Petals of Blood

Having just won its independence from Great Britain, the citizens of Kenya in Petals of Blood continue to see the lingering effects of colonialism, particularly through the systems and structures that were put in place under European control. Religion, education, writing, banking, the police, and more are utilized by groups of people in power to maintain control over Kenya’s citizens, even after independence.

As Ilmorog grows from a farming village to a trade center, poverty only grows, and a rigid class system develops. To maintain control, the wealthy use neocolonial tools like landownership and the banking system. Land “ownership” is a brand-new concept to the villagers of Ilmorog, and they enter into agreements to buy land their families have occupied for generations without fully understanding what the agreements mean. These deals are predatory, creating terms the villagers cannot meet, and as time passes, they lose their deeds or have land bought out from under them due to capitalist greed. Munira explains:

They looked baffled: how could a bank sell their land? A bank was not a government: from whence then, its powers? […] But he could not answer their questions. He only talked about a piece of paper they had all signed and the red blotched title-deeds, another piece of paper, they had surrendered to the bank (327).