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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where does Ngũgĩ say he found refuge at the start of Chapter 43?
(a) His classroom.
(b) The Sunday School chapel.
(c) Books.
(d) His dorm room.

2. In what year was the Declaration of the state of Emergency in Kenya?
(a) 1922.
(b) 1932.
(c) 1952.
(d) 1942.

3. Why were government officials taking fingerprints at Alliance in Chapter 18?
(a) Nobody knows.
(b) To arrest students.
(c) To see who is Mau Mau.
(d) For passports.

4. What did Jonyo Kenyatta call Kenya?
(a) The Land of Conflicted Souls.
(b) A Land of Conflict.
(c) A Soul in Conflict.
(d) The Land of Kenyatta.

5. What did Ngũgĩ’s mother make for his friends when they visited in Chapter 23?
(a) Mashed potatoes.
(b) Roasted yams.
(c) Pear Jam.
(d) Roasted potatoes.

Short Answer Questions

1. Government officials screened students at Alliance to ensure no student had pledged allegiance to whom?

2. What is the name of the man who tells Ngũgĩ where to find his family in Chapter 1?

3. Who does Ngũgĩ think about while walking home at the beginning of the memoir?

4. What was the name of the prison to which Ngũgĩ had to go to receive his final confirmation in Chapter 21?

5. In what year does Chapter 18 begin?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Ngũgĩ define villagization?

2. Describe Ngũgĩ’s feelings about volunteering at Sunday School and the words or phrases he uses to express these feelings?

3. What are some of the things that make the new village feel like the old village when Ngũgĩ returns home for Christmas?

4. Describe the significance of the Mugumo tree at the end of Chapter 31.

5. What did Ngũgĩ learn happened to his mother while he was at school?

6. Why does Ngũgĩ refer to Alliance as a sanctuary?

7. What words does Ngũgĩ use to describe the school when he returns from break in January 1957?

8. In what ways did Edward Carey Francis change the education model of Alliance?

9. After Harold MacMillan replaced Anthony Eden as British Prime Minister, several countries gained their independence. Please list which countries gained their independence and from whom.

10. Describe Ngũgĩ’s friendship with Kenneth Mbgũa.

(see the answer keys)

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