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Chapter 2
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
Twelve years after Wanja’s story, Munira tries to explain it to a police officer detaining him, but the officer doesn’t grasp the relevance. Munira thinks the officer, an enforcer of the status quo, is likely discomfited by recent social unrest—students and employees striking, women protesting for rights. Munira believes that the Bible predicted this unrest and that Wanja is “the ‘She’ mentioned by the Prophets, extracting obedience from men, making them deviate from the path.” He asks the unconvinced police officer for writing materials so that he can compose a full account. The police officer, annoyed, locks him up in a cell. Munira, remembering the incarcerations of Peter and Paul, feels contented and falls asleep.
The references to employee strikes and women’s protests suggest that anti-capitalist and feminist protests are occurring in Kenya at this point in the novel. When Munira claims that the Bible predicted this unrest, he probably means the Book of Revelation, the final prophetic book of the New Testament that predicts social turmoil culminating in the Second Coming of Christ. The “‘She’ mentioned by the Prophets” would then refer to the female figure in the Book of Revelations often called the Whore of Babylon. Various Christian sects have interpreted this figure as an allegory for the city of Rome and the Roman Empire, the city of Jerusalem, pagan religion,; and so on. That Munira believes this allegorical Biblical figure refers to Wanja specifically suggests his religious beliefs have become delusional. It also suggests that Munira believes Christianity condemns greater economic and gender equality. The allusions to Peter and Paul refer to Jesus’s apostle Peter and the post-Crucifixion Christian convert Saint Paul, both of whom were jailed while spreading Christianity during the 1st century CE. By comparing himself to Peter and Paul, Munira suggests that he is being religiously persecuted.
Themes
The next morning Munira is taken to talk with a new police officer (Inspector Godfrey), a man who’s intrigued by criminal behavior and loves to solve crimes. He doesn’t care which government he’s working for—his dream is to become a private detective who will work for anyone. He’s interested in this case because it brings together very different people: Munira; Wanja, “a prostitute”; Abdulla; Karega, who works for the union; and Kimeria, Chui, and Mzigo, successful businessmen. The officer introduces himself to Munira and explains that they’ll jail Munira while he writes as extensive a statement as he likes—which needs to include facts about Abdulla, Karega, and Wanja’s movements in the days leading to Kimeria, Chui, and Mzigo’s deaths.
Inspector Godfrey is obsessed with solving crimes, but he doesn’t care about justice—he’s happy to work for anyone, good or bad, whether it’s the British Colonial government, the post-Independence Kenyan government, or random citizens with money. This attitude suggests that in post-Independence Kenya, police officers protect the status quo but don’t serve justice. The reference to Wanja as “a prostitute” suggests that she has become a sex worker at some point during the story’s timeline.
Themes
Munira writes that he isn’t sure how to tell the story. He once believed he could save Karega, Wanja, and Abdulla; then he saw that Wanja wanted power and revenge against men due to her past trauma, while Karega was a lost, immature man who—as he once wrote in a journal that Munira 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.”
Given Munira’s religious beliefs, his desire to “save” Karega, Wanja, and Abdulla likely refers to his desire to convert them to Christianity. He interprets Wanja’s anger at her sexual abuse as anti-male vindictiveness. Meanwhile, Munira dismisses Karega’s desire that revolution “flower,” a symbolic reference to the potential of Kenya’s people and land. He says that instead of the flowers of worldly political revolution, Karega needs the “blood of the Lamb”—another allusion to the Christian New Testament, as the Gospel of John calls Jesus Christ “the lamb of God” and the Book of Revelation represents him allegorically as a lamb. By saying that Karega needs “the blood of the lamb,” meaning Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death by crucifixion, Munira is suggesting that political goals like Karega’s are a waste of time; one should focus on spiritual redemption. Here the novel suggests that religion or at least religious perspectives like Munira’s prevent oppressed people from engaging in politics.
Themes
According to Munira’s prison statement, Munira encounters Karega the day after Wanja tells the story of her pregnancy. Biking home from an errand, Munira finds Karega waiting. Karega knows Munira, though Munira doesn’t remember Karega. Having invited Karega inside, Munira suddenly wonders what happened to Wanja’s baby and recalls his father Ezekieli’s employee, an old woman named Mariamu, who made tea out of water and sugar alone. When he mentions such tea, Karega says his mother used to make it.
Munira’s sudden confusion about Wanja’s baby indicates to the reader that the story Wanja told about Kimeria’s sexual abuse and her pregnancy was incomplete: Wanja has kept some secrets back. That Mariamu used to make tea out of sugar and water—no actual tea—illustrates how badly the rich landowner Ezekieli treated his employees.
Themes
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When Munira asks, Karega admits 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 brother Nding’uri, Karega admits he knew very little about his brother until Munira’s sister Mukami told him his brother was hanged for revolutionary activities during the rebellion.
