Petals of Blood

by

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

Godfrey Munira Character Analysis

Godfrey Munira is the son of rich Presbyterian landowner Ezekieli. As a youth, he attends the boys’ high school Siriana, which expels Munira and his classmate Chui after they lead a strike protesting the headmaster Fraudsham’s racist policies. While most of Munira’s siblings become businesspeople, Munira becomes a teacher. Of his family members, he is only close to his sister Mukami, who dies by suicide. As an adult, Munira marries Julia, whose religiosity he finds unsexy. Leaving her and their children behind in the large town Limuru, Munira moves to rural Ilmorog to teach in Ilmorog’s school. There he befriends Abdulla, a shopkeeper; Wanja, granddaughter of local elder Nyakinyua; and Karega, a former student of Munira’s who was also expelled from Siriana during a strike. Although Munira considers himself a passive loner, these friendships affect him deeply. When Wanja has a brief affair with Wanja, he becomes obsessed with her; when Munira realizes how badly Karega suffered after Siriana expelled him, he hires Karega to work at the school; and when Ilmorog suffers a drought, Munira, despite his contempt for politics, joins a delegation asking Ilmorog’s MP Nderi wa Riera for help. Yet Munira’s jealousy and fanaticism lead him to betray his friends. After Wanja and Karega begin a romance, a jealous Munira convinces his regional boss Mzigo to fire Karega from the school. Munira’s lack of respect for Wanja’s romantic decisions exemplifies how many men in the novel treat women like sexual possessions, not people. Later, sick of the world’s corruption, Munira joins an evangelical Christian movement and sets fire to the brothel Wanja has started—intending to kill her, to “save” Karega from her sexual wiles, but instead killing her clients Chui and Mzigo. Thus, Munira represents how religion blinds believers, leading them to misdiagnose social problems: Munira blames the frequently exploited Wanja for the world’s evils rather than the men who exploit her. At the novel’s end, the police have realized Munira set the fire that killed the men, and Munira is in jail waiting to stand trial.

Godfrey Munira Quotes in Petals of Blood

The Petals of Blood quotes below are all either spoken by Godfrey Munira or refer to Godfrey Munira. 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:
Colonialism and Capitalism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

‘We must always be ready to plant the seed in these last days before His second coming. All the signs—strife, killing, wars, blood—are prophesied here.’

‘How long have you been in Ilmorog?’ asked the tall one, to change the subject from this talk of the end of the world and Christ’s second coming. He was a regular churchgoer and did not want to be caught on the wrong side.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira (speaker), Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo, The Lawyer
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 3-4
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

They nearly all had one thing in common: submission to the Lord. They called him Brother Ezekieli, our brother in Christ, and they would gather in the yard of the house after work for prayers and thanksgiving. There were of course some who had devilish spirits which drove them to demand higher wages and create trouble on the farm and they would be dismissed.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira, Ezekieli
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:

He stole a matchbox, collected a bit of grass and dry cowdung and built an imitation of Amina’s house at Kamiritho where he had sinned against the Lord, and burnt it. He watched the flames and he felt truly purified by fire. He went to bed at ease with himself and peaceful in his knowledge of being accepted by the Lord. Shalom. But the cowdung had retained the fire and at night the wind fanned it into flames which would have licked up the whole barn had it not been discovered in time.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira, Wanja, Karega, Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo
Related Symbols: Fire
Page Number: 18
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

We are all searchers for a tiny place in God’s corner to shelter us for a time from treacherous winds and rains and drought. This was all that I had wanted him to see: that the force he sought could only be found in the blood of the Lamb.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira (speaker), Wanja, Karega, Abdulla, Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

Kenyan people had always been ready to resist foreign control and exploitation. The story of this heroic resistance: who will sing it? Their struggles to defend their land, their wealth, their lives: who’ll tell of it?

