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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the author describe as a constant theme in the stories that he grew up listening to?
(a) Power lies in the hands of those who seize it.
(b) Marriage is a holy sacrament.
(c) Cooperation as the ultimate good in a community.
(d) Children are the product of their parents' actions.

2. Hausa is the first language of approximately how many people?
(a) 10 million.
(b) 20 million.
(c) 36 million.
(d) 44 million.

3. What does the author refer to as the result of the broken harmony between the three aspects of language as communication for the colonial child?
(a) Colonial alienation.
(b) Colonial affectation.
(c) Colonial aberration.
(d) Colonial distinction.

4. When did Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o begin writing in Gĩkũyũ?
(a) 1975.
(b) 1977.
(c) 1982.
(d) 1973.

5. What performance troupe first performed The Trial of Dedan Kimathi?
(a) The Kenya Festac 77 Drama Group.
(b) The Ibadan Drama Group Festac 76.
(c) Ghana’s Concert Party theatre.
(d) The Nairobi National Theatre Group.

6. What statement largely sums up the author's central theme in Chapter 1, Part IV?
(a) Culture reflects history and communication carries history.
(b) Communication creates culture, and culture is a means of communication.
(c) Culture creates communication, and communication is a means to culture.
(d) Culture and communication are unnecessary.

7. In what book of the author's did he narrate the fate of the production of Maitũ Njugĩra?
(a) Penpoints, Gunpoints, and Dreams.
(b) Petals of Blood.
(c) Homecoming.
(d) Barrel of a Pen.

8. When was the Ituĩka ceremony banned in Kenya?
(a) 1925.
(b) 1919.
(c) 1944.
(d) 1942.

9. The author states in his Introduction that he will look at the African realities as affected by the great struggle between two opposed forces in Africa today. These are an imperialist tradition and what?
(a) A realist tradition.
(b) A socialist tradition.
(c) An arbitrarary tradition.
(d) A resistance tradition.

10. What term does the author define in Chapter 1, Part VIII as "literature written by Africans in European languages in the era of imperialism" (27)?
(a) African Exile literature.
(b) European-African literature.
(c) Neo-African literature.
(d) Afro-European literature.

11. In Chapter 1, Part IV the author states that language as communication has three aspects. The first of these is the language of real life, which he attributes to having been coined by whom?
(a) Vladimir Lenin.
(b) Karl Marx.
(c) Frantz Fanon.
(d) Alan Paton.

12. What character in Ngaahika Ndeenda has a long dramatic monologue about the struggle between capital and labor which is described in Chapter 2, Part V?
(a) Maitũ Njugĩra.
(b) Kĩgũũnda.
(c) Gĩcaamba.
(d) Kĩmaathi.

13. What does the word "vacillating" mean as used in Chapter 1, Part VI?
(a) Failing.
(b) De-escalating.
(c) Fluctuating.
(d) Escalating.

14. When was Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o arrested as a result of the production of Ngaahika Ndeenda?
(a) September 12, 1976.
(b) December 31, 1977.
(c) October 2, 1977.
(d) March 30, 1977.

15. What does the word "Maitũ" translate to in English?
(a) Sister.
(b) Bride.
(c) Mother.
(d) Father.

Short Answer Questions

1. Wangeci's monologue from the excerpt of Ngaahika Ndeenda in the text describes the Olengurueni women who were exiled to where?

2. For how long was Gakaara wa Wanjaũ imprisoned for his writings in Gĩkũyũ?

3. The author states in Chapter 1, Part V that economic and political control can never be complete or effective without what?

4. What three colors comprise the flag of Kenya?

5. When was The Black Hermit first produced?

(see the answer keys)

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