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...got Karega fired? She said the county government had taken away her right to brew Theng’eta—the license was transferred to the new owner along with the land—and asked whether Munira knew...
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Additionally, Nderi wa Riera owns a tourist village and Mzigo owns Theng’eta Breweries, which has expanded into a massive factory employing hundreds. The Theng’eta packaging carries an...
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...a door and calls to Abdulla. Abdulla, sounding drunk, invites him in and offers him Theng’eta. When Munira and Karega enter, Abdulla doesn’t recognize Karega. Munira explains who Karega is, and...
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...and Munira. Abdulla says that all poor people share the same fate and offers Karega Theng’eta, asking whether he’s tasted it. Karega says he tried it in Mombasa, “surprised to see...
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...getting another brewing license, and he admitted the government had given him a patent on Theng’eta.
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Wanja knew Mzigo, Chui, and Kimeria were the directors of the Kenya branch of Theng’eta Breweries. It infuriated her that Kimeria, who had been a Home Guard, impregnated her as...
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Chapter 12
...after he heard Karega say those words, they kept haunting him. He no longer enjoyed Theng’eta. He couldn’t make sense of the world’s evils and horrors that Wanja revealed in her...
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After his return to Ilmorog, Karega worked for six months in Theng’eta Breweries. He observed how workers from different linguistic and ethnic groups were divided against one...
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...Ilmorog—and saw cars belonging to Kimeria, Mzigo, and Chui, presumably there to vote on the Theng’eta Workers’ Union’s demands. At the thought Kimeria might visit Wanja, Abdulla lost his sense of...
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...sets fire to the brothel, walks up the hill, and watches the fire make a flower, “petals of blood,” against the sky. As he watches, he feels he has transformed himself...
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Chapter 13
...sees through barbed wire a girl who introduces herself as Akinyi. She works in the Theng’eta factory. She says the other workers sent her to tell Karega that members of all...
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