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira, Karega
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

We can imagine the fatal meeting between the native and the alien. The missionary had traversed the seas, the forests, armed with the desire for profit that was his faith and light and the gun that was his protection. He carried the Bible; the soldier carried the gun; the administrator and the settler carried the coin. Christianity, Commerce, Civilization: the Bible, the Coin, the Gun: Holy Trinity.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira, Nderi wa Riera, Ezekieli, Julia
Page Number: 106
Explanation and Analysis:
The Journey Quotes

‘I saw in the cities of America white people also begging . . . I saw white women selling their bodies for a few dollars. In America vice is a selling commodity. I worked alongside white and black workers in a Detroit factory. We worked overtime to make a meagre living. I saw a lot of unemployment in Chicago and other cities. I was confused. So I said: let me return to my home, now that the black man has come to power. And suddenly as in a flash of lightning I saw we were serving the same monster-god as they were in America.’

Related Characters: The Lawyer (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Wanja, Karega, Abdulla, Nderi wa Riera, Fraudsham
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 198
Explanation and Analysis:

He did not therefore want to hear any more nonsense about African teachers, African history, African literature, African this and that: whoever heard of African, Chinese, or Greek mathematics and science? What mattered were good teachers and sound content: history was history: literature was literature, and had nothing to do with the colour of one’s skin.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira, Wanja, Karega, Abdulla, Chui, The Lawyer
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 206
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

‘We are all prostitutes, for in a world of grab and take, in a world built on a structure of inequality and injustice, in a world where some can eat while others can only toil […] we are all prostituted. For as long as there’s a man in prison, I am also in prison [. . .]. Why then need a victim hurl insults at another victim?’

Related Characters: Karega (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Wanja
Page Number: 286
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

‘Are there pure facts? When I am looking at you, how much I see of you is conditioned by where I stand or sit; by the amount of light in this room; by the power of my eyes; by whether my mind is occupied with other thoughts and what thoughts. […] Even assuming that there were pure facts, what about their selection? Does this not involve interpretation?’

Related Characters: Karega (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Abdulla, The Lawyer
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 293
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

‘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 . . .’

Related Characters: Wanja (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Karega, Kimeria
Related Symbols: Flowers/Theng’eta
Page Number: 299
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

‘You cannot serve the interests of capital and of labour at the same time. You cannot serve two opposed masters . . . one master loses . . . in this case labour . . .’

Related Characters: Karega (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Wanja
Page Number: 342
Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira, Wanja, Karega, Kimeria, Nderi wa Riera, Chui, Mzigo
Related Symbols: Flowers/Theng’eta
Page Number: 348-349
Explanation and Analysis:

‘Must we have this world? Is there only one world? Then we must create another world, a new earth[.]’

Related Characters: Karega (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Wanja
Page Number: 349
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

‘The junior staff—the workers on the school compound—were going to join us. And one or two teachers were sympathetic. They too had grievances, about pay and conditions of work and Chui’s neglect. This time we were going to demand that the school should be run by a committee of students, staff and workers . . . But even now we are determined to put an end to the whole prefect system . . . And that all our studies should be related to the liberation of our people . . .’

Related Characters: Joseph (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Abdulla, Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo, Fraudsham
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 402-403
Explanation and Analysis:
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Godfrey Munira Quotes in Petals of Blood

The Petals of Blood quotes below are all either spoken by Godfrey Munira or refer to Godfrey Munira. 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:
Colonialism and Capitalism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

‘We must always be ready to plant the seed in these last days before His second coming. All the signs—strife, killing, wars, blood—are prophesied here.’

‘How long have you been in Ilmorog?’ asked the tall one, to change the subject from this talk of the end of the world and Christ’s second coming. He was a regular churchgoer and did not want to be caught on the wrong side.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira (speaker), Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo, The Lawyer
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 3-4
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

They nearly all had one thing in common: submission to the Lord. They called him Brother Ezekieli, our brother in Christ, and they would gather in the yard of the house after work for prayers and thanksgiving. There were of course some who had devilish spirits which drove them to demand higher wages and create trouble on the farm and they would be dismissed.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira, Ezekieli
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:

He stole a matchbox, collected a bit of grass and dry cowdung and built an imitation of Amina’s house at Kamiritho where he had sinned against the Lord, and burnt it. He watched the flames and he felt truly purified by fire. He went to bed at ease with himself and peaceful in his knowledge of being accepted by the Lord. Shalom. But the cowdung had retained the fire and at night the wind fanned it into flames which would have licked up the whole barn had it not been discovered in time.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira, Wanja, Karega, Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo
Related Symbols: Fire
Page Number: 18
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

We are all searchers for a tiny place in God’s corner to shelter us for a time from treacherous winds and rains and drought. This was all that I had wanted him to see: that the force he sought could only be found in the blood of the Lamb.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira (speaker), Wanja, Karega, Abdulla, Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

Kenyan people had always been ready to resist foreign control and exploitation. The story of this heroic resistance: who will sing it? Their struggles to defend their land, their wealth, their lives: who’ll tell of it?

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira, Karega
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

We can imagine the fatal meeting between the native and the alien. The missionary had traversed the seas, the forests, armed with the desire for profit that was his faith and light and the gun that was his protection. He carried the Bible; the soldier carried the gun; the administrator and the settler carried the coin. Christianity, Commerce, Civilization: the Bible, the Coin, the Gun: Holy Trinity.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira, Nderi wa Riera, Ezekieli, Julia
Page Number: 106
Explanation and Analysis:
The Journey Quotes

‘I saw in the cities of America white people also begging . . . I saw white women selling their bodies for a few dollars. In America vice is a selling commodity. I worked alongside white and black workers in a Detroit factory. We worked overtime to make a meagre living. I saw a lot of unemployment in Chicago and other cities. I was confused. So I said: let me return to my home, now that the black man has come to power. And suddenly as in a flash of lightning I saw we were serving the same monster-god as they were in America.’

Related Characters: The Lawyer (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Wanja, Karega, Abdulla, Nderi wa Riera, Fraudsham
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 198
Explanation and Analysis:

He did not therefore want to hear any more nonsense about African teachers, African history, African literature, African this and that: whoever heard of African, Chinese, or Greek mathematics and science? What mattered were good teachers and sound content: history was history: literature was literature, and had nothing to do with the colour of one’s skin.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira, Wanja, Karega, Abdulla, Chui, The Lawyer
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 206
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

‘We are all prostitutes, for in a world of grab and take, in a world built on a structure of inequality and injustice, in a world where some can eat while others can only toil […] we are all prostituted. For as long as there’s a man in prison, I am also in prison [. . .]. Why then need a victim hurl insults at another victim?’

Related Characters: Karega (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Wanja
Page Number: 286
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

‘Are there pure facts? When I am looking at you, how much I see of you is conditioned by where I stand or sit; by the amount of light in this room; by the power of my eyes; by whether my mind is occupied with other thoughts and what thoughts. […] Even assuming that there were pure facts, what about their selection? Does this not involve interpretation?’

Related Characters: Karega (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Abdulla, The Lawyer
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 293
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

‘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 . . .’

Related Characters: Wanja (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Karega, Kimeria
Related Symbols: Flowers/Theng’eta
Page Number: 299
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

‘You cannot serve the interests of capital and of labour at the same time. You cannot serve two opposed masters . . . one master loses . . . in this case labour . . .’

Related Characters: Karega (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Wanja
Page Number: 342
Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: Godfrey Munira, Wanja, Karega, Kimeria, Nderi wa Riera, Chui, Mzigo
Related Symbols: Flowers/Theng’eta
Page Number: 348-349
Explanation and Analysis:

‘Must we have this world? Is there only one world? Then we must create another world, a new earth[.]’

Related Characters: Karega (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Wanja
Page Number: 349
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

‘The junior staff—the workers on the school compound—were going to join us. And one or two teachers were sympathetic. They too had grievances, about pay and conditions of work and Chui’s neglect. This time we were going to demand that the school should be run by a committee of students, staff and workers . . . But even now we are determined to put an end to the whole prefect system . . . And that all our studies should be related to the liberation of our people . . .’

Related Characters: Joseph (speaker), Godfrey Munira, Abdulla, Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo, Fraudsham
Related Symbols: Siriana
Page Number: 402-403
Explanation and Analysis: