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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What rite of passage did Mademba and Alfa share on the same day in their youth?
(a) Communion.
(b) Circumcision.
(c) Wedding vows.
(d) Confirmation.

2. What does Alfa imagine the Germans did for the person who killed Jean-Baptiste?
(a) Punish him.
(b) Offer him tobacco and maybe even write a song for him.
(c) Give him chocolate.
(d) Give him a parade.

3. What phrase does Afla repeat many times at the beginning of his sentences in Part I?
(a) I know, I understand.
(b) Help now.
(c) You know.
(d) Please God.

4. What does the voice inside Alfa's head tell him as he stayed with Mademba when Mademba was dying?
(a) To kill Mademba.
(b) To run away and leave the war.
(c) To respect his mother's wishes and only to kill enemy soldiers.
(d) Not to kill Mademba and play God.

5. How does Alfa repeatedly refer to Mademba Diop?
(a) My cousin.
(b) My soul mate.
(c) My nemesis.
(d) My more-than-brother.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who wrote, "We embraced each other by our names?"

2. What words do Alfa's translator in Part II say over and over?

3. What does Alfa do with Mademba's body after he dies?

4. Where do the soldiers Alfa kills in the night always come out of?

5. What work of Cheikh Hamidou Kane's does Diop reference in the beginning of Part I?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Afla think of the trenches as when he takes Mademba back there with him following Mademba's death?

2. Why does Alfa feel almost entirely responsible for Mademba's death?

3. What was all Alfa could think about when he stayed with Mademba during Mademba's last hours?

4. What does Captain Armand want Alfa to do in Part II?

5. What phrase does Alfa Ndiaye begin repeating immediately in Part I?

6. What is the cultural attitude from Alfa's culture towards the symbol of a totem?

7. How does Alfa repeatedly refer to Mademba in the narration?

8. What does Alfa say he becomes when he goes out to seek the vengeance on German's for Mademba's death?

9. What does Alfa really think about Captain Armand's praise for Black soldiers?

10. Why does Alfa not want to reveal where he is hiding the severed hands of the Germans to Captain Armand?

(see the answer keys)

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