‘Petals of Blood’ (1977) is a novel by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. The novel mainly deals with the dilemma of change after Kenya’s independence from colonial rule. Ilmorog is a name of a place mentioned in the story. Once, its people experienced a harsh situation because of bad weather. Now, we will see what happened to the habitats of Ilmorog due to the bad weather.
The inhabitants had a poor harvest as there was no rain. The lively green fields turned into naked earth full of dust and sand. They began to blame Abdulla’s donkey that overate grass, leaving none for cattle and goats. They also thought of it as an animal of lousy omen that was responsible for the current drought. During that time, very few students came to Munira’s school. People were suffering from a lack of food and water. At that time, two government officials came to Ilmorog to invite people to a tea party at Gatunda. People get furious at them, blaming the government for doing nothing in times of crisis. Women began to hurl abusive words at the government officers.
These are the sufferings the people of Ilmorog experienced during the bad weather.
