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

2. What language did the President of the Kamuzu Academy instruct should occupy a central place in the curriculum?

3. Who wrote Facing Mount Kenya?

4. The chorus in Ngaahika Ndeenda asks where the grave is for whom?

5. What does the Ituĩka ceremony mark?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the theater that was erected at the Kamĩrĩĩthũ Community Education and Cultural Centre. Where was it located?

2. How does the author describe the significance of land in Kenya?

3. What are the mutually opposed forces in African realities today, according to the author in his Introduction?

4. What does the author ask about writers who continue to write in foreign languages in Chapter 1, Part VIII?

5. What dramas was the author exposed to during his education?

6. What literary convention does the author describe in Chapter 1, Part II? Who attended?

7. How are language and communication products of each other?

8. What are the two main strands of the petty-bourgeoisie in Africa that the author describes in Chapter 1, Part VI?

9. What are the three aspects of language as means of communication?

10. What are the main characters anticipating in the opening of Ngaahika Ndeenda?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the author's metaphor of the seven blind men and the elephant. What aspect of literature is demonstrated through this metaphor? What other examples does the author give to make his point? How does this story relate to the concepts of class and philosophical bases?

Essay Topic 2

What languages have dominated Africa in the colonial and post-colonial eras? How were these European languages imparted upon the residents of African countries or colonies? In what languages did early African literature of the 19th and 20th centuries emerge?

Essay Topic 3

What is referred to by the term mental domination in the context of the book? How is language used in mental domination? Why is mental domination necessary in order to achieve economic and political domination over a people?

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