Who is Karega in Petals of Blood and what does he represent?
Karega is a pivotal character in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s novel. The story starts with him and his possible involvement in a murder. The opening scenes prepare the reader for the complex and somewhat mysterious nature of Karega. The presence of Karega tends to signify trouble or unease. When he visits his old teacher, Munira, the questions that he asks about their former school and the people connected to it leave Munira with a “cold fear.”
Yet it probably wouldn’t be appropriate to label Karega bad or nefarious. While he does stir up fright in other characters, that has more to do with the other characters’ suspicious agendas than Karega’s nature.
In general, Karega appears to be on the side of the underdog and the people of Ilmorog. In fact, he could be thought of as a leader or an anti-colonial freedom fighter. It is Karega who comes with up the idea to travel to the big city and confront their parliament representative.
In a sense, Karega stands for community and the welfare of everyone. He takes aim at the powerful and their “greedy stomachs.” He lambasts policies that serve the “narrow selfish ends” of the elite. He is a passionate person with a sharp sense of injustice. Today, he might be called an activist or an organizer. However, in the story, Karega’s activism ends up having an odious impact on the village.
What issues does the character Karega present in Petals of Blood?
In Petals of Blood, Ngugi presents the reader with a complex, multi-faceted portrait of post-colonial Kenya. Although the Kenyan people have managed to throw off the yoke of British colonialism, many of them find that their newly-independent land still has more than its fair share of problems, many of them related to the government's venality and corruption.
Ngugi's critique of post-independence Kenya is articulated in the novel by the character of Karega, who can reasonably be seen as the author's mouthpiece. A radical socialist committed to a complete reconstruction of society, Karega advocates violence among the poor and dispossessed as the only way of bringing down a system based on corruption and exploitation. With their guns and swords, the common people of Kenya will rise up and “seize the wealth which rightly belongs to them”.
Whether Karega's radical socialist vision is the right one, or whether his advocacy of violence is acceptable, there can be no doubt that his ideas provide the basis of a withering critique of an economic and political system that is supposed to serve the interests of the Kenyan people as a whole, but in actual fact places wealth and power in the hands of a corrupt, self-regarding elite.
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