Assimilation in 'Petals of Blood': Impact of Westernization on the Post-Colonial African Culture Dennis Odhiambo College

Culture as a way of life of a given society that is forwarded from one generation to the next has undergone drastic changes in African societies following the colonization period by European powers. The facets mostly affected include political system, religion, economy, language, education, and social elements. Either by intention or chance, Africans absorbed the Western culture and have appropriated it so much that it became the part and parcel of their lives.

In Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o’s Petals of Blood, this motif is explored vigorously with Kenya as the setting following its gaining of independence from the British powers. The narrative follows four characters Munira, Abdulla, Wanja, and Karega who reveal different aspects of their history to each other and whose lives are intertwined due to the Mau Mau rebellion. The four friends relocate to a pastoral village of Ilmorog escaping the city life following the new and rapidly westernizing Kenya. The Mau Mau rebellion which originated in the 1950s as an anti-colonial armed resistance against the British colonial state played a major part in the attainment of Kenyan independence in 1963. Thiong’o explores the betrayal of the ideals of this anti-colonial struggle by the new...