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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 is the first shrine to Idemili?

2. What is the main message of the hymn written by Ikem?

3. What is one of Beatrice's nicknames?

4. Which best describes the Commissioners' attitude toward the President as shown throughout Chapter 1?

5. What does the Attorney-General claim the people of the nation want from the President?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why, according to Chris, does the President begin to distance himself from Ikem and Chris?

2. Why do most well-off city dwellers from Bassa never travel to the north of the country by bus?

3. Describe Mad Medico's relationship to the President and his attitude toward him.

4. In what ways is the naming ceremony untraditional?

5. Why does Ikem feel exhilarated after his meeting with the taxi drivers?

6. Chris urges Ikem to "lie low." If you were Ikem, what would you do?

7. How does the National Gazette distort Ikem's words to make him seem guilty? What lies are told about his death?

8. Why is Mad Medico deported?

9. How, according to Ikem, do working-class people expect their leaders to live?

10. What does Ikem urge the students to do?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the idea of storytelling as a powerful tool.

1) Why, according to the Abazon elder, is the story of the battle more important than the battle itself?

2) Why, according to Ikem, are storytellers the enemies of tyrants?

3) How do Ikem's stories threaten the President? What change is he able to effect through them?

Essay Topic 2

Anthills of the Savannah describes a country under the rule of an increasingly tyrannical dictator. Describe the various ways in which the dictator exerts control over his Cabinet and over the people.

Essay Topic 3

According to The New York Review of Books, the novel Anthills of the Savannah "has wonderful satiric moments and resounds with big African laughter." Write an essay discussing the humor in the novel.

(see the answer keys)

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