A Silent Song and Other Stories Essay Questions and Answers

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A Silent Song and Other Stories
• A Man of Awesome Power

• Incident in the Park
• Ninema
• A Silent Song
• Ivory Bangles
• The Sins of the Fathers
• The Truly Married Woman
• Talking Money
• Ghosts
• God Sees the Truth, but Waits
• The Neighbourhood Watch
• December
• Boyi
A SILENT SONG AND OTHER STORIES ESSAY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
1.An individual’s good qualities can attract admiration and love. Citing illustrations
from Ninema by Vrenika Pather, write an essay to support this statement.
Exemplary attributes arouse respect, warm approval and affection. Ninema is a young beautiful
woman whose praiseworthy character makes her the embodiment of magnificence. She is
respected and loved by all and sundry at the marketplace.
First, Ninema is respected because she faces her challenges and wins. She has to wake up at four
o'clock on a Monday morning to reap the herbs from her garden. She is a market gardener. Her
crops are healthy. Ninema has green fingers but she does not know it. She earns her living by
selling her crops at the Indian market. The walk to the market is long(P14). Her life is tough and
so is she. She arranges her dhania and mint neatly and sighs. Although she accepts her lot in life,
Ninema is not resigned to it. She has never had hot running water so she washes her face and feet
with cold water from the outside tap. To take her weekly bath, Ninema boils water on the open
fire. She coils her long black hair into a bun at the nape of her neck. She will wash it on Saturday
when she takes her bath. For now, it is neat and out of the way. Ninema's presence displaces the
space around her and fills it with gravity(P13). Some day, with the money she is saving, she
hopes to buy a house of her own(P15). Despite all these challenges, Ninema dreams of the home
that will be hers some day soon. The house will have hot water. The kitchen will be on the
inside. She will have her own large garden where her herbs will flourish. Maybe, she will start
growing some fruit for herself(P16). The attribute of facing challenges and winning, instead of
resigning to them, earns Ninema respect.
Ninema earns lots of admiration because she focuses on earning a living and ignores all other
distractions. Although Ninema is a beautiful woman who makes heads turn as she walks, she
does not take the attention to heart. Ninema’s hips sway from side to side as she moves her body
in rhythm to balance the basket on her head. Her thin chiffon sari dress drapes around her perfect
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body effortlessly as if kept in place by her high, firm breasts. She has long, toned arms and a
cinched waist which cause men to stop and stare. When she faces them with her piercing, black
eyes they turn around in embarrassment. The women admire her high cheekbones. Ninema is
neither influenced nor affected by the attention she receives from the men or women. Her
concern is with earning a living. She sets up her stall and arranges her herbs appetizingly. Other
lady hawkers chat with her and each other amiably. Ninema rarely chats back. She has no time to
waste. Nobody minds the fact that Ninema does not pay attention to the trifles. She only focuses
on earning a living. These qualities attract admiration(P13-14).
Ninema has the wisdom of family trading so she has the perception that the first and last
customers are very important. She knows that the first customer opens the business day while the
last closes it. She takes extra care of them for they bring luck. She learned the trade from her
mother and father who passed down this wisdom from generations of family trading. Ninema
believes in its grace and power. She also has good faith in accounting and can count faster than
you can say the word ‘herb' (P14). Mr. Chinran is her first customer and she treats him with
respect and appreciation for he is loyal. At the end of the market day, when a new customer, a
last minute buyer drops by, Ninema gives her an extra bunch of mint for free. The customer is
happy and promises to always shop at her stall for herbs(P15). This wisdom makes Ninema an
admirable individual.
Also, Ninema treats all her loyal customers with respect and appreciation. Mr. Chinran is one of
the loyal customers. He often was the first to support Ninema when she opened her stall. The
ladies in the other stalls tease saying he was in love with her. She simply smiled away their
silliness. Mr. Chinran is a rich lawyer from the Brahmin caste while Ninema is a poor girl from a
low caste. How could he be interested in her? It was unthinkable like having a relationship with
a white man. This notwithstanding, the mere sight of Ninema made Mr. Chinran’s day. He is so
infatuated with her that the thought of his mother arranging a marriage for him makes him hot
under the collar. Some prying, jealous wife would take over the herbs buying rounds and deny
him the opportunity of seeing Ninema. His mother complains that he buys too much and this
morning he buys even more than usual. Ninema does not encourage his infatuation with her but
since he is a loyal customer he treats him with respect and appreciation(P14). Although Mr.
Chinran is from a prestigious caste, his fondness of Ninema is proof that someone’s good
qualities can endear them to people.
Ninema handles her customers masterfully and this makes them fond of her. This is evident in
the way she handles Mrs. Singh. Ninema refers to her respectfully as auntie. When Ninema tells
her that three bunches of parsley cost six cents, she exclaims that it is too much, expecting her to
lower the price but she does not budge; not for rich Mrs. Singh not for anyone else(P14). Mrs.
Singh tries the ploy on the next herb to get better prices but it is inadequate. Mrs. Singh likes to
haggle out of boredom. She wants a long market day to avoid going back to her large empty
house where the servants do everything including cooking. She bargains in order to interact with
Ninema for as long as possible. Ninema’s skills earn her adoration and loyalty from rich people
such as Mrs. Singh(P15).
Ninema earns the love, respect and admiration of the other market women because she is her
own person. She acts independently and confidently. Ninema runs her business with an iron fist.
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Some people like her herbs and her manner of doing things and support her. Some are offended
ostensibly because she does not bring down the prizes, she sells only herbs and is not chatty.
Really what they did not like is that she is her own person. She does not give in to what other
people expect of her. This frightened some as much as it thrilled others. The ladies in the other
stalls like Ninema because of this. They look up to her. She is one of them but something about
her is different. The difference draws them to her rather than repulse them. They want to learn
her secret because unlike her they often compromise themselves at work and at home. This
makes them angry with themselves. They admire how Ninema carries herself. Ninema’s qualities
of independence and confidence make her admirable and lovable(P15).
Ninema has a steady flow of customers since she takes personal interest in each of our
customers. At lunch time she eats her packed sandwiches as she works. Her stall is busy. She
arranges her herbs appetizingly and every day she picks up on passing trade. Customers are
attracted by the smell and look of her stall. She has to grow more seed in order to keep up with
the demand. She hopes to have enough to satisfy all her customers since her herbs diminish fast.
Business is flourishing. Most rich people buy herbs from Ninema during their lunch break
making this the busiest time of the day. These are clerical workers and professionals. Although
she is busy, Ninema finds time to take personal interest in each of her customers. She knows
whose son is studying to be a doctor far away in India, whose daughter just got married, who
moved in their new home and where they bought it. Ninema has many customers because she is
genuinely interested in their lives. Indeed such good qualities attract respect and love(P15).
Lastly, Ninema gets cheers of approval from the other market women for the way she stands up
to the indecent man who assaults her. She hits the man much to the delight of the cheering
market women. The man had approached her and blocked her away. She stared at him straight in
the face. The strange man grinned at her lasciviously, and then suddenly extended his arm and
pinched her erect nipple, hard. He then laughed out loud, turned away in a cocksure stride and
told her in a vulgar tone, “If you liked that, follow me.” After placing her basket down with
deliberate care, to avoid bruising the herbs nestled neatly inside, Ninema follows the man and
beats him on the back of his head with her chumpal. She then hits him all over his face and torso.
The astounded man covers his face with his hands. Ninema only notices that the other market
women had been keenly watching the fight when she hears their jeers, cheers and laughter. The
man is too embarrassed and dumbfounded to react. He is scared that the women could gang up
against him. Ninema gives him a few extra hits on behalf of all the women. He whimpers for she
is strong. The women clap and laugh heartily. Ninema bends gracefully, picks the basket and
places it gently on her head and says goodbye to the other women. Ninema is loved and
respected as a result of such attributes(P16).
In conclusion, good attributes or traits are bound to attract affection and admiration from our
peers and other people, regardless of age, financial status or class.
2.People commit unethical acts as a result of lack of care. Citing illustrations from Incident
in the Park by Meja Mwangi, write an essay to validate this statement.
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Immorality stems from people’s indifference. Unethical acts like negligence and brutality result
from lack of care. Blood thirsty city dwellers brutally murder an innocent fruit seller without
batting an eyelid in Incident in the Park.
Government workers go about their business ignoring the ravaging effects of the drought on the
neglected park. The park is dirty and brown. There was no promise of rain that August. The
ground is dusty brown, bare and parched. The ministerial offices, City Hall and parliament
buildings and the ominous cathedral are a stone throw away from the pathetic looking park. The
ministerial offices are modern fortresses and its occupants conveniently ignore the park which
clearly lacks proper care. This is evidenced by the dry bits of grass, dry leaves and thirsty trees.
Only delicate flowers, planted like oasis islands at various spots, are watered in a desperate effort
to keep the dirty brown park beautiful. The sad-looking boathouse and dirty, muddy water sum
up the government's lack of care for the park.
Secondly, the park is filled with many idlers who have little care in the world. They waste many
hours lying idle in the park. They ignore the city and parliament clocks which strike suddenly,
together - reminding them of how much time they had wasted. They care less about being useful.
