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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What is the circumcision of both sexes regarded as in Gikuyu society?
(a) A time to fight fear.
(b) A necessary ordeal.
(c) The unification of the whole tribe.
(d) Something that should be eventually banned.

3. When do the Gikuyu make sacrifices to their god?
(a) Only in dire circumstances and when rain fails to fall.
(b) For good health.
(c) For a good harvest.
(d) For fertility.

4. What do the girls and their sponsors do in the hut on the day of circumcision?
(a) They dance together.
(b) They exchange vows.
(c) They sing a special initiation song.
(d) The girls sit between the legs of their sponsors.

5. When a man becomes ill, ________________ are sought.
(a) Elders.
(b) Gikuyu gods.
(c) Seers.
(d) Medicine men.

6. What do the boys and girls do after the location of the surgery is blessed and ancestral spirits appeased?
(a) They kneel and pray to their ancestors.
(b) They eat a special food.
(c) They dance in a circle.
(d) They go to the same tree.

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

8. What is the sound of the Gikuyu's God's movement?
(a) Rustling trees.
(b) Thunder,.
(c) Mighty wind.
(d) Rushing river water.

9. How do the mother and the nurse educate the very young?
(a) Through lullabies.
(b) Through stories.
(c) Through poems.
(d) With toys.

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

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

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

13. What are the stomach contents of the sacrificial animal mixed with during the harvesting ceremony?
(a) Spices.
(b) Fruit and nuts.
(c) Sap of a tree and the bark.
(d) Ground up fish.

14. Who leads the initiates to the homestead?
(a) The mother.
(b) The father.
(c) The medicine man.
(d) Senior warriors.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How many sheep are slaughtered for the marriage feast?

2. When does a junior warrior become a senior warrior?

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

4. What are the young taught?

5. At what age is a Gikuyu child circumcised?

(see the answer keys)

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