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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. Who is the author of Out of Africa?

2. What did a very cruel prison superintendent warn Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o against writing?

3. Who wrote the novel Mister Johnson?

4. Who gave the speech "Shakespeare in Africa" at Makerere University College?

5. Who chaired the committee that organized the conference on "The Teaching of African Literature in Kenyan Schools" held at the Nairobi School?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the author describe the narrative form of A Grain of Wheat?

2. Why does the author find fault in the orthography of Gĩkũyũ?

3. What are the subject and themes in the author's book Homecoming?

4. What were the three broad categories of literature available to African children described by the author in Chapter 4, Part III?

5. What does the author mean when he refers to a person's philosophic base of relevance?

6. What does the author remark about Faust in Chapter 3, Part VIII?

7. What is the meaning of the author's metaphor of the blind men and the elephant in Chapter 4, Part I?

8. How does the author describe his prison cell in Chapter 3, Part I?

9. What does the author mean when he refers to Afro-European literature?

10. What does the author remark about African poetry in Chapter 4, Part I?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the publication and distribution of Caitaani Mũtharabainĩ. How many copies were originally ordered? How well did they sell and who bought them? How was the novel consumed by a largely illiterate audience?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the production process of Ngaahika Ndeenda. How long did the process take from research and script-writing to performance? What were auditions and rehearsals like? How did the play evolve as it was developed?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss how the printing press and the introduction of colleges and universities in Africa stood as opposing forces for African literature. When was the printing press introduced to Africa and by whom? Who controlled the publication of literature? How did colleges and universities stand as obstacles to African novelists?

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