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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. At what age is a Gikuyu child circumcised?
(a) Fifteen or sixteen.
(b) Seventeen or eighteen.
(c) Fourteen.
(d) Twelve or thirteen.

2. What was the name of the first governmental group?
(a) Kolugi generation.
(b) Gikuyu generation..
(c) Ndemi generation.
(d) Nogami generation .

3. When is a man initiated into the council of peace?
(a) When a man owns his own hut and land.
(b) When a man is 50 years old.
(c) When a man has a child to be circumcised.
(d) When a man marries.

4. What musical instruments are used to chase away evil spirits?
(a) Flutes,.
(b) Drums.
(c) Horns.
(d) Magic sticks.

5. Where are the strips of the sacrificial animal buried ?
(a) By the river.
(b) In the gardens.
(c) In crossroads throughout the village.
(d) On Mount Kenya.

6. What do Gikuyus do instead of praying to their ancestral spirits?
(a) Give them gitts of respect.
(b) Name their children after them.
(c) Light a fire on top of Mount Kenya in their honor.
(d) Hold a feast in their honor.

7. What kind of government did the British introduce when they came?
(a) Republic.
(b) Autocracy.
(c) Democracy.
(d) Dictatorship.

8. How many oaths control the court proceedings of the Gikuyu?
(a) One.
(b) Three.
(c) Four.
(d) Two.

9. Who plants the seeds in the Gikuyu society?
(a) Only the elders.
(b) Women and children.
(c) All males.
(d) Medicine men.

10. What kind of games do the young Gikuyu play?
(a) Singing songs.
(b) Pretend fighting and house.
(c) Climbing trees.
(d) Hide and Go Seek.

11. What serves as churches for the Gikuyu?
(a) Sacred groves.
(b) Sacred huts.
(c) The river.
(d) Sacred trees.

12. How does a Gikuyu marriage come about?
(a) Men and women choose their own mates.
(b) The Gikuyu men choose their brides.
(c) The marriages are arranged by Gikuyu elders.
(d) The marriages are arranged by the parents.

13. When the man has a hut suitable for his wife what happens?
(a) He begins furnishing it.
(b) He takes her to the hut himself.
(c) He builds the sacred fire in the middle of the hut.
(d) The bride is taken to his hut by his female relatives.

14. When is a Gikuyu man initiated into the religious and sacrificial council?
(a) When his wife is past child-bearing age.
(b) When two of his daughters marry.
(c) When three of his sons become warriors.
(d) When he becomes an elder.

15. What does the bride do when the husband's relatives come to take her to his hut?
(a) She sings to them.
(b) She pretends to struggle against them.
(c) She gives them flowers.
(d) She hugs them.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did the Gikuyus consider "white man's magic"?

2. For what did the Europeans condemn the Gikuyus?

3. How is the first stage of youth marked in the Gikuyu tribe?

4. What does Kenyatta fear western education will do to the Gikuyu society?

5. At what age is the first stage of Gikuyu youth marked?

(see the answer keys)

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