Explain the themes highlighted in Blossoms

of The Savannah by Ole Kulet.

Explain the themes highlighted in Blossoms of The Savannah by Ole Kulet.

Answers

POSITIVE NASILIAN CULTURE/TRADITIONS

Culture refers to the customs, habits and behaviors that characterize a society’s, community’s or
nation’s way of life. On the other hand, traditions form part of the culture of a people and are handed
down from one generation to the next.
Positive aspects of culture in Nasila are important in holding people together. There are many
aspects of Nasilian culture which are positive. The songs the young people and children sing during
Ole Kaelo’s homecoming ceremony attest to the rich Maa culture. The narrator says, “From the
children’s performance, it was evident that the cherished Nasilian traditional dance would stand the
test of time.” (p.44). The writer says that the party was full of pomp and gaiety. This is brought out by
jewelry won by the guests such as ivory, beads, coloured lesos, kangas and shukas (p.47), all
attesting to the rich cultural heritage of the Maa. Generosity as a virtue is seen in Simiren who invites
all those present in the party to savor his brother’s lavish hospitality (p.46). Food and drinks are
served in generous measures to all those present (p.47). Ole Musanka, an elder who blesses Ole
Kaelo’s home, glorifies Maa’s culture saying that it was the blood and marrow that gave sustenance
to the body” (p.51). According to him, home is Maa, Nasila, family and children (p.52). His only
problem is that he supports FGM, a cultural practice that does not assist women in any way.

NEGATIVE CULTURE/TRADITIONS
Negative aspects of culture in Nasila are strongly opposed by the young generation. To them, such
practices should be shunned because they have outlived their usefulness in a society that is slowly
but surely embracing modernity and civilization.
Female Genital Mutilation (F.G.M) is an outdated cultural practice that has no standing in the
changing Nasila. To those that support it, it is meant to tame a wild gender just as cattle that require
to be dehorned (p.22). When it was discovered several years back, it was to find a lasting solution to
the exploitation of the Maa women by the Ilarinkon warriors. “…that gave birth to enkamuratani (the
female circumciser). And her Olmurunya was shaped, sharpened and handed to her” (p.87). Mama
Milanoi also affirms the origin of this cultural practice saying, “It was the shame and anger that was
provoked by Ilarinkon taunts, lewd teasing and provocative posturing that made the women do what
they did to curtail those desires the worthless predators exploited to prey upon them” (p.90).
Resian is very much opposed to this retrogressive practice. She says, “I would rather live in the
noisiest place on earth, than live anywhere near a vagabond who would accost me…with the
intention of mutilating my sexuality (p.33). At this early point, she makes her stand clear that she is
opposed to the practice that disfigures and damages female sexuality. She is bitter and has pain in
her heart due to threats of undergoing F.G.M. The olmurunya, the instrument used to conduct is
scary. The writer reveals that it “…was a bladelike tool shaped like a smoothing plane blade” and the
enkamuratani “showed the way she went about her profession of transforming young girls into young
women through the cut of olmurunya” (p.58). She wonders what the use of F.G.M in today’s woman
is (p.90). She observes that the practice is being fueled by men who use it to continue oppressing
women. “…one of their ways of oppressing us is to demand that F.G.M be perpetuated against us
forever” (p.91). The enkoiboni, mother to Olarinkoi tells Resian, “As soon as we clip that erogenous
salacity from you that destroys homes, you will become a respected woman…” (p.229). This was not
the original reason why F.G.M was invented but the practice has been maintained to purportedly
keep women faithful.

1
ALIENATION
Alienation is becoming a stranger to what one initially belonged to or being isolated from others.
Alienation in the novel, Blossoms of the Savannah is as a result of embracing new culture.
Ole Kaelo and his family have lived for thirty years in Nakuru where he has brought up his daughters
until his retrenchment. This has alienated him from many cultural practices which he comes across
with once he returns to Nasila. During his absence from Nasila, it was his brother Simiren who
represented him in the Ilmolelian clan in sacred rituals such as girls’ initiation (p.11). While his
brother has married four wives for the culture permits polygamy, Ole Kaelo has one wife and is
contemptuously likened to a mono-eyed giant who stood on legs of straw (p.13) showing that his
position and stand in Nasila is precarious and unstable. He regards himself as civilized and calls the
clan elders “megalomaniacs” who were still trapped in archaic traditions that were better buried and
forgotten” (p.13). During Ole Kaelo’s homecoming party, his daughters jokingly observe that he does
not know how to dance and that he should be coached (p.45). His inability to dance, perhaps, is a
result of being away from Nasila for many years. After settling in Nasila, the writer says that a new
Ole Kaelo was emerging and he was becoming a Nasilian very fast (p.62). Mama Milanoi reveals
that her husband was not a strict follower of Nasila traditions only prescribing to those aspects that
he considered decent (p.60). Perhaps, that is why he allows Oloisudori to marry his daughter
Resian, a thing that goes against the cultural grain of Nasila. She asks, “How could a man who was
the age of her husband be her son-in-law? Where was Nasila culture?” (p.114).

CULTURAL CONFLICT
Several characters undergo cultural conflict or dilemma in the novel as a result of encountering and
embracing the modern culture. Nasila culture, which is part of the larger Maa culture, is also in crisis
as a result of clashing with modernity.
Mama Milanoi, wife to Ole Kaelo, is at cultural crossroads. She is in dilemma as far as the question
of FGM is concerned. She understands the danger she would expose her daughters in Nasila where
there are both positive and negative cultural practices and wishes she could “…shield them and
protect them” (p.30). She knows this would not be possible because “Nasila people were very
intolerant of those who ignored their cherished cultural sensibilities” (p.30). She knows that she is in
breach of Nasila traditions by not having circumcised her daughters by then (p.60). While back in
Nakuru and before her husband’s retrenchment, Mama Milanoi admits that FGM was a non-issue in
the family for “She had regarded the practice as an archaic rite that had been discarded and
forgotten. But there it was now, rearing its ugly head and threatening to wreak havoc in the young
innocent lives of her daughters” (p.63).
Mama Milanoi is torn between yielding her daughters to the barbaric culture and losing their faith,
love and confidence and going against Nasila culture and becoming an alien in the clan. She fears
doing anything that would wrong her husband and hence chooses to tread carefully around the
matter. She comes out as a weak woman who shies from declaring her stand on Nasila culture when
she meekly tells her husband, “Our culture is everything and its rules, our lives” (p.61). Her dutiful
role of a faithful and obedient wife to Ole Kaelo comes before her duty to her daughters hence
chooses to obey his edicts. She wishes to join forces with the likes of Minik or Emakererei, and fight
against practices like FGM but then fears for her marriage, “If she aligned herself with a person who
Nasila regarded as having such an obnoxious reputation, where would her marriage stand?” (p.62).
She even wonders whether as a family, they are traditionalists or modernists especially by
embracing retrogressive cultural values (p.62).

Musyoxx answered the question on March 8, 2018 at 14:30