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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 4 (Parts V-IX): "The Quest for Relevance".

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did a very cruel prison superintendent warn Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o against writing?
(a) Poems.
(b) Memoirs.
(c) Letters.
(d) Novels.

2. What was the author's earliest short story, which was published in the literary journal at Makerere University College?
(a) "The Waving Wheat."
(b) "The Sand Dune."
(c) "The Officer."
(d) "The Fig Tree."

3. Who wrote Contes d'Amadou Koumba?
(a) Amos Tutuola.
(b) Gabriel Okara.
(c) Birago Diop.
(d) Martin Carter.

4. The author poses the question in Chapter 1, Part VIII, "What is the difference between a politician who says Africa cannot do without imperialism and the writer who says Africa cannot do without" what (26)?
(a) "Western ideologies."
(b) "European languages."
(c) "European culture."
(d) "Western philosophies."

5. How many years of involvement had Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o spent writing literature in Englis when the author began writing in Gĩkũyũ?
(a) 17.
(b) 22.
(c) 13.
(d) 31.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the word "vacillating" mean as used in Chapter 1, Part VI?

2. From whom does the author borrow the phrase "empty space" in Chapter 2, Part III (37)?

3. Who wrote Betrayal in the City?

4. Who wrote the poem "Speech to Danish Working Class Actors on the Art of Observation"?

5. In Chapter 1, Part IV the author states that language as communication has three aspects. The first of these is the language of real life, which he attributes to having been coined by whom?

(see the answer key)

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