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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Snowball believe can co-exist?

2. In "chibuku beer and independence," who sent free beer for the independence celebration?

3. Where was Bessie sent at age 13?

4. In 1963, what did Bessie encourage her readers to do?

5. Bessie had stories to tell but couldn't write them. Why?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "The Old Woman," what is Bessie referring to when she says "Gods walk around Africa barefoot with nothing"?

2. What does Bessie say about refugees and friendship in "Letter from South Africa"?

3. What lasting effect did the treatment by the missionaries have on Bessie?

4. In "preface to Witchcraft," why is Bessie angry with South Africa?

5. In "Village People," how does Bessie describe the black African people?

6. In "The Woman From America," what was the biggest threat that this woman and her husband posed to the village?

7. In 1966, what changes were made regarding refugees in Botswana?

8. Why is there no rage and oppression in Botswana?

9. In "A Gentle People," what are Bessie's feelings regarding the black people of Cape Town?

10. What facts about her parentage were brutally told to Bessie by the magistrate and the missionary?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Ellen Kuzwayo's "Call me Woman," she describes her life before and after oppression. What was her life like before? What was the view of South African then? What kind of work was her family involved in? What kind of education did she have? Ellen was a part of the first groups of educated blacks that felt leadership should be based on merit, not ethnicity. What event changed her life drastically? Do you think she was at all prepared to be thrust into a world of instant poverty, violence, and suffering? How did she deal with it? Do you think that it's easier for someone to accept this, if they've been born into it and it's all they've ever known, rather than someone, like Ellen, who knew a good life and then was forced to give everything up?

Essay Topic 2

The Natives Land Act of 1913 deeply affected the lives of the South African blacks. What was the purpose of the Act? What did the shortage of labor at the mines have to do with the passing of the Act? What were the consequences for whites, who allowed the blacks access to water or grazing land? What, do you think, was the main effect on the psyche of the one million black people affected by the passing of this Act?

Essay Topic 3

Oppression stunted and almost obliterated Bessie's creativity. And yet, the musician, Makeba, seemed to revel in it. Why do you think it would affect two people so differently? Is it a question of passion? Does it create more passion for some and less for others? Do you think that Makeba's passion for liberation fueled her in a creative sense? Did she use the situation to her own advantage? Did Bessie's avoidance of anything liberatory or revolutionary deny her this? Had she been more liberal, might she have been able to write?

(see the answer keys)

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