Petals of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

Petals of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
First published 1977



Petals of Blood opens with the arrest of Godfrey Munira, a schoolteacher, as a suspect in the murder of three African brewery executives in the Kenyan town of Ilmorog. As Munira makes his statement to the investigator, the history of this once-tiny village unfolds and with it the lives of Munira and others.

The principal time frame of this complex novel is the mid 1960s to early 1970s, comprising Kenya's early years of independence from Great Britain. Through the lives and thoughts of the inhabitants of Ilmorog we see the exhilaration of freedom turn to disillusionment as Kenya's native rulers and businessmen simply maintain the pattern of exploitation that the English established under colonialism. The villagers, in the face of drought and famine, organize collective action to seek relief, only to see those in power try to turn the misfortunes of others to their political and financial advantage. Every attempt at local initiative or free enterprise is crushed by those who have sold out to American and European corporate interests.

Ngũgĩ's political message is so pointed and direct that he was imprisoned after the novel's publication. The author does quite a bit of preaching, which stands somewhat in the way of the novel's working as a piece of fiction. He doesn't recommend specific action steps other than to follow the teachings of Lenin and Mao and the examples of Cuba, Angola, Mozambique, Egypt, and other socialist states.

This is an important and memorable book with a message well worth heeding. As a novel, however, I didn't find it as enjoyable as Ngũgĩ's earlier less convoluted works.

Thanks for posting your review, Steven. I just finished reading Petals of Blood yesterday and plan to write a review sometime this week. It's the only one of Ngũgĩ's works I've read, so I can't compare it to his earlier work. However, I agree that it's an important and memorable book with some unevenness in reading for me. By the end, I was pretty well pulled in and engaged with the four principle characters, and I like how he told parts of the same story -- and in some instances, the same part of the same story -- from those different perspectives.

I also struggled with the "preachy" parts. I sometimes felt like he was providing some clarity of thought with the brief lecture, but the story really made those points all by itself. It didn't need (or benefit from) the clarification.

Coincidentally, I've immediately started reading Half of a Yellow Sun which is set in the same time-frame in Nigeria. It will be interesting to compare the two writing styles, story lines, and historical contexts. I didn't set out to read them so closely together, but I think it will enhance my processing of both.

I really enjoyed Half of a Yellow Sun, and it is very informative as well. I vaguely remembered the Biafra War from my youth--it was a very busy time for world news--and this book really brought the issues and the suffering of the people to light.

Whew. I finally wrote my REVIEW of Petals of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. This was a really challenging book to review. I gave it 4.5 stars and I highly recommend it. Reading it was much easier than writing a review. :-)

I'm still reading Petals of Blood, and while I can't say I'm enjoying it, necessarily, it is an engrossing book. I have one question, though - at around page 100, Munira and his wife get taken to an alleged "tea" but it turns out to be... what, exactly? Some sort of beating or loyalty oath? What happens in those huts? I don't understand.

I wasn't completely clear either on what happened at the "tea" either, but it seemed to be an oath of loyalty to the ruling party. I suppose it was chiefly for psychological purposes, and they probably imprisoned the ones who refused to take the oath, but none of this is spelled out in the novel that I can recall.

It's too long since I read it; I'd have to go back and look it up.

Nice review of Petals of Blood, Steven. I didn't get to it this year, but I will certainly read it, and Devil on the Cross, in 2012.

5 & 6> Yes, the details of the invitation to tea were scant. I didn't do any research on line to see if I could learn more, but I also assumed it was a forced oath of loyalty and it seemed to involve witnessing some horrific abuse as part of the threat for refusal. I don't remember what exactly made me think this, but I'm aware of having concluded that it involved witnessing the torture of village women/woman. ??? I may have made that up.