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Chapter 7
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Petals of Blood, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonialism and Capitalism
Education
Gender, Sexuality, and Exploitation
Religion, Hypocrisy, and Delusion
Land and Nature
Summary
Analysis
As Karega walks away from Nyakinyua’s, he thinks about how his brother Nding’uri died for Kenyan freedom. The thought fills him with “pride and gratitude.” Wanja follows Karega, and each wants to talk to the other without knowing what to say. Eventually they sit down together in the grass, and Wanja says Karega “must have the blood of rebels in [his] family,” given Karega’s brother’s actions and Karega’s participation in strikes at Siriana. When Karega points out that Munira went on strike at Siriana too, Wanja claims that Munira was really a sort of “spectator” to Chui’s organization of the strike.
Karega feels “pride” at his brother’s death because it seems to confer some dignity on him through his relationship to his brother. He feels “gratitude” because his brother helped secure Kenya’s independence, from which Karega is now benefiting. When Wanja claims that Munira was just a “spectator” at his strike, unlike Karega who participated, she may be speaking out of annoyance with Munira—but her words also remind readers that Karega’s demands for reform were much more radical than Munira’s.
Themes
Karega asks whether Abdulla told them the whole story. Wanja replies that everyone has something to hide. When Karega asks whether Wanja has something to hide, she tells him how an adult man impregnated her as an adolescent, causing her to drop out of school before she even reached high school.
Though Wanja has chosen not to reveal her sexual abuse history to Karega in the past, she reveals it now—a choice that illustrates her and Karega’s increasing closeness.
Themes
Karega asks whether the man who impregnated adolescent Wanja was Kimeria, who also detained them and insisted Wanja have sex with him during the Ilmorog delegation’s journey. Wanja admits it was but downplays the event’s seriousness. When Karega insists it was serious, she—thinking he blames her—retorts that it shouldn’t “always be held against her.” He clarifies that he would never blame her for being a victim. They hold hands. Then Karega, full of desire, begins removing Wanja’s clothes. She begs him to stop, but he hears “fear of need and desire” in her voice and keeps going. They have sex and fall asleep. He wakes up covered in dew and then wakes Wanja up, asking her to look at the sunrise.
Themes
Back at home, Wanja feels “an inner peace” she has never before felt after sex. She sleeps and dreams about the boy who loved her in elementary school and about learning to read from her father. Then, in the dream, her father wears a soldier’s uniform and a KAR hat, telling her how he’s come back from fighting “Italians, Germans, Japanese” for the king. When Wanja asks which king, her father dodges the question and takes her into a workshop.
Themes
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In the dream, Wanja overhears her mother beg her father to move the family to Ilmorog, to live with his parents. When Wanja’s father refuses, her mother asks whether he’s afraid of what his own father “saw in the light.” Wanja’s father tells her mother to shut up, says Englishmen are too militarily powerful to fight, and suggests that money is the real path to freedom. Wanja’s mother implies her father is a “traitor.”
Themes
Wanja’s dream changes again. Wanja’s father is saying her mother disobeys God by visiting Wanja’s aunt, who gives aid to the Mau Mau. When Wanja’s father suggests the sister and her husband are idolators and murderers, Wanja’s mother points out that Wanja’s father killed people during the white people’s war and suggests he worships money. Wanja’s father begins beating her mother. Her mother yells about “fire” and her “only sister.” When her father says the fire was God’s punishment, Wanja’s mother becomes “speechless with terror and hatred,” so Wanja herself starts yelling that the hut is on fire. She yells for help from Karega until she wakes up. Nyakinyua is there, asking what’s wrong. Wanja asks Nyakinyua what really happened to her father and grandfather.
Themes
Karega goes to bed feeling as though “he has known Wanja all his life.” He dreams he has followed his mother Mariamu and 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 to their hut, and the woman and Mariamu whisper about “bullets and freedom.” The women cry, pray, and sing. Then Karega dreams he’s standing on a little island in the center of a lake with Mukami, who flies away when he tries to touch her. Mukami transforms into Wanja, who transforms into Nyakinyua.
Themes
In the dream, Karega realizes the people he thought were Mukami, Wanja, and Nyakinyua are actually his students. He is trying to explain the history of “Mr Blackman in three sentences.” In this history, white people first steal Mr Blackman’s body and then use religion and colonial education to try to steal his mind, soul, and land. Karega realizes the class is floating down a river on a raft and that he himself has transformed into L’Ouverture. He transforms into one Black revolutionary leader after another.
Themes
Karega’s brother Nding’uri appears behind him carrying three bullets. When Karega tries to tell Nding’uri about his journeys and about Abdulla, Nding’uri says he knows about “the journey of search and exploration taken by all my brothers and sisters.” When Nding’uri begins to walk away, Karega calls after him, wanting to follow him. Nding’uri rebukes Karega for being willing to abandon his students. Then Nding’uri disappears.
Themes
Among Karega’s students, Joseph raises his hand and asks how Europeans were able to colonize Africa and exploit it for centuries if white supremacy and myths about “the children of Ham” aren’t true. Karega, furious, tells Joseph that the Bible is a tool white people use to subdue and economically exploit African people while African people subdivide themselves into smaller ethnic groups that fruitlessly fight one another. He begins yelling curses at Nderi wa Riera, white colonizers, and white politicians.
Themes
Karega wakes up. Munira, standing beside his bed, informs him he’s slept through an entire day and into the next morning. After fidgeting, Munira mentions Karega said Mukami’s and Wanja’s names in his sleep. He calls Karega “Mr Karega” and tells him that given Karega’s revelations about Mukami, he and Karega shouldn’t work together. He accuses Karega of having caused Mukami’s suicide and says it’s insulting for Karega to murmur her name and that of “a Very Important Prostitute” back-to-back.
Themes
Enraged, Karega charges Munira. When Munira dodges, Karega stops attacking, because he respects Munira as a teacher and because Munira’s poked “a sensitive guilty core” in Karega. He sits on the bed and gives a long speech about how, given that everyone is oppressed, bought, and sold, everyone is “prostituted”: “Why then need a victim hurl insults at another victim?” Munira, feeling morally wrongfooted, blurts out a snide response about how he’s had enough of sermons from Ezekieli. Karega, angered by the mention of Ezekieli, says he won’t quit the school. Munira says, “We shall see.”
