Week 3 Blog

In order to classify Ngugi’s character within Petals of blood that is Munira as a Fanon-like intellectual one must first methodically analyze and define what it is that Fanon describes as a so called intellectual. One must ask what characterizes the intellectual in Fanon’s viewpoint. The colonized intellectual has distinct characteristics and traits that make them just that .The intellectual is the bridge between the colonists and the colonized. . He is able to educate his people and feed the same propaganda and establish the same brainwashing amongst his own people as he or she was once subjected to. According to Fanon ,”The colonized intellectual learnt from his masters the individual must assert himself.”,futhermore there is a view that wealth lies in thought. Finally there is the notion that the intellectual is prepared to fight for the sake of peace amongst the two entities. Fanon clearly states: “The intellectual who, for his part has adopted the abstract universal values of the colonizer is prepared to fight so that the colonist and colonized can live in peace in a new world.” Munira is an ideal example of the colonized intellectual that Fanon describes due to the fact that he displays such a wide array of the characteristics described. A simple example can be found toward the beginning of the book ,one of the small children claims the a flower that he found in the field has ‘petals of blood’ .Munira comments instantly stating that the color was not blood ,rather it was red and goes on to deliver a message that the children ought to learn the colors of the rainbow. This is the assertion that Fanon speaks of. He also displays the colonial tendencies that we associate with the intellectual by imposing the fact that the young boys ought to be educated .The intellectual is a brainwashed individual because as simple as the and nomadic lifestyle that the population within the village is destined for; it is their own heritage and tradition. However Munira imposes the need to teach these boys the European education that none of them sought for.Wanja ,too is a victim of Munira’s insistence on school as being the way forward. Another example is the treatment that Wanja receives after taking a job as a barmaid from Abdullah .The biggest difference that I find in Munira and the colonized intellectual is his inability to forgot the past.Munira is constantly haunted by these images of the past much in the same way his own people are unable to forget the past. The colonist is much more effective at eradicating the memory of the past and moving forward either through brainwashing which it seems is one of the primary themes within the book or by simply ignoring the past.Munira is not so much a symbol of hope but more a symbol of the Europeanized future that the village is destined for as a result of well-trained individuals that go undetected and are able to change their people in a stealth-like manner.
To summarize Munira displays characteristics that indicate him to be the intellectual that Fanon speaks off. His assertion and way of doing things are absolute displays of the Fanon intellectual.