The reader already knows that Karega will become a trade-union organizer 12 years in the future. At this earlier point, his backstory raises issues of class status and politics: his mother was an employee of Ezekieli, who tends to exploit his workers, and he himself worked on Ezekieli’s flower farm. Since flowers in the novel represent Kenyan potential, Ezekieli’s flower farm seems to represent the exploitation of that national potential for private gain. Despite his exploited working-class background, Karega attended the fancy high school Siriana, which suggests he may have been exposed to the same white-supremacist, Europe-centric education Munira was. Karega’s brother participated in the rebellion—that is, the Mau Mau Rebellion (1952 – 1960), the war that Kenyan guerilla forces fought against Kenya’s British colonial government.
Themes
Though Munira wonders how Karega knew his dead sister Mukami, Karega changes the subject, saying he’s actually visiting because Munira taught him back at Manguo. Suddenly Munira remembers Karega, a student he had who matriculated at Siriana. Heartened by a former student’s success, he says freedom has given Black Africans many more educational opportunities and asks what Karega is studying at university. Karega, discomfited, explains he never went to university because Siriana expelled him.
Despite his own expulsion from Siriana for protesting racism, Munira sees Karega’s matriculation at Siriana as a sign of success—showing Munira still believes that Siriana’s Eurocentric curriculum constitutes a good education. Thus, Siriana represents Munira’s indoctrination in European supremacy. Despite that, Munira believes that Kenya’s political independence from British colonialism has created opportunities for Black Africans—a belief Karega challenges by revealing that he was expelled from Siriana post-Independence, nearly a repeat of Munira’s pre-Independence experiences.
Themes
When Munira asks why Karega was expelled, Karega explains there was a strike and asks whether Munira read about it in the papers. Munira, who never reads the news except for stories about murder, admits he didn’t. Karega, disappointed, asks whether Munira knew that Fraudsham left and Chui came back. These revelations shock Munira. After questioning Munira about his time at Siriana, Karega leaves without fully explaining what happened at Siriana or why he visited Munira. Alone, Munira vacillates: he doesn’t want to disturb his peace with memories or other people’s business, but he wants answers. Abruptly he decides to go after Karega and invite him to stay at his house.
Earlier, the novel introduced readers to the character of Inspector Godfrey, a man who is obsessed with solving crimes but doesn’t care about politics or justice. Now readers learn that Munira reads the papers only for salacious details of murders. The novel’s rather negative representation of these two characters hints that it’s morbid, even pernicious, to care about crime without caring about crime’s larger political context—an important clarification for the novel to make, since the novel itself functions something like a murder mystery. Karega’s questions about Fraudsham and Chui suggest that Siriana may have changed dramatically since Munira’s experiences there—but Karega vanishes without explaining.
Themes
In the hospital recovering from the fire, Wanja flashes back to the same day—the day they celebrated Joseph going to school. In the flashback, Wanja helps her grandmother Nyakinyua with her vegetable garden, while Nyakinyua complains the soil is poorer than it used to be. Then she goes and helps Abdulla and Joseph clean the store. When they open the store, no one comes—so Wanja puts out a sign claiming they’re having a closing sale. When people arrive, no sale is occurring, but they stick around to drink at the newly cleaned store anyway.
Wanja, who survived the fire, has a sexual abuse history; as such, readers may wonder whether the fire represents not only out-of-control violence but in particular violence against women—though the victims who died were men, it’s not yet clear who was the arson’s intended target. In Wanja’s flashback, Nyakinyua complains about the poor soil, which suggests that agricultural practices may have changed for the worse under colonialism, damaging the land. Wanja’s trick with the closing sale sign, meanwhile, suggests that she’s a natural at business—and that even small-scale capitalism involves deceiving others.
Themes
After the customers leave, Wanja sits and thinks that that night will be the new moon. She realized a while ago she wanted a baby, tried to conceive, and couldn’t. In Ilmorog, at Nyakinyua’s suggestion, she sought advice from Mwathi wa Mugo, who told her to have sex on the new moon. Now she has plans for Munira. She’s worried he won’t show up, but she knows she has power over men—power she feels ambivalent about but has observed while working in bars and receiving gifts from her sexual partners. Despite receiving these gifts, Wanja has never taken money for sex; she likes romance. When after a long time Munira hasn’t show up, Wanja is upset and tells Abdulla she’s leaving. He offers to walk her home.
Nyakinyua and Wanja’s consultation of Mwathi wa Mugo reveals that despite modernization and British colonial oppression, they have retained some traditional spiritual beliefs. Wanja’s belief that she has “power” over men, meanwhile, derives from her perception of her sexuality as an economic commodity: something she could trade men in exchange for money but chooses to only trade for gifts and favors.
Themes
Karega’s father and his mother Mariamu began working for Munira’s father Ezekieli after years of exploitation by European landowners. When Karega’s father wouldn’t give Mariamu any decision-making power in the household, she protested, and he beat her. She appealed to Ezekieli, asking for a different household on the property. Ezekieli let her build a hut in a remote place where he thought he could visit her for sex unseen. Though she wouldn’t have sex with him, he let her stay where she was so she wouldn’t tell anyone about his attempted adultery. Her beloved son Nding’uri briefly convinced her to try again with his father, and though it didn’t last, Mariamu had Karega.
