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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 gets lowered into the dam?

2. What illness does Lee Banda have?

3. Who is Brenda?

4. Who is Mai?

5. What does Thandi think about Agnes?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the General want from Jacob?

2. What is "The Vulture"?

3. Who teaches Jacob to read?

4. What boy does Joseph meet while at One Hundred Years Clinic?

5. Who is Naila's boss at her office?

6. Why does Thandi's husband go to a hair salon almost every day while they are married?

7. Who does Joseph does Joseph contact from his father's phone?

8. Who are Pepa and Solo?

9. What does Agnes ask Joseph to help her find?

10. Who dies at Matha's house?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay in which you examine the motif of mosquitoes. What function does the presence of mosquitoes serve in the novel, either narratively, figuratively, or both? What is the significance of mosquitoes in this story? Use evidence from the text to explain your thoughts.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay in which you examine the concept of land/land ownership in the novel, particularly as it pertains to settler colonialism in Africa throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In what ways does this issue present itself in the novel, and how does the novel's characters interact with or interrogate this concept? Use evidence from the text to explain your thoughts.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay in which you examine the concept of Beads in the novel. What are Beads, and what do they do? Why does everyone in Zambia have one? What function do they serve? In what ways do they both hinder and benefit their owners? Use evidence from the text to explain your thoughts.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 526 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample