PETALS OF BLOOD
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The Criterion
An International Journal in English
ISSN 0976-8165
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s Petals of Blood as a Mirror of the African Revolution
Akinwumi Olutola
Federal University Oye,
Ekiti State, Nigeria
Abstract
The paper focuses on African revolution through Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s Petals of Blood. It analyses the revolutionary temper over the years especially in the contemporary African novels.
Many African writers and some intellectuals have been preoccupied with social and political circumstances of their societies. These writers who constitute first, second and third generations of the African literary history have worked truthfully on the reality of African situations. The fact is that the colonial regime in African societies is the negation of creation and action. True to expectation, with the demise of colonialism and the institution of people’s government, African societies became degenerated rather than progressive. African writers and intellectuals alike became furious to see their societies being run according to the style and manners of their departed colonial masters. It reflects change in Ngugi’s work from portraying the colonial era to reflecting the exploitation and corruption in Kenya.
Introduction
Revolution as a concept is a special form of the process of development, which we call historical change. All realms of historical existence are subject to this change, each of them capable of being initiated by a wide range of assorted factors. There are, for example, the almost imperceptible, protracted developments, which preserve continuity as they unfold, that is, follows an evolutionary course. Evolution, seen as a gradual adjustment of institutions and forms of existence to altered human living conditions, is not to be equated with adjustment by means of deliberate reforms which presuppose an understanding of the need for change coupled with the determination to preserve continuity. However, change can also be eruptive in the
The Criterion
An International Journal in English
ISSN 0976-8165
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s Petals of Blood as a Mirror of the African Revolution
Akinwumi Olutola
Federal University Oye,
Ekiti State, Nigeria
Abstract
The paper focuses on African revolution through Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s Petals of Blood. It analyses the revolutionary temper over the years especially in the contemporary African novels.
Many African writers and some intellectuals have been preoccupied with social and political circumstances of their societies. These writers who constitute first, second and third generations of the African literary history have worked truthfully on the reality of African situations. The fact is that the colonial regime in African societies is the negation of creation and action. True to expectation, with the demise of colonialism and the institution of people’s government, African societies became degenerated rather than progressive. African writers and intellectuals alike became furious to see their societies being run according to the style and manners of their departed colonial masters. It reflects change in Ngugi’s work from portraying the colonial era to reflecting the exploitation and corruption in Kenya.
Introduction
Revolution as a concept is a special form of the process of development, which we call historical change. All realms of historical existence are subject to this change, each of them capable of being initiated by a wide range of assorted factors. There are, for example, the almost imperceptible, protracted developments, which preserve continuity as they unfold, that is, follows an evolutionary course. Evolution, seen as a gradual adjustment of institutions and forms of existence to altered human living conditions, is not to be equated with adjustment by means of deliberate reforms which presuppose an understanding of the need for change coupled with the determination to preserve continuity. However, change can also be eruptive in the
Cited: Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Petals of Blood, London: Heinemann, 1977. -----------------, Homecoming, London: Heinemann, 1972. -----------------, Weep not Child, London: Heinemann, 1972. Eagleton, Terry, Marxism and Literary Criticism, London: Methuen, 1976. Georg Gulgelberger, M., Marxism and African Literature, Great Britain: James Currey Ltd., 1985. Kenyatta, Jomo, Suffering Without Bitterness, Nairobi: EAPH, 1968. 7, West Germany: Herder and Herder, 1973. Maughan-Brown, David, Land, Freedom and Fiction, London: Zed Books, 1985. Nwankwo, Chimalum, The Works of Ngugi Wa Thiong’o: Towards the Kingdom of Woman and Man, Nigeria: Longman, 1992. Wood” (an essay presented to the Department of English Studies, Faculty of Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, June 2002) September) Palmer, Eustace, The Growth of the African Novel, London: Heineman, 1979. Sander Reinhard & Ian Munro, Tolstoy in Africa, Ba Shiru, Vol. 5, 1973. Tamarkin, M., The Roots of Political Stability in Kenya, Nairobi: Africa Affairs, 1978.