Petals of Blood

Petals of Blood 

Hello, I am Emisha Ravani, Writing this blog as a thinking activity which is given by Yesha madam for the text Petals of Blood. where we have to discuss given questions. 

“Words are the food, body, mirror, and sound of thought. Do you now see the danger of words that want to come out but are unable to do so?”

― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

Ngugi wa Thiong’o, original name James Thiong’o Ngugi, born January 5, 1938, Limuru, Kenya, Kenyan writer who was considered East Africa's leading novelist. His popular Weep Not, Child (1964) was the first major novel in English by an East African. As he became sensitized to the effects of colonialism in Africa, Ngugi adopted his traditional name and wrote in the Bantu language of Kenya's Kikuyu people. The main themes that he focuses on are the legacy of colonialism, traditionalism, cultural nationalism, and the role of the intellectual in the postcolony. His works navigate the colonial and postcolonial contradictions of Kenyan and Gikuyu society and the tensions between modernity and the past.

Petals of Blood (1977) deals with social and economic problems in East Africa after independence, particularly the continued exploitation of peasants and workers by foreign business interests and a greedy indigenous bourgeoisie.

1. Neo-colonialism: with reference to Petals of Blood

2. Write a note on the first chapter of the novel (Interrogation of all characters)

3. Write a note on the seventh chapter of the novel (changing/developing Ilmorog)

4. Write a note on the last chapter of novel (Karega and his future towards being a communist)

1. Neo-colonialism: with reference to Petals of Blood

What is Neo-Colonialism?

According to Oxford:

The control of the economic and political systems of one state by a more powerful state, usually the control of a developing country by a developed one.

The control of less developed countries by developed ones through indirect means.

In the simple words we can say that this term came after post colonialism. There were settlers who colonized many colonies and they started rule over there. Then when they left at that time the colonized countries were having so poor condition in each aspect. Economically, politically as well as powerless. Then colonizers started to control by various ways from their land only. That is Neo-Colonialism. Here are some posters which will help to understand this term in deep.    

The term neocolonialism was originally applied to European policies that were seen as schemes to maintain control of African and other dependencies. The event that marked the beginning of this usage was a meeting of European heads of government in Paris in 1957, where six European leaders agreed to include their overseas territories within the European Common Market under trade arrangements that were seen by some national leaders and groups as representing a new form of economic domination over French-occupied Africa and the colonial territories of Italy, Belgium , and the Netherlands. The agreement reached at Paris was codified in the Treaty of Rome (1957), which established the European Economic Community (EEC), or Common Market.

Neocolonialism came to be seen more generally as involving a coordinated effort by former colonial powers and other developed countries to block growth in developing countries and retain them as sources of cheap raw materials and cheap labour. This effort was seen as closely associated with the Cold War and, in particular, with the U.S. policy known as the Truman Doctrine. Under that policy the U.S. government offered large amounts of money to any government prepared to accept U.S. protection from communism. That enabled the United States to extend its spheres of influence and, in some cases, to place foreign governments under its control. The United States and other developed countries also ensured the subordination of developing countries, critics argue, by interfering in conflicts and helping in other ways to install regimes that were willing to act for the benefit of foreign companies and against their own country’s interests.

Neocolonial governance is seen as operating through indirect forms of control and, in particular, by means of the economic, financial, and trade policies of transnational corporations and global and multilateral institutions.

Neocolonial Tendencies: Petals of Blood

“… and there was much blood, many motherless, many maimed legs, many broken homes and all because a few hungry souls sick with greed wanted everything for themselves. They took the virtues that arise from that as true virtues of the human heart. They practised charity, pity; they even made laws and rules of good conduct for those they had made motherless, for those they had driven into the streets. Tell me … would we need pity, charity, generosity, kindness if there were no poor and miserable to pity and be kind to?”

― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o,Petals of Blood

Ngugi aiming to arouse the colonized people's awareness of the prospective risks of acquiring the colonial languages and the emergence of the local elites working in harmony with the white colonizers after formal colonization ends, Thiong’o attempts to be an inspirational source of regaining anti colonialist national culture and system for his society.

His main concerns for the colonialism is the language which is very sharp weapon for colonisers and the elit people who were the later colonisers. As one can consider here the subaltern nation the Africa or the Kenya as well as. Ngugi has used very innovative way to show us the each aspects of the process. 

Wanja = Kenya, Africa. What money wanted was body. Just like the colonizers were desired to African land. 

Let us go to the whole portrayal of Wanja's character in the novel :

Wanja is the granddaughter of Nyakinyua and is an intelligent, passionate, intuitive, and tenacious woman. As a young woman, she had to leave school because she had a relationship with, and became pregnant by, the wealthy businessman Kimeria. Her father wanted little to do with her, so she struck out on her own and ended up as a barmaid and prostitute. She grieved for the child she had borne and then left to die, always desiring to have a child of her own again. She came to Ilmorog to be near her grandmother, which is where she befriended Munira and Abdulla. She had sex with Munira once, hoping to conceive, but did not want to be in a relationship with him. She did have a relationship with Karega, but he left the village. Finally, she saw Abdulla as a true companion, and it is suggested that he is the father of the child that she is carrying at the end of the novel. It was Wanja who was a core figure in the New Ilmorog, helping Abdulla grow his business and then, after the businessmen shut them down, ran a successful whorehouse. She was tormented with the sense of colluding with evil, but her life philosophy was "eat or be eaten."

By this life of the Wanja we can come to know that This is actual position of african women in the society to live in. Women was at the periphery or the 'Oppressed' or 'Other'. Women were the at the edge and to seduce or sexual abusement were the very common. That is why one can say that as Wanja was the seduced physical by the various men's strong desire in a same way the land of Africa was desired by the colonisers.   

In Writers in Politics (1981) Thiong'o quoted a significant comment Regarding his novel Petals of Blood :

"No country, No people can be truly independent for as long as their economy and culture are dominated by foreigners!...This was what I was trying to show in Petals of Blood: that imperialism can never develop our country or develop us , Kenyans"

By this statement we can get the idea what Ngugi was thinking about the colonialism and the whole process.

Thank you!