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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What term used by the author in the Introduction is defined by him as having the effect of annihilating a people's belief in their names, languages, unity, and ultimately, themselves?
(a) Communal restructuring.
(b) A cultural bomb.
(c) Educational restructuring.
(d) Segregation.

2. How many wives did Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o's father have?
(a) Three.
(b) Five.
(c) Two.
(d) Four.

3. About how often was the Ituĩka ceremony held by the Agĩkũyũ?
(a) Every 15 years.
(b) Every 30 years.
(c) Every 10 years.
(d) Every 25 years.

4. Who wrote King Solomon's Mines?
(a) Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
(b) Martin Carter.
(c) Gabriel Okara.
(d) Sir H. Rider Haggard.

5. What term from Chapter 1, Part VI refers to a person within a country who acts as an agent for foreign organizations engaged in investment, trade, or economic or political exploitation?
(a) Conquistador.
(b) Matador.
(c) Comprador.
(d) Compatriate.

6. What does the author describe as the second aspect of language as culture in Chapter 1, Part IV?
(a) Culture as a reflection of history.
(b) Language in the form of written signs.
(c) An image-forming agent in the mind of a child.
(d) Language as a means for production.

7. What was the play The Black Hermit meant to celebrate?
(a) Uganda's Independence.
(b) Nigeria's Independence.
(c) Somalia's Independence.
(d) Kenya's Independence.

8. 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?
(a) Vladimir Lenin.
(b) Karl Marx.
(c) Alan Paton.
(d) Frantz Fanon.

9. Who founded the Theatre of the Oppressed?
(a) Amos Tutuola.
(b) Karl Marx.
(c) Bob Dixon.
(d) Augusto Boal.

10. The chorus in Ngaahika Ndeenda asks where the grave is for whom?
(a) Aduma.
(b) Kpanlogo.
(c) Waiyaki.
(d) Eskista.

11. Who declared in an article in Transition in 1963 that the acceptance of English and French as having no chance of advancing African literature and culture?
(a) Amos Tutuola.
(b) Birago Diop.
(c) Obi Wali.
(d) Martin Carter.

12. When were Kamĩrĩĩthũ and the other villages around Limuru established?
(a) The 1960s.
(b) The 1950s.
(c) The 1940s.
(d) The 1970s.

13. In what book of the author's did he narrate the fate of the production of Maitũ Njugĩra?
(a) Homecoming.
(b) Petals of Blood.
(c) Penpoints, Gunpoints, and Dreams.
(d) Barrel of a Pen.

14. Who wrote Catching Them Young?
(a) Gabriel Okara.
(b) Bob Dixon.
(c) Thomas Jefferson.
(d) Sir H. Rider Haggard.

15. In the repeated chorus in the scene from Ngaahika Ndeenda that is presented in the text, the lyrics state that problems can be settled in what?
(a) Jokes.
(b) Love.
(c) War.
(d) Blood.

Short Answer Questions

1. When did the production of Maitũ Njugĩra begin?

2. Who was the first Kenyan African Drama and Literature officer that oversaw the Schools Drama Festival?

3. When did Gakaara wa Wanjaũ earn the Noma Award for his secret diary he kept while in political detention?

4. How large was the work force of the Bata shoe factory at the time when Ngaahika Ndeenda was produced?

5. What novel of the author's did he hope to give a transcript of to Chinua Achebe at the writers' conference described in Chapter 1, Part II?

(see the answer keys)

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