Mariamu’s story reveals the multiple oppressions poor Kenyan women face: after she has already suffered due to her race under colonial rule, Mariamu’s husband tries to exploit her due to her gender while Ezekieli tries to exploit her both economically (as a worker) and sexually. Ezekieli’s attempt to exploit Mariamu sexually again reveals his hypocrisy: he presents himself as a devout Christian, yet he also wants to commit adultery with a woman over whom he has economic power.
Themes
The night of the celebration for Joseph, Munira and Karega arrive at Abdulla’s shop shortly after Wanja and Abdulla left. Munira buys a six-pack of beer from Joseph, and he and Karega go to Wanja’s hut, where Munira introduces Karega to the others. They all take beers except Karega, who doesn’t drink. Wanja announces Abdulla used to be a fighter and was about to tell a story about Dedan Kimathi. Munira feels awkward because he himself never fought in the rebellion. Out of nowhere, a beer bottle cap shoots from Munira’s hand and knocks over a lamp, starting a small fire. After Abdulla puts it out, he leaves without telling his story. Then Wanja asks Karega to watch her house while she and Munira take a walk.
Dedan Kimathi (1920 – 1957) was a leader in the Kenyan Land and Freedom Army, also known as the Mau Mau, the Kenyan freedom fighters who resisted colonial British rule during the Mau Mau Rebellion (1952 – 1960). Munira’s intense reaction to Kimathi’s name—he loses control of his hand and starts a fire—both shows his repressed shame at not fighting the British and reinforces the symbolism associating fire with repressed emotion and out-of-control violence.
Themes
Wanja and Munira walk to a grassy hill, where they sit down. Wanja asks about Karega, and Munira explains Karega too was expelled from Siriana for striking and knew Chui, “almost a repeat story of [his] past.” On the subject of the past repeating, Wanja says she has a memory that keeps returning. She had a cousin whose husband beat her, so the cousin ran away to the city but would come back to visit her relatives and bring them gifts. One day her cousin was visiting her mother, Wanja’s aunt, but came over to Wanja’s house. Then they all heard screaming, ran outside, and saw that Wanja’s aunt was on fire, as was her hut. Very likely, the cousin’s husband had set the hut on fire thinking his estranged wife was inside.
Munira calls Karega’s experiences at Siriana “almost a repeat story of [his] past”—but since Karega didn’t tell Munira why he was expelled, the reader has no way of knowing whether Munira’s assumption is accurate. Meanwhile, Wanja’s story about her cousin’s estranged husband trying to murder her and murdering her aunt instead reinforces the novel’s link between fire symbolism and male violence against women.
Themes
Wanja tells Munira that though the cousin's husband must have murdered her aunt, she for a long time wanted to believe her aunt had self-immolated like a Buddhist. She admits that some of her memories make her want to set herself on fire—to be purified. When Munira protests, Wanja continues talking as if he hasn’t spoken, saying her aunt’s husband was a Mau Mau and her aunt smuggled ammunition for them. Though her aunt wasn’t Christian, and her mother was, they loved each other. When Wanja’s father suggested Wanja’s aunt’s death was divine punishment for her involvement with the rebellion, it caused the estrangement that partially motivated Wanja’s parents’ violent beating of her.
When Wanja talks about self-immolating like a Buddhist, she may be referring specifically to the Buddhist Crisis in South Vietnam in 1963, the same year Kenya gained independence from Britain. During the Buddhist Crisis, several Buddhists set themselves on fire to protest the then-government’s bias against Buddhists. Wanja’s fantasy of self-immolation again connects the fire symbolism in the novel with out-of-control emotions—as well as a perhaps destructive desire for purity. Wanja’s father’s claim that Wanja’s aunt’s death was divine punishment shows that Christianity can make people judgmental and cruel.
Themes
After a silence, Wanja tells Munira that when she said she sometimes wanted to self-immolate, that was only a manner of speaking—she’s too scared of fire to do that to herself. Abruptly, Munira asks what happened to Wanja’s baby. Wanja bursts into tears. When Munira asks what’s wrong, she says she thought the moon would arrive and asks Munira to walk her home. When they reach Wanja’s hut, Karega is gone. Munira feels a sudden, inexplicable terror. The moon comes out from behind the clouds; Wanja, overjoyed, asks Munira to stay. He follows her into the hut.
The sudden transition from talking about fire to talking about Wanja’s baby once again links the novel’s fire symbolism to Wanja’s sexual abuse and violence against women. The end of the passage suggests that Wanja intends to have sex with Munira to get pregnant; given how she burst into tears when he asked about her baby, she may be trying to replace a baby that died or was lost somehow.
Themes