The clocks’ pleas go unheeded. Some insolent loafers simply shake their heads defiantly, curse
loudly, face the other way and go back to sleep. Only every now and then, does a misplaced idler
heed the clocks nagging disapproval and accusing fingers and walk away. The park people have
no intention to go anywhere else but while away. They are here to stay. They have arrived.
During the afternoons, the park looks parched and almost dead, dotted with a few loungers. More
idlers sit by the lake watching the rowers, day in day out. This unproductive lot is a burden to the
city and to society.
The neglected pond in the park is another sign of lack of care by relevant authorities. The fish
pond is dangerously overgrown with weeds. Colourless weeds choke the yellow, blue and purple
water lilies. An ugly mishmash of weeds has replaced the aesthetic blue-green surface of the
once beautiful pond. Initially, the pond flowers stuck out buds, thick colorful fingers and
proclaimed order but not anymore - the existence of these beautiful fauna has been snuffed out
by a riot of unclassifiable intruders and bastard flowers. To make matters worse, the park soil has
collapsed, forcing the pond’s murky, brown water and bewildered fish to the deeper, further end.
The sorry state of the pond points to acute lack of attention or care.
The hairy loafer who feeds the fish is defiant. He ignores the public notice on the board that
cautions people against feeding the fish. He carelessly tosses debris, tiny bits of grass and soil at
the hungry fish. The fish fight for the useless things but let go when they realize they are
worthless. The idler throws in more rubbish and carelessly sniggers - he has no iota of empathy
whatsoever. He also drops in a piece of soil at the fish. When he learns that fish feeds on insects,
he tries to find some and later decides to throw in a flattened cigarette end when he cannot catch
any insects. The big fish that catches the cigarette butt releases it since it is useless. At last, the
uncaring idler curses after violently hurling a large rock at the confounded fish. His lack of
empathy leads him to defy the order not to feed the fish and as a result he harms the fishes.
The police constables are callous. They harass innocent people heartlessly, displaying no shred
of sympathy. The two city constables accost the old fruit seller and demand for his license and
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identification. As fate would have it, he has neither. He cannot afford a licence. The old man
nods uncomprehendingly and shakes his head sadly when the police demand for a license. He
desperately tries to bribe the constables by offering five shillings; all he had made that day. The
policeman grabs him by his old coat and remarks that he would explain it to the judge. The old
man swears by his mother. He is devastated because he has another case with the cruel judge. A
tyrant who would hang him this time round. The fruit seller cries that the judge is crazy and
would castrate him but his pleas fall on deaf ears. He offers the constables a 10- shilling bribe
and even his foot baskets. The constables remain indifferent even when he cries that he has a
wife and children. They do not care. They match him right ahead. When he realizes that he is
talking to a brick wall, he decides to leap and run for it but not before cursing the cops, their
wives and their children.
The judge is portrayed as being unjust or outrightly cruel. When the police insist on taking him
to the judge, the old fruit seller cries desperately. He has no licence and identification. He swears
by his mother. He already has a case with the judge and he does not want to be taken back. He
believes the judge will hung him. He is selling the fruits in order to afford the fine that was
earlier imposed. He pleads with the police men as brothers. He even tells them that the judge is a
tyrant - a crazy man who will have him castrated. The allusion to his wife and children does not
bear any fruits. He tries to bribe the police with 10 shillings and appease them with his fruit
basket but the uncaring constables match him ahead. The fruit seller curses the policemen and
their families and decides to bolt. He takes this desperate measure to avoid facing the evil,
apathetic judge.
The bloodthirsty city dwellers have no regard for human life. Realizing that the city constable
were adamant about taking him to the judge, the fruit seller decides to run for it. He leaps,
breaking away, leaving the policeman holding onto a piece of his one coat. He runs across the
park. The policeman shouts for help. The old man hopes to get protection by disappearing into
the city dwellers. That was not to be. The barbarous city dwellers lunge at him trying to nab him.
The old man is savagely desperate to escape. When he stumbles and falls into a ditch, the
ferocious mob stones him to death. He cries out pleading for mercy. The bloodthirsty crowd
leaves him for dead, looking like a broken twisted rag doll, covered in stones and a thick red
blood. The crowd mistakenly label him as a thief.
Lastly, the injustice witnessed after the innocent fruit seller killed is the height of brutality and
lack of care. The constable strives to shift blame. No one looks guilty enough. The constables
conveniently withdraw. An inspector confirms that the man is dead. The crowd that stoned him
and those that witnessed his savage murder lower their eyes. Unwilling to openly testify, some of
the residents hurriedly return to their offices, indifferently. The word ‘thief’ oozes out discreetly
from mouth to mouth. They mistakenly condemn the man to be a desperate thief. They judge him
by the unmistakable uniform of his trade - dirty torn clothes and a mean hungry face. Even the
inspector of police is uneasy and doubtful about his next course of action. The poor man finds no
justice even in his death. All and sundry conclude that a thief is a thief. The twisted garbage-
strewn dark alleyways are lawlessly governed by one savage unwritten law concerning the fate
of apprehended thieves. Ironically, the man is killed before his identity is established. Sadly, he
can only be identified by his grieving wife and children in a cold room. An innocent life is cut
short due to the heartless nature of idle, uncaring city dwellers and the inept police department.
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In conclusion, any society that lacks benevolence disintegrates into an abyss of lawlessness and
immorality.
3.Lack of sound judgment results in regret. Making reference to A Man of Awesome

Power, write an essay to justify this claim.
Lack of good sense results in misguided decisions which may torment us eternally. In A Man of
Awesome Power Tayyib al-Mahdi misuses and in turn loses his awesome power due to moments
of rash imprudence.
Tayyib al-Mahdi uses his awesome power to punish the taxi driver who ignores him when he
hails it. Tayyib al-Mahdi tries to flag down the taxi but the driver ignores him disdainfully.
Unlike when this happened in the past, now Tayyib al-Mahdi is filled with greater irritation. In
this moment of anger, he makes an impulsive decision to punish the man. He considers that he
could make the driver suffer an accident. He decides to shatter the taxi's rear wheels instead. He
knows that he should use his powers only for good but his anger results in his recklessness. As
he walks by the helpless man, Tayyib al-Mahdi stares at him, resentful and enraged. He feels
like he had taught the man a much needed lesson .
Tayyib al-Mahdi hastily punishes the radio announcer only because he is irritated with his views.
The announcer was expounding on promising developments expected in the future this is after
Tayyib al-Mahdi's memorable services were mistaken for an awakening of the state or outright
renaissance. Tayyib al-Mahdi fills a gaping pothole, locks a dangerously hanging electrical
box, removes a pile of rubbish and drains a sewer using his awesome power. Tayyib al-Mahdi
is irked by the announcer’s promises who talks about the future instead of talking about what has
been accomplished. Tayyib al-Mahdi is overcome with fury and thoughtlessly punishes the man
with a bout of incessant sneezing. He sneezes uncontrollably until he cannot speak and instead
plays a recorded song “Walk Around and See”. Al-Mahdi plans to censor mass media by
stopping any talk that annoys him. He would make speakers that displease him to sneeze
spontaneously, emit shrill cries like women at a wedding, or suffer uncontrollable diarrhoea.
Tayyib al-Mahdi is drunk with happiness and joy.
Tayyib al-Mahdi also misuses his awesome power when he uses it to chase the gorgeous woman
at the zoo at the expense of the righteous plans he has. Tayyib al-Mahdi visits the tea garden at
the zoo purposely to properly plan how to put his new powers to greater use. However, he
instead uses it to seduce a gorgeous and enticing woman that catches his eye. Tayyib al-Mahdi is
filled with an inexplicable desire - one that is not ordinary and his inappropriate since he has a
tremendous burden of proper planning and awareness of need. This woman does not take notice
of Tayyib al-Mahdi until he sends her a hidden message using his awesome powers, instantly
setting her head-over-heels. He decides to heal himself instead of repairing the world. This ill-
advised move results in the loss of his powers and his vibrant mood. The miracle disappears like
a dream because of his selfish imprudence. He will be haunted eternally by an awesome sadness.
Tayyib al-Mahdi also makes the unwise decision of applying his power before properly planning
how to use it. First, he performs random miracles. Some are memorable services like removing a
pile of rubbish and draining an open sewer. Others are born out of sheer resentment and unwise
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personal vendetta for example shattering the taxi wheels. He later realizes that he had to
consciously plan how to best utilize the powers. He obtains guides to the department of
government, factories and private companies coastal among the things he plans to fix our prisons
schools and universities commercial markets, then the press etc. He plans to map out every phase
deliberately. He intends to quell any clamor, and deter any digression. He plans to fix his country
then later the world. However, he fails to remain focused on the plan and is distracted by the
beautiful woman at the zoo. He puts his plans on hold as he instead chooses to use the powers to
pursue the woman. This imprudent resolve results in the loss of his power end he is forlornly
tormented by an eternal sadness.
In conclusion, poor decisions are preceded by lack of good judgment and Tayyib al-Mahdi learns
this the hard way.
4.People living with disability face certain limitations. Using Mbane in Leonard Kibera’s A
Silent Song, write a composition to validate this assertion.
People living with disability find it more difficult to do certain activities or to interact with the
world around them. In Leonard Kibera’s A Silent Song, Mbane is a visually impaired and
disabled man whose movement and other activities are constrained as a result of his disability.
First, Mbane’s movement is inhibited as a result of his disability. He gropes slowly towards the
door of his hut. He can only crawl weakly on his knees and elbows. He cannot go further since
the pain in his spine and stomach gather violence rapidly. The pangs paralyse him for a short
tormenting moment. The pain soon disappears but with the same savage fury of its onslaught,
leaving Mbane cold with sweat. He anticipates another imminent attack. Giving up the fight, he
lets go his chin and hits his forehead on the dirty flea-ridden floor. Mbane’s freedom of
movement is curtailed by his visual impairment, disability and pain. He is restricted to the
suspicious hut.
Secondly, his perception of time, day or beauty is limited. Although he is hungry, he does not
know what time it is. He wallows in the gloom of his eternal night. Time, day and beauty lie
beyond the bitter limits of darkness. He is restricted to feeling, hearing and running away from
danger. He is also limited to a world of retreat. Due to his lameness, he can only crawl away. He
has no power to hit back. Surely, people living with disability suffer certain restrictions.
When his brother Ezekiel brings him from the streets to his home, Mbane is restricted to his new
confinement. His brother says that he rescued him from the barbaric city so that he could see the
light of God. The hut is serene but so suspicious. This is Mbane’s new life away from the streets
of the City. His new confinement is devoid of the urban ruggedness and noise. It lacks the quick
prancing footsteps of the busy city people. In his limitation, Mbane can never fathom their
business. Also, he is restricted to pleading with the people to help him stay alive by offering him
some coins.
Because of his disability, Mbane had little comprehension or knowledge of the city. He earns his
living on one street only, retreating to the back lane when it was deserted. His condition inhibits
him from telling the length, width, beauty or size of the street. He is used to the talk of bright
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weather, lovely morning or beautiful sunset but he cannot take part in the small talk. He feels
challenged when pedestrians sing to the blue sky and whistle to the gay morning. In his
impediment, he cannot perceive these senses. During the day, Mbane has to endure the overly
generous heat of the sun and obstinate flies mobbing the edges of his lips. At night, he cannot
escape the hostile biting cold when he retreats to the back lane unsheltered, to surrender to his
vulnerability to sleep and is occasionally victimized by some ignoble thieves.
Mbane is also constrained in his ability to eke out a living since he is disabled. He is forced to
beg on that lonely street of the City. Mbane has come to understand that money is the essence of
urban life. He is therefore happy with gay people since they mostly answer his plea. Dull people
with heavy tired footsteps and voices have empty pockets. Unlike him, the good men and women
of the city have the ability to work in the buildings next to him and more up the street. He has no
option but to endure the scorching sun and stubborn flies. At night, he is tempted by the strange
rhythms but cannot indulge because of his condition. He is limited to hearing voices cursing and
singing and bottles cracking. Mbane is restricted from joining the good men’s and women’s
merry-making after a hard day’s work. Only pimps and whores enjoyed the proceeds of the good
men’s sweat.
Also, Mbane's condition has restricted him from getting married. His brother Ezekiel is married
to Sarah. He must have been married around Mbane's age. Mbane would never be able to reach
out his hand in fulfillment of his life in the same way. He can only yearn impotently, sadly
constrained because of his darkness and lameness. He is overcome by bitter self-pity and can
only console himself about his own light and thus he would smile broadly and bravely. His
brother’s wife occasionally brings him some bitter medicine. His condition impedes him from
getting a wife of his own and settling down.
Mbane has become accustomed to limited conversation or communication. His brother enters his
hut and sits on his bed but for a long time no one speaks. Mbane cannot be expected to start a
conversation. All his life, he has been speaking to himself in his thoughts while living on the
streets. He had no one to address except himself. Occasionally, he would blurt out a mechanical
plea of “Yes?”. Now, if anyone speaks to him, he carries the subject on a line of
uncommunicative thought in his own mind. When his brother asks if he believes in God, Mbane
replies that he does not know since to him he does not matter.
Apart from that, Mbane's condition makes him feel alienated and thus he holds a different
religious view from his mother’s and his brother’s. His mother views men as one stream flowing
through the rocks of life. They would twist and turn the pebbles and get dirty in the muddy earth.
They cry in the falls and whirlpools of life and laugh and sing when the flow is smooth and
undisturbed. Some cry in the potholes of life’s valley, while others laugh triumph elsewhere.
Mbane's condition inhibits him to not only ceaselessly crying but also feeling that he is not even
part of the stream. He feels like the bitter fluid in his own throat. His pain gives him no reason to
believe in God. No one understands his darkness. God is white cleanness of eternal light but his
life only contains darkness and blackness. He is forgotten and unnoticed. Sometimes, he is
cursed and called able-bodied, only crippled by idleness of leisurely begging.
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Lastly, Mbane feels trapped in his unwashed body which reeks of sweat. He craves freedom that
he cannot achieve. He dreams of a glorious future away from his pangs of darkness where light
lies. Right now he is restricted since his eyes are denied the lights. He dreams of a future where
someone would understand him and raise the innocence of his crippled life along with the
chosen. It gives him hope and he sings his own happy song, silently to himself. He cannot seek
refuge in the brothels like other men so he can only find it in his silent song. His soul has a
destination, or so he thinks. But for now, he has to make do with it being incarcerated in his
sweaty smelly body, which is unwashed except when in the rain. Surely, disability can be
limiting.
In conclusion, people living with disability undergo many impediments and limitations that deny
them some pleasures or opportunities in life.
5.Citing illustrations from Eric Ng'maryo's Ivory Bangles, write a composition showing
how established customs are difficult to change.
People are often reluctant to change their way of doing something especially something which
they have been doing for a long time. The society in Ivory Bangles is superstitious and also holds
on to norms such as polygamy and hunting game for ivory.
Firstly, this is a society where people are apt to believe in superstitions. When the old man
notices blood specks on the liver of a goat he had slaughtered, he has to go and consult the seer.
Although he has a deep-seated suspicion of the seer, he still goes to him since he is a tribal seer,
and a priest of the people. The seer gives him some unsettling revelation and a difficult task to do
in order to avert a disaster. He reveals that the seer’s pebbles said someone was going to die.
That is the old man’s wife. In order to avert this, the old man is supposed to give his wife a
thorough beating and send her to her parents. The seer’s pebbles are adamant that there is no
other way to appease them. This worries the old man so much. His mind wanders as he walks
home. Only a small trickle washes the trunk in front of him when he relieves himself. The old
man believes the seer is the mouthpiece of their departed forefathers. Visiting the seer is so
common that the wife can guess where he went earlier that day. He tells his wife that the spirits
want him to give her a ritual beating. Once upon a time, the seer wanted to marry the woman. He
had even promised to put a spell on her. His warning is therefore laughable but according to the
man it is solemn since it is not he who put the blood specks on the goat’s liver. The woman
comes up with a simple, ingenious scheme to fool the spirits. Old habits, like superstitions and
consulting seers, die hard since the people have held on to them for a long time. Despite having a
deep-seated suspicion of the seer, the old man still considers the viability of the ritual beating
since established habits are difficult to change.
Secondly, the habit of wife battering is part and parcel of the society and is even considered a
solemn ritual. The seer’s pebbles claim that the spirits are jealous of a happy wife, a
woman unmolested by her husband until old age when she is called “Grandmother”. To avert
her death after he finds blood specks on the liver of a goat he was slaughtering, the old man has
to give his wife a thorough beating and send her to her parents after the beating. The pebbles
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insist on wife battering and refuse the offer of countless goats by the old man. The man is
reluctant to lay his hands on his comely caring wife who bathes him when he arrives home and
cooks him a delicious meal. According to the spirits, this is supposed to be a ritual beating to
avert calamity. The woman says, the seer - “that old vulture”, was once interested in marrying
her and had even promised to put a spell on her. It appears he is just jealous of her happy
marriage. But the man considers him the mouthpiece of the departed forefathers. The old man is
different from his son who is accustomed to the norm of domestic violence. He beat his wife
Leveri to a fingernail’s distance to her grave. Such cases are so common that there is a prescribed
way of solving them. Clans would meet and the offending man would be fined, they would then
drink reconciliatory beer and everyone would go home happy. Surely, wife battering has been
accepted as a norm in this society.
Polygamy is another accepted custom in the society. The old man earned the enviable position of
the chief’s councillor as a reward for bravery in the Battle of the Five Rainy Days. The wife calls
him son of a Chief. He is a wood carver, son of a wood carver and a very brave warrior. He is
thus much respected in the society, but also much talked about because he has only one wife. A
chief’s councillor is considered a small chief, and whoever heard of a chief with one wife? The
ageing chief even advised him to get himself another wife. The old man loves his wife. As much
as polygamy is customary, he does not comply. However, it is so deeply-rooted in the society
that the people find it strange for a man of his social standing to have only one wife and even the
chief himself advises him to consider polygamy.
Another practice that seems so deeply-rooted in this society is the hunting and killing of game
like elephants. The old man killed an elephant using a poisoned arrow and from its ivory, he
carved twenty four bangles for his wife. She wears eight bangles in either hand and four heavy
ones on each leg. The ones on her hands are etched with mnemonic marks for a long love poem.
He presented the bangles to her when their son and only child was named. She looks beautiful
like a chief’s wife when adorning the bangles. When the elephants invade the village, the
villagers are worried about the devastation they leave in their wake. They destroy young crops.
The beasts are pursued by people who know how to use poisoned arrows. With poisoned arrows,
several can be killed. The scouts sit atop of trees and warn people about the movement of the six
elephants; one bull and five cows. Unfortunately, the old man’s wife is attacked by a wounded
bull elephant which stamps on her and kills her. The people are accustomed to shooting and
killing elephants. Sometimes, the wounded animals tend to be wild.
The people have a customary way of solving conflicts in the society. To confuse the spirit of
death, the woman plans to go to her brother’s home weeping and complaining that her husband
had beaten her without any reason. She would refuse to go back to his home when he comes for
her. This would force their respective clans to confer, with the view of reconciling them. The
husband would be fined and they would drink beer of reconciliation. This would be done to fool
the spirits and life would continue as before. After she comes from the market, the woman plans
to cook for the man and go to her brother’s. She plans to hoe the weedy part of her grove before
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squeezing tears out of her eyes and going to her brother’s house. Indeed, these people have
certain prescribed ways of conflict resolution that are hard to change.
Lastly, the woman is accustomed to performing her normal wifely duties of taking care of her
husband and grandson. When he gets home, she unstraps his leather sandals and leads him
behind the house to the lean-to, to bathe him. She cooks him a meal consisting a pottage made of
mashed green bananas and finely shredded meat and stock vegetables, herbs and a touch of her
hand. At night, she lies with the old man, her husband, before stealing back to her grandson’s,
‘her husband’. When she goes to the market she buys the boy a length of sugar cane and some
snuff for the man. After coming from the market, she cooks and carefully covers her husband’s
food. She has plans to go to her brother’s but first she plans to hoe in the part of the grove the
man said was very weedy. She is also so accustomed to hoeing that despite the heavy load of
ivory bangles on her hands, the small hoe goes at a fast practiced speed. Only three weeks ago,
she weeded the same spot with her daughter-in-law Leveri. Although she has to visit her
brother’s home, she can’t help but perform the habitual tasks at home first. Unfortunately, she is
killed while still hoeing in the grove. Surely, old habits die hard.
In conclusion, people are predisposed to doing things that are customary or typical and it is
difficult to convince someone to do something they are not used to.
6.In some communities, marriage is regarded as a valued custom. Making reference to

Abioseh Nicol’s The Truly Married Woman, write an essay in support of this statement.
In most societies, marriage is considered to be important and beneficial. The society in The
Truly Married Woman cherishes marriage as seen in the story of Ayo and Ajayi. A married
woman is proud and is respected more than a mistress.
Marriage is an important tradition in this community. Ayo is optimistic that one day she will be
married to Ajayi. They have lived together for twelve years and have three children together and
a fourth child on the way but they are not yet married. Ajayi has always meant to marry Ayo. He
truly meant to marry her as soon as she had their first child but he had never found time to do it.
Somehow, the right moment never came. Ayo went to live with Ajayi despite her parents
protests. In this community, marriage is a valued custom. In their first year together, Ayo would
talk to Ajayi in detail about her friends' marriages looking at him with hopeful eyes for. She
hopes to get married like her friends since marriage is an important right in the community. The
marriage ceremonies cost a fortune and Ajayi would attack Ayo's friends' wild spending. All in
all, the community values marriage and that’s why Ayo hopes to get married one day.
The fact that the priest insists that unmarried couples should not live together is an indication that
the community values marriage. He would speak out violently against unmarried couples living
together. Ajayi and Ayo have lived together for twelve years. Ayo is a good mistress. She has
given Ajayi three children and is now pregnant with another. She is a patient, beautiful woman
with honest eyes. Despite these, their union is seen as illegitimate in the eyes of the church
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leadership. During their regular church visits, the priest would sound off against their kind of
union, two or three times a year. Their friends would sympathize with them and the men would
opine that the church should stay out of people’s private lives. Ajayi would skip church for a few
weeks but would go back after a while since apart from his proclivity for singing, he secretly
knows the priest is right. The community cherishes marriage.
Ayo's father had his own special wishes about his daughter’s marriage. Ayo left their home to go
and live with Ajayi against her parents' wishes. She loved Ajayi. She cooks his meals and has
borne him children. Her father had hoped that she would marry a high school teacher at least.
Ayo had chosen a government clerk instead. When Ayo’s father learns about Ajayi's plan to
marry Ayo, he makes her move out of Ajayi's house with everything she owns back to his house.
He sends the kids to Ayo's married sister. When Ajayi's uncle and other kinsmen visit Ayo’s
father to ask her to marry Ajayi, the father hands her over to them with tears in his eyes. This is
proof that marriage is a valued custom in this community.
When missionaries from WGCA visits Ajayi’s home, Ayo goes out of her way to give an
impression of a truly married woman. She sends Oju to buy fruit drinks. She also takes down the
calendars with pictures of lightly clothed women and replaces them with family pictures instead.
She removes magazines and puts out religious books. She also hides wine glasses under the sofa.
Before the visitors arrive, she changes into her Sunday dress and borrows her wedding ring from
her neighbour. The clerk is surprised by the change in the room, Ayo’s dress and the ring. The
children are also neatly dressed. Olsen, one of the missionaries, is so delighted that he takes
pictures of the “God-loving and happy African family”. After serving them drinks, Ayo leaves to
let the men discuss serious matters. Ajayi is pleased greatly and decides to finally marry Ayo.
Surely, marriage is a revered tradition in this community.
Since marriage is a valued custom, Ajayi and Ayo make elaborate plans for their marriage
ceremony. They discuss the wedding that night. Ajayi wants Ayo to have a traditional white
wedding dress, with a veil and flowers. Ayo decides sadly that a mother of three should not wear
white at her wedding. They agree on grey. Ayo wants a corset. Ajayi agrees. They also decide to
forgo a holiday after the wedding since they could not afford one. They also agree on a church
wedding. When Ayo’s father hears about the upcoming nuptials, he makes her leave Ajayi’s
house with everything she owns back to his house. The children are sent to her married sister.
Marriage is really valued in this community.
A married woman is more important in the family than one who is not married. Although most of
Ajayi's family members welcome the idea of Ajayi and Ayo's marriage, his sister has
reservations. She is worried that if Ajayi marries her, Ayo would become more important in the
family than she was. She even advises him to seek the insight of a soothsayer to look into the
future. When Ayo gets word of this from the women at the market, she beats Ajayi's sister at her
own game by going to the soothsayer first to fix things. She really wants to get married. When
Ajayi and his sister visit the soothsayer, he predicts a happy marriage. Ajayi's sister capitulates
and accepts defeat.
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Marriage is such an important custom that Omo, Ayo’s friend is jealous when she gets wind of
her friends upcoming wedding. When Ayo wasn’t married, Omo would not hesitate to lend her
her wedding ring whenever she needed it. When Ayo shows her her wedding dress, she turns
cold. She is filled with both anger and jealousy. She makes critical, disparaging remarks about
Ayo's see-through dress. She says in case Ayo has an accident the doctors will see through
everything. She pushes the dress angrily back to Ayo. Ayo laughs it off saying she does not have
to hide anything from her husband when they are married. Marriage is indeed a valued tradition
in this community.
Marriage is a cherished custom that involves elaborate negotiations between relatives of the
bride and those of the groom. The day before the wedding, Ajayi's uncle and other relations take
a Bible and a pin to Ayo's father. They also take with them two young girls carrying large gourds
containing things like pins, small coins, fruits and nuts. These customary gifts are necessary lest
Ayo says during future arguments that Ajayi was so terrible that he had given her neither a pin or
a coin since they got married. The party deliberately walks past Ayo’s father’s home then
returned to it. When Ajayi’s uncle knocks the door several times, Ayo's relatives ask for his
name, his family and the reason for coming. Later, they argue and discuss for half an hour. Ayo's
father opens the door after clearly demonstrating that his family is proud, difficult and above
ordinary. He asks why they had gone there. Ajayi's uncle answers that they had gone to pick a
lovely rose. After much haggling, they are finally allowed in the house. They are served drinks
and gifts are exchanged. For about thirty minutes, they talk about everything but the wedding.
Ajayi's uncle asks for Ayo as a wife for Ajayi. Ayo's father brings out a short sister, then a fat
cousin and asks if that’s whom they wanted. They decline. Ten different women are brought out
but none is right. Finally, he brings out Ayo with tears in his eyes. He also kisses her. After a
successful negotiation, everyone shouts and dances around Ayo. This rigorous negotiation
process shows how marriage is revered as a beneficial rite in this community.
A marriage is a cherished tradition and emotions run high when Ayo finally gets married.
Although she is a woman in her mid thirties with slightly grey hair, she cries with joy and her
unborn child moves inside her for the first time. This is after her father, with tears in his eyes,
calls her out from the bedroom, kisses her and shows her over to Ajayi's family. The next
morning the women of her family help her to wash and dress. Her father gives her away in a
quiet church wedding attended by about sixty people. They then go to Ayo's family home for a
meal. An aunt gives them water and some wise counsel. She tells Ayo not to be too friendly with
other women lest they steal her husband. She advises them not to sleep before resolving their
disputes and to Ajayi, she asks him not to use violence against his wife - their daughter. Ayo’s
mother tearfully acknowledges Ayo as an enthusiast of the true work of an African woman -
having children. Ayo and her parents are overcome with emotions when she gets married. They
value marriage.
Since marriage is an important aspect of culture in most societies, a wife is valued more than a
mistress. After the wedding, Ayo seems different in Ajayi’s eyes. He notices her proud head, her
long neck and her handsome shoulders. The next morning, after the alarm goes off, he notices
13
that his normal cup of tea is not there. He sits up and quickly looks around. He listens for Ayo’s
footsteps outside in the kitchen. When he notices her sleeping next to him, he assumes she is ill
after the excitement of the wedding. He asks Ayo if she was ill. Still lying down, she turns
slowly and looks at him. She gets even more snuggly under the cotton bed cover. She is terribly
calm. She asks Ajayi if there is anything wrong with his feet. He thinks she is a little crazy. For
twelve years, she has woken up at five o'clock and prepared tea for her husband who was then
her lover. She informs Ajayi that now she is a truly married woman and asks him to behave with
some respect towards her. He is her husband and not her lover. She tells him to get up and make
himself the cup of tea. Surely, marriage is indeed a valued custom in this society.
In conclusion, marriage is surely regarded as a cherished and important practice.
7.People suffering from mental illness need a close, loving bond from family members.
Making reference to December and September in December by Filemon Liyambo, write an
essay to validate this statement.
It is important to maintain sincere, meaningful relationships with loved ones who are suffering
from mental illness in order to provide the support that they need. September loves and cares for
his sister who suffers from a mental illness.
First, despite the mean treatment by the KFC waitress, September is determined to get his sister a
meal she enjoys. The waitress is impudent. She eyes September with a deathly stare and the
furrowed brow and rudely asks him if he was ordering anything. When he orders chips, she
sneers at him. This reminds him of how his grandfather Ezekiel looked at him over his glasses
whenever he sensed “traces of idiotism” or absent-mindedness(P84). September endures the
nonchalance for the sake of his sick sister. Like most Namibian towns where everyone knew
each other, there was an indifference to those who did not reside there. Strangers had to wait
until Jesus returned for decent customer service. The rude waitress hands September his chips
and scoffs at the idiocy. She wonders who comes to KFC to order chips. September samples the
chips and they are soft just like his sister preferred them. He even asks for an extra sachet of
tomato sauce(P85). When he visits December in hospital and gives her the chips, she
acknowledges that they are nice. September adds that they are soft, just how she liked them. A
further display of affection is evident when he rubs the tomato sauce off her lips gently(P89). It
is important to maintain such a loving bond with our family members who suffer from mental
illness.
Despite the cold reception at the hospital and his lateness, September is adamant that he must see
his sick sister. When he greets the nurse sorting paperwork at her desk, she shouts rudely: “What
do you want?” To which he replies that he was there to visit his sister. Her curved eyebrows
point him to a chart on the wall. He is thirty minutes late according to the wall chart for visiting
hours and the clock. Determined to see his sister, he tries sincerity and charm by flashing a smile.
His courteousness does not spare him the indifference. Rolling her eyes, the nurse insists”
“Kamatyona, you’re late.” The nurse call security on him. He is not moved by the two giants and
14
the smaller man. He sits on the grey waiting benches, hoping to see his sister. Luckily, the head
of security is Tshuuveni, September’s childhood friend. He was one of the several boys who
pursued December when she was young. He was the reason why September acquired a puppy
named Kali, which hound Tshuuveni whenever he came near the homestead. The rude nurse
learns that it was December Shikongo, his sister, that September wanted to see so badly(P87).
Due to his resolution, she finally capitulates and allows September to see his sister for twenty
minutes. September’s persistence is born out of the loving bond between him and December.
September maintains a loving bond with his sister despite her challenge of mental illness.
December affectionately refers to September as Ka Brother, little brother. This is her favorite
greeting. December and September have always shared a loving relationship since they were
children. When they were too small to join their siblings working in the mahangu (pearl millet)
field, December tended to her mother’s vegetable garden, together with September. September,
four at the time, liked hiding. When the sister was digging with a hoe, he sprang up when she
was in mid swing. The impact made a small but deep gush on the head. December shows sincere
affection for her brother when she rips off her T-shirt to stem the bleeding. She also nurses him
back to health when he returns from the hospital(P85). At the hospital, September notices that
December’s hair was scattered like patchy Kaokoveld Dress. Her eyes shine. She is gaunt. Her
lips are swollen. She had probably walked into a wall again. She looks thin – like that time her
grandfather had taken her to a healer and she returned looking skeletal, as if the healer had tried
starving the voices out of her head. September sympathizes with his sister, and can only manage
a weak: “How are you?”. This notwithstanding, they engage in a warm conversation. They talk
about school. They both laugh and share a smile(P88). When it is time to go, December has to be
pried out of her brother’s arms. The nurse comforts her saying that tomorrow is also another day.
It is important to maintain such a loving relationship with relatives suffering from mental illness.
When September visits, he often brings his sister food and thoughtful gifts. He had visited the
hospital a few times before so he did not need directions to the psychiatric ward. He even knew a
shortcut: a narrow path between pediatrics and the pharmacy. He was so familiar with the
hospital that he notices that it had been renovated twice since the last time he had been there. The
turquoise and green paint was still fresh. He also notices that the bars on the windows of the
ward had been reinforced(P86). The ward had a small garden outside, made-up of three beds of
irises. That is where he used to sit with his sister when she was first admitted. He would bring
her food – beef or mutton – and ask her how she was. She always responded: “Fine”. She would
plead with him: “Onda vulwa mo mu!” She wanted to go home because she was tired either of
her mind or the hospital. He cared for her and could not promise something he could not
fulfill(P86). September brings his sister some thoughtful gifts. He gives her a jersey – a grey
hoodie. She thanks him saying the place is always cold(P89). He also gives her a pen and a book
full of puzzles. Then a T-shirt: simple, navy blue, with the Union Jack on it. A replica of the one
December ripped to stem September’s bleeding. She shows the indifferent nurse the gifts her
brother had brought her. Lastly, he hands her chips: soft, just how she liked them. September
displays loving affection for his sister when he visits her regularly and brings her food and
gifts(P89).
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Lastly, September has to be there for his sister December since he is the only relative in a
position to do this. He tries to inquire from his grandfather why December is forbidden from
eating chicken but his grandfather never clearly explains. He simply says: “That’s how things
are.” He was hiding something(P85). September did not understand how December unraveled
the way a thread comes loose: in parts then all at once. She went from having problems with her
classmates, catfights and name-calling, to walking half-naked through the streets talking to
herself. He believes people did not go crazy overnight, there had to be a plausible explanation.
September is angered by his grandfather Ezekiel’s insistence that December was bewitched.
Ezekiel’s brother Josef was also mentally ill. The illness also afflicted September’s father, Silas
Shikongo, who passed away. December's descent from being a stellar student to a psychiatric
patient was too abrupt and inexplicable. The grandfather felt there were other forces behind
it(P86). Besides their grandfather’s superstitious beliefs, their mother's heart was broken and her
daughter’s sickness had aged her faster than her husband’s untimely demise. September is also
hurt that December was left on pause, while life moved on. He cannot also inform December that
their grandfather had passed on. He keeps this information to protect her feelings. September has
no choice but to maintain a loving bond with his sister who has no one else to turn to.
In conclusion, it is important to maintain a loving relationship with family members suffering

from mental illness.
8.War adversely affects families and communities. Making reference to Boyi by Gloria
Mwaniga, write an essay to support this statement.
When conflict thrives, it destroys family ties and communal bonds. Family members are affected
when they are separated from one another, some are traumatized and others killed as a result of
the crisis. In Gloria Mwaniga's Boyi, the militia meant to protect community land from strangers
turns out to be the enemy within, wreaking untold havoc on the same community they had
vowed to protect.
First, Mama is adversely affected when her son is separated from the rest of the family. Madness
enters Mama's eyes when Baba gives Boyi away to the militia leader as collateral until he finds
40,000 land protection tax. As if fire ants had invaded her body, Mama stands up abruptly. She
tears off her kitenge headscarf and start shouting. Mama says that Baba must be sick in the head
to think Boyi would return. He must be deaf if he has not heard tales of neighbours whose sons
had been recruited by the militia. A child was not a mat that could be folded and returned to the
owner or a dress that one can borrow from a neighbour. Baba is enraged but he just sits there. In
a metallic whisper, he asks Mama what she wanted him to do. He justifies his action by saying
he did it to protect his family from the militia’s cruel actions of chopping off heads of whole
families, carrying off fresh heads like trophies and hanging them on trees or eating them like Idi
Amin. They also tortured victims by chopping off their ears and feeding them worm-filled earth.
Mama does not buy this explanation. Hives break out on her skin. Her eyes are deathly white like
the eyes of one who did not know her own mind. The narrator feels queasy as if someone had
16
pulled her insides out through her nostrils. War indeed has a devastating effect on loved
ones. (P91-92)
Apart from that, Boyi's family is gripped with fear, desperation and anxiety. When reproached by
Mama, Baba holds his rage firmly with his hands. He pulls in his lips to a narrow thread, like a
line drawn on his dark face by a ruler. His voice sinks to a metallic whisper and he asks Mama
what she wanted him to do. He tells her that the militia was chopping off heads of whole families
if one did not give them money. They carry off fresh heads like trophies and hang them on trees
or eat them like Idi Amin. They torture their victims by slowly chopping off their ears and
feeding them worm-filled earth. Boyi's sister feels queasy as if someone had pulled her insides
out through her nostrils. The family knew that the militia would come to their house. Chesober,
Baba's friend who taught at Chepkukur Primary School, had them that the militia had a long list
of people who aided the government exercise to subdivide their land and give some of it to the
strangers. Baba had lent a panga and ‘makonge’ ropes to the government surveyors. When news
breaks out that they had begun attacking government representatives, Mama desperately starts
blocking the sitting room door with sacks of maize and beans. Out of fear or denial, the narrator
and Boyi laughed at the thought of the militia attacking them, their own kin. That is the night
Matwa Kei knocks at their door and demands to be given 10,000 land protection tax and 30,000
betrayal tax, failure to which they would be shown “smoke without fire”. That is when he pushes
Boyi forward and tells Matwa Kei to hold onto him. Surely, war causes fear within families or
communities. (P92)
The war also causes devastation that pushes Mama to the brink of insanity and disconnection
from reality. Boyi’s sister finds her mother seated alone on a kitimoto in the kitchen. She neither
looks up nor responds to greetings. She screams at the girl to leave some tea for her brother who
will return from the caves hungry. The screaming goes on for weeks. “Stupid girl, you want to
finish tea and your brother will come from the caves hungry,” she bawls. She would sit stunned
gazing at the whitewashed wall, declaring in a quiet voice that she was seeing a vision of a
dazzling white dove. God of Israel was showing her that her son was returning home after
escaping from the snare of the militia. After her monologues, she would sit sadly and silently.
When her madness takes a walk, they would brew tea together with a girl and she would
nostalgically reminisce stories about Boyi; about how he saved her marriage, his shiny ebony
skin and eloquence in English which was too good for a fifteen- year-old like him. This is a clear
testament of a mother’s agony, anguish and disconnection from reality. War really causes
devastation to families. (P92-93)
The war drives Baba, a Christian, to partake in a strange cultural practice to escort Boyi’s spirit
away. Together with his cousin Kimutai, he digs a shallow grave and buries a banana stem
wrapped in a green cotton sheet. He asks death to take that body and never bother his family
again. They do this after Saulo brings news that a troop of two hundred Armed Forces men had
been dispatched in green lorries to carry out an undertaking dubbed ‘Operation Okoa Maisha’.
They were coming to flush out the militia. The war had gone on for too long and it is them
themselves who had forced the mighty arm of the government. Boyi’s sister is taken aback that
17
her pious father had turned his back on religion. Her mother refuses to play a part in the mock
burial. She only follows Baba's movements with her eyes. Mama’s voice bears manic vibrancy
when she declares that she would not participate in escorting her son’s spirit away. She has lost
touch with reality and lives in denial. This is as a result of the pointless conflict.(P93-94)
In her anguish, Mama is too despondent to eat. She sits muttering to herself without touching her
food. The ugali would remain untouched until a crusty brown film formed and the food had to be
thrown away to the chicken coop. Boyi's sister would catch the twist of her mouth when she
would sit and talk to herself for hours on end lamenting about her suffering. She asks God to tie a
rope around her stomach - to help her bear the anguish of losing her son to the ruthless militia.
She asks Boyi’s sister if she remembers his perfect teeth. After weeks of watching Mama, Boyi's
sister gets tired and starts going out with the rest of the children to the chief’s camp in Cheptap-
burbur where the army had pitched their green tents. War really causes suffering of family
members. (P94)
Boyi's sister helplessly wishes that rituals would protect her brother. After getting tired of
watching Mama, she goes with the rest of the children to the chiefs camp in Cheptap-burbur
where the army had pitched their tents. They spend hours peeping through the Cypress fence
eavesdropping the soldiers’ conversations and making up fabulous tales from them. The very
black officer called Sah-gent defeated Idi Amin in Uganda. He told the others that Matwa Kei
had more magic than Idi Amin. The man is a real djinni. Boyi’s sister pictures Matwa-kei's
favourite Chicago Bulls red cap absorbing Sah-gent’s bullets. These stories make her think of the
tales Boyi was telling her about the militia. How they drank magic potions from Orkoiyot so that
their bodies, like the Luo legend Lwanda Magere, would become stone and enemies’ spears
would slide off them. Their bodies were embalmed in bloody cow dung to make them invisible
for successful raiding missions. When they marched through dry lands, clouds of red dust would
rise up to the heavens like a swarm of locusts because the earth god Yeyiin went with them. She
held on to these stories tightly. Willing them to be true. Willing Boyi to be more powerful than
the soldiers. (P94-95)
Boyi's sister recounts horrific tales of the militia’s cruelty. That December the farmers do not
clear their shambas for the second planting of maize. The militia steals young crops from the
fields and goats from the pens. Instead of working, men and women sit under mtaragwa trees and
exchange dreadful tales of the horrendous cruelty of the militia. The militia cuts up people and
throw their bloodied bodies in rivers, pit latrines and wells. They recruit boys as young as ten
who are forced to kill their own relatives. Instead of protecting the land from being given to lazy
strangers, the militia goes on an indiscriminate killing spree, and their kin are victims of the
aggression instead of beneficiaries. Koros, their neighbour, informs Baba that the recruited
members of the militia had to first go home and kill a close relative so that their hearts were
strong to kill others. Baba replies solemnly: “Puoot, war is a maggot that nibbles and nibbles at
the heart of men.” Boyi’s sister has a terrible dream that her brother, whose eyes were the colour
of Coca-Cola, attacks her and chops her into “small-small” pieces so that his heart would become
18
strong to kill. The thought is traumatizing. She wakes up feeling like an anchorless red balloon
was floating in her stomach. (P95)
The chilling tales of war causes fear and trauma. There is a mass exodus to Bungoma and
Uganda as families try to escape. The family of the narrator’s friend, Chemtai, moves away to
Chwele. The villages of Kopsiro, Saromet, Chepyuk and Chelebei are engulfed in a thick yellow
fog of fear. They did not understand the militia’s motive anymore. The thugs take away girls to
cook for them. They decapitate people and throw their heads in Cheptap-burbur river which was
scarlet with fresh human blood from the floating human heads. They also rape their own
relatives. The abused women and girls end up giving birth to transparent “plastic bag” babies.
The narrator imagines the horror of seeing Boyi’s “plastic bag” baby playing Tinker-tailor-
soldier-sailor with boats that fell from the flame tree. Since school is disrupted by the war, such
thoughts haunt the young girl as she spends her idle days under a flame tree at home.
Boyi’s family members are devastated when they hear the news of how Boyi goes from a pious
boy to a marked man. Boyi's sister wonders if it is Mama's mourning that courted misfortune or
Baba's total refusal to talk about Boyi that made their ancestors forget to protect him. It is raining
and the narrator is standing at the kitchen window staring at the silver droplets when she sees
Chesaina, an old friend of Baba, who works as a watchman in a grain depot in far away Chwele
market. She is surprised to see him visit. Chesaina tells Baba and Mama that he got word from a
trader, who got it from the mouth of a big government man, that boy was now a marked man.
Because of the war, innocent children turn into savages. Apart from the boys who were forced to
murder or rape their own kinsmen, Boyi has also gone from a God-fearing young man to a
wanted criminal. Chesaina says: “This war has taken with it the mind of your son.” Boyi's sister
hides behind the kitchen door watching Mama. Mama says in her old voice that she must not be
told such rubbish about her son. She tells Chesaina that if he wanted Omo to wash his dirty
mouth he should just say so. Her eyes are flooded with tears. She puts both hands on her head.
She asks: “Matwa kei what did I ever do to you? Tell me Matwa kei, tell me now so that I
repent.” Her voice chokes. The narrator wanted to tell Chesaina to shut up but her tongue is
clammy and it sticks to the roof of her mouth. Baba tries to calm Mama down. He tells her that
Boyi was a good son who used to recite his responsorial psalm earnestly. The distressing news
crashes Boyi’s parents and reduces both of them to tears. They cannot wrap their heads around
the fact that their good son is now Matwa Kei's right hand man and an enemy of the state. Mama
keeps crying so Chesaina walks out in the rain. That day Boyi's sister sees Baba's tears for the
first time: Two silver streams rolling down polished porcelain. War really devastates families.
(P96)
War causes sad memories as family members think about the broken bonds. Boyi's sister sleeps
on Boyi’s bed for the first time. His blue bed sheets, with prints of chicks coming out of yellow
egg shells, enfold her with deathly coolness. They smell much of him; of his boyish laughter
which shone like toffees wrapped in silver foil; of brown butterscotch sweets which appeared as
though by magic from his sticky pockets. She fondly remembers how he used to hoard items
Baba declared illegal for example jawbreakers and sticks of Big G. She presses her sore stone-
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breasts on the sheets willing the pain her brother felt in the cold caves on herself. She imagines
him staring with shiny eyes as she tells him about the soldiers, especially Sah-gent, whose
adventures she knew Boyi would love the most. She also imagines them playing Ninja soldier as
they had done as children. Boyi is wearing his checkered school shirt while she is in a T-shirt.
She remembers when their mother caught them playing that game once, and scolded them for
courting misfortune and calling death by its name. War affects families and communities
adversely. (P96)
Lastly, Boyi’s family is devastated by the news of his killing. Boyi's sister knows it was a bad
omen the night thunderstruck and a bolt of lightning shattered the huge Nandi flame tree at the
front of their house. Mama jubilantly declares that the evil which was to come to their house had
been struck down and swallowed by the Nandi flame. She then sits next to Boyi’s sister on the
animal print sofa and listens to the tatatata as the splinters of tree fall on the mabati roof and
shake the whole house. Early the next morning, Simoni dashes into their compound and hands
her a copy of the Nation newspaper whose headline screams coldly, “Ragtag Militia Leaders
Killed by Army Forces.” Something throbs with both fists at her chest as she runs like a mad
woman and bangs on her parents bedroom door. She does not stir when Baba crumples like an
old coat due to shock after reading the article. She does not frown when Mama’s ribbon laughter
pierces the early morning. She does not weep when neighbours start streaming into their house
pouring consolations for war has robbed them of their kin in the prime of his youth. Mama does
not fall on the ground as Simoni describes how Boyi had been captured in the sacred cave. She
does not weep when he describes how Boyi was murdered brutally by Sah-gent who threw him
out of an aircraft which was mid-air, without a parachute. There was no body to bury or for
Mama to slap for that matter. She looks at Baba with unclouded innocent eyes of lunacy. With
death in her voice, she tells him that the government Sah-gent had thrown Boyi down “without a
parachute, imagine”. Her voice is neither bitter nor sad. It is flat. It cracks a little like dry
firewood when fire eats it. Mama does not fling words at Baba when he takes his Sony transistor
radio and the Nation newspaper and throws them in the almost full pit latrine outside. She is truly
devastated. She speaks Boyi’s name softly as though the syllables were made of tin. She sits on
Boyi’s bed together with her daughter who weeps uncontrollably, her tears soaking her blue silk
blouse and purple boob top. Boyi’s sister does not tell her mother that she had felt life leaving
Boyi's body. War indeed affects families adversely. (P97)
In summary, it is evident that conflict or crisis has no positive outcome. They instead destroy
families and communities.
9.People living on the streets apply wisdom in order to survive the difficult conditions.
Write an essay to qualify this statement citing illustrations from Rem'y
Ngamije’s The Neighbourhood Watch.
Living conditions on the streets are difficult. To survive, one needs not only determination and
effort but also experience, knowledge and good judgment. Members of The Neighbourhood
Watch apply wisdom to survive the arduous conditions on the streets.
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First, the crew is judicious enough to secure territory-a safe haven for sleeping or just to lay low
when they weren’t out on a foraging mission. The bridge’s underside is precious real estate to the
Neighbourhood Watch. It is an important shelter when it rains and during cold winter nights. The
letters NW sprayed on the columns have the same effect as musty pee at the edge of a leopard’s
territory. Other crews know better than to encroach it lest they face bloody retaliation. It is also a
safe place to hide their stash so that they don’t have to lug their scant possessions everywhere
they go. More luggage would slow them down as they rummage their neighbourhoods for food
and other essentials. Elias calls their territory headquarters. In the morning, he wakes up the rest
of the crew and they share a can of water for washing their faces. To a street family a safe
territory is indispensable.
Secondly, they are wise enough to rise early to go searching for food. Elias, Lazarus and
Omagano set out before the light of day is full born. They leave early so that they can score the
real prizes-that is the overflowing bins behind restaurants. In the early morning one can get
edible semi-fresh morsels. In the late morning, the food starts rotting. The neighborhood watch
knows: “the early bird does not catch the worms”. In order to get there in good time Elias,
Lazarus and Omagano lengthen they are strides. They know that time is of the essence on the
streets.
The crew knows that they have to maintain a good bond with other people in order to survive.
Elias has a good rapport with most of the kitchen staff in the city. They refer to him by the
monikers ‘Soldier’ or ‘Captain’. Sometimes, they leave out almost decaying produce for him and
his group. Because of the good relationship, Elias would sometimes be lucky to get potatoes with
broken skins, rotting mangoes, and wrinkled carrots. The staff would be generous enough to give
them smushed leftovers from the previous night for instance half eaten burgers, chips drowning
in sauce or salads. Most of the kitchen staff are poor and many a time they would need to take
the leftovers to their own families. It is amazing that Elias manages to get some food from them.
The Neighbourhood Watch crew is so astute that they have organized themselves into specialised
units. Elias, Lazarus and Omagano are always on full duty whereas Silas and Martin are tasked
with searching for other essentials. Before, Elias was in on his own so when he met Lazarus he
suggested that they form an alliance because it was taxing to rummage for food and other
paraphernalia necessary for survival in the streets. At first, Lazarus was resistant. Cold winter
nights forced him to comply. It worked for them since two people could cover more ground. One
searches for food and the other for other essentials and thus they could do more in a day. Now,
they know that children and women are valuable recruits. Some obstinate guards demand for a
10 or 20 dollar bribe to let them scavenge through fenced off bins. Elias usually pays them but
when he has no money Omagano goes behind the dumpster with a guard and does what needs to
be done. The valuables crew on the other hand provide discarded blankets, mattresses, clothing,
reusable shoes, trolleys etc. Trolleys are useful but they can also be traded for better necessities.
The two teams work separately and meet in the late afternoon. They share the food that is bread,
mashed potatoes, grapes and water. The valuables crew brings newspapers, plastic piping and
poorboy caps.
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The Neighbourhood Watch also understands the city and its neighbourhoods. Elias asks the crew
to sleep since they plan to go foraging in Ausblick tonight. It is too hot to be on the streets now.
Night is better and more lucrative for the Neighbourhood Watch. The crew knows that if they hit
the bins early, they may score some good things in Ausblick for instance broken toasters,
blenders, water bottles, teflon pots or pans, flat screen TV cardboard boxes and even some food.
People in Ausblick still know how to throw away things. Elias, Lazarus and Silas will scout
ahead rummaging for valuables while Martin and Omagano push the trolley. They know that
soon Ausblick will be overcrowded like Olympia and Suiderhof. Pionierspark used to be
worthwhile but not anymore. Now, the Neighbourhood Watch are deterred by peeking heads,
barking dogs and patrolling vehicles with angry shouting men. They know that the earlier they
get to Ausblick the better.
The Neighborhood Watch understands that in order to survive on the streets one must focus on
the present, not the past or the future. Everyone brings a past to the streets. Lazarus’s tattoos are
evidence of his prison stint. Elias is not scared of him since he faced gunfire against the South
African Defence Forces. Because of hunger or need for food on the streets, they have no time to
think about the past. Elias shares some street smartness with Lazarus. He says the streets has no
future, there is only today. “Today you need food. Today you need shelter. Today you need to
take care of today”. On Fridays and Saturdays, the crew avoids the streets and retreats safely to
Headquarters. They do this to avoid clashing with patrolling police. Silas wants to leave but is
forbidden from taking Martin with him. Elias and Lazarus mock the fools who sit on the roadside
in Klein Windhoek and Eros waiting to paint a room, fix a window, install a sink or lay some
tiles because they are too proud to forage for food. They end up going home hungry. Martin
thinks that sometimes those “fools” can get a job and maybe things will be better. Elias insists
that “maybe is tomorrow” and there is only today. On the street one needs to focus on the present
to survive. “Every day is today.”
Elias and Lazarus share what they have learned on the streets with the rest of the crew including
how they decided to change tack. The crew learned that you cannot survive by being around
people trying to survive. When foraging in the poor neighbourhoods, you only get what they
don’t need to survive. The Neighbourhood Watch realise that poor people only throw away
garbage which is disgusting and babies which are useless. In the poor neighborhoods you had to
be ready to find shit: old food, used condoms, women’s things with blood, and broken things.
When looking for newspapers to light a fire once, Elias and Lazarus was shocked when they
found a dead baby. They knew it was time to upgrade. They only went there because they needed
to survive. To survive you go everywhere and do everything. You cannot be picky. But now they
know that they should upgrade and go to places where people have enough to throw away.
Neighbourhoods with white people and black people trying to be white people have such people.
They finally get smart and decide to move away from poor people who have nothing to throw
away by themselves.
Lastly the Neighbourhood Watch is wise enough to know that there are some neighbourhoods
you have to avoid. They avoid Khomsadal which is overcrowded and people drink too much
22
there. They lost their friend Amos there due to his pride end alcohol. He used to curse people,
use ugly swear words and always refused to apologize. He was then stabbed to death. The
Neighbourhood Watch knows that on the streets dead bodies are bad. Police would roughly
demand explanations from witnesses. They used baton bashes, frustrating paperwork and
throwing innocent people in holding cells. When Amos died, everyone including Elias and
Lazarus knew they had to run away. They were also wise enough to stick to the initial story that
they had nothing to do with the murder when the police caught up with them. They were beaten,
bruised, bleeding, with swollen eyes broken ribs and injured limbs but that was better than losing
life. They are smart enough to completely avoid Khomsadal.
In conclusion, difficult experiences make people wise enough to cope and survive. Acuity is
essential for survival.
10.Failure to listen to wise advice can result in conflict. Write an essay to support this
assertion based on Stanley Gazemba’s Talking Money.
No one is perfect. We all have some flaws. If unchecked, our individual shortcomings such
failure to listen and heed good advice can result in misunderstanding. Mukidanyi’s irritability
and obstinacy result in his disagreements with his brothers, his wife and Mr. Galo.
Mukidanyi disagrees with his brothers over the sale of his land. When his elder brothers
Ngoseywe and Agoya try to advise him against selling his land, they fall out bitterly and their
wrangles almost come to blows. Mukidanyi throws both of them out of his compound, his eyes
flaming red. Shouting at them, he declares that he does not need their help. He does not need
anyone’s help. He will run his household however he deems fit. Ngoseywe tells him that he will
need them one day. Today, his head has swollen like that of an expectant toad in the field. He
insults them and adds that he will do what he pleases with his land. In that terrible fit of rage, the
neighbours can only watch helplessly from a distance as he clicks loudly, spits angrily on the
ground and dashes a water pot against the wall. Mukidanyi's fury leads to a bitter disagreement
between him and his elder brothers.
Mukidanyi also falls out with his wife Ronika over the sale of his land. Ronika joins
Mukidanyi who is warming himself in the main room. She persuades him to listen to what his
brothers are telling him. He also advises him to consider leasing the land instead of selling it off.
In her plea, she posits that Ngoseywe and Agoya have a point. She tells Mukidanyi that no one
could stop him from selling his land, but he should listen to other people’s advice.
Mukidanyi ignores his wife's words of wisdom and resorts to violence instead. He grabs his
hippo-hide whip and gives Ronika a thorough lashing leaving her screaming and whimpering till
the small hours. Mukidanyi’s obstinacy ends in a conflict between him and his wife Ronika.
Thirdly, Mukidanyi ignores Ronika’s entreaty when she asks him to be wary of the Galos. She
asks him if he knows the Galos. She reminds him that hardly anyone in the village does business
with the Galos. Their money is not good, she says. No one knows where they get it from. Ronika
beseeches Mukidanyi not to turn a deaf ear to what everyone tells him. These pleas leads to a
conflict because Mukidanyi is apt to ignore wise counsel. He assaults his wife Ronika using a
23
hippo-hide whip and she screams in pain and her whimpering only dies that morning.
Mukidanyi’s stubborn nature leads to bitter disagreement between him and his wife Ronika.
Mukidanyi refuses to listen to Ronika and easily trusts Galo. When Mukidanyi springs his price
out of the blue. Mukidanyi expected a haggle. When receiving the money, 500,000 shillings in
cash, Mukidanyi does not count it. He easily trusts Mr. Galo. He says that he trusts him since he
does not expect a friend to lie to a clansman. Galo offers to take Mukidanyi to Kakamega for
transfer of the title deed at the surveyor's office. Mukidanyi ignores Ronika’s warning and
accepts Galo's money without batting an eyelid. This causes conflict between them when the
money starts talking later that night. Ronika furiously throws Mukidanyi out of the house and
tells him to go and return the “devil” money. She finds the courage to mock and ridicule
Mukidanyi , a big man who is hard of hearing. The row is as a result of Mukidanyi stubbornly
disregarding wise advice.
There is a disagreement between Mukidanyi and his wife the night he sells his land to Mr. Galo
despite her objection. That night he wakes up twice and lights the lamp to ascertain that the
briefcase was still there, chained to the bedpost of their termite-infested wooden bed. He calls
Ronika and asks her what time it was, since he is too anxious to sleep. His wife, angry from the
lashing she received earlier that day, nonchalantly asks him how he expects her to know the time
at that hour. Mukidanyi is eager for the daybreak so that he can go and take the money to the
bank in Mbale. Ronika is bemused at being woken up in the middle of the night, the hour for
witches unless Mukidanyi is a witch himself. She refuses to engage in Mukidanyi’s midnight
chitchat and returns to her soft snoring. Mukidanyi is a disturbed man. He cannot sleep. He has
to squeeze his eyes shut and try to force himself to sleep. He is forced to awaken with a start
when he hears the voices. Again, he wakes up an audibly irritated Ronika. Playfully like a couple
of school going children, the money under the bed was talking. The money Ronika had warned
him about is the cause of their conflict and Mukidanyi's regret.
Mukidanyi is mocked by his wife because of Galo's money. She had warned him about. When
the money starts talking Mukidanyi freezes stiff, his whole body covered in sweat. His wife is
also frightened, her bony hand clasped on his wrist, her bosom heaving. The silence in their hut
is morbid. Ronika commands Mukidanyi to light the lamp. She speaks in a shrill voice and
scolding tone when she says that the house had been invaded by the ‘viganda’ spirits. Her breath
whistles in the tense darkness. Mukidanyi’s hands shake as he gropes in the darkness for a
matchbox. Ronika’s face is slick with sweats when she tells Mukidanyi that he will now listen
to people. They fight because of the strange money. Had Mukidanyi listened to her advice this
could have been avoided.
The fallout escalates when Mukidanyi is thrown out of his house because of the evil money.
With a note of hysteria in her voice, Ronika commands Mukidanyi to take his money. She
reminds him that she had warned him about Galo's money. His elder brothers Ngoseywe and
Agoya did too. But Mukidanyi is hard of hearing. Ronika's lined face is an indication that she
dies to wrest him to the floor. She refers to him contemptuously as a big man who is hard of
hearing. Mukidanyi is scared of touching the briefcase, about the voices or the viganda spirits.
Her eyes glowing angrily, Ronika laughs at Mukidanyi hysterically when the money talks again.
She tells him that today, after dipping his hand in the wound to ascertain, he will learn about the
24
people of the world. Today, he will know. She forces him to unlock the padlock after physically
dragging him to do it. Then, she throws the briefcase out and sends her hapless husband after it.
The children are bewildered for they had never seen their mother that angry or their father that
frightened.
Lastly, Mukidanyi changes his mind about selling the land and finally returns the money to Mr.
Galo. He had been warned by Ronika but due to his stubbornness he did not heed. The journey is
long and harrowing. The couple hundred yards to Mr. Galo's home seems like a mile. The
briefcase gets heavier and heavier with each step. He is haunted by unseen night creatures
swimming all around him, taunting him with their octopus arms. Sometimes he trips, slick blood-
sucking tendrils would then grip his arm. He fights the demons when he feels the hold tighten
and the razor edge biting into his flesh, but without drawing blood. The moment is scary. He is,
however, determined to return the case despite the hurdles. When he finally gets to Mr. Galo's
house and meets him, he says he has changed his mind about selling the land. He returns the
money then dashes away. He hits himself on the low-hanging branches and outcropping roots as
he returns from Mr. Galo's house. Surely, obstinacy results in regret and conflict.
In conclusion, one’s weakness can end up causing disagreements.
11.One can cope with the misery of unfair treatment by forgiving his oppressors. Write a
composition to validate this statement basing your illustrations on Leo Tolstoy’s God Sees
the Truth, but Waits.
You should not do harm to a person who has done harm to you, even if you think that person
deserves it. We can deal with the pain of injustice by forgiving those who wrong us, instead of
seeking vengeance. Aksionov finds peace and solace during his misery when he chooses to
forgive those who wronged him.
Aksionov is treated unfairly by the police when they arrest him for a crime he did not commit.
When the police arrest Aksionov for allegedly killing a merchant, he crosses himself and weeps
painfully. The police officer orders the soldiers to bind him and put him in the cart. They tie his
feet together and fling him into the cart. His money and goods are taken away from him. He is
then locked up in the nearest town. The police investigate about his past and find out that
Aksionov is a good man but he was predisposed to drinking and wasting time during his younger
days. The truth is Aksionov met the merchant and they put up together that night in the same inn.
Aksionov paid his bill and left before dawn. When he had travelled for about 25 miles and was
resting, he is accosted by an official and two soldiers who crisscross him as if he were a thief or a
robber. Oblivious of the fate that awaited him, he even offers the officer a cup of tea. When they
search his bag, they find a blood-stained knife and accuse him of killing the merchant. Aksionov
is frightened. The policeman says his face and manner betrays his guilt. They demand to know
how he killed him and how much money he stole. When the trial comes, he is wrongly charged
with murdering the merchant and stealing his money. He gives up all hope and only prays to
God. He accepts his fate and expects mercy only from God. He does not blame the police for his
predicament.
25
Aksionov faces further injustice when he is wrongly charged with murdering the merchant from
Ryazan and robbing him of 20,000 rubles. He is locked up with thieves and criminals. This is
after a blood-stained knife is found in his possession. At the time of his arrest, Aksionov only
had eight thousand rubles of his own. He swears that the knife is not his. Although Aksionov is
innocent, he is wrongly convicted and charged for murder. He tries to appeal but his petition to
Czar is declined. His wife reminds him about her dream about his hair turning grey and
beseeches him to tell her the truth if he indeed killed the merchant. Aksionov begins to weep
hiding his face in his hands. He is dejected by the thought of his wife suspecting him too. Only
God can know the truth. Instead of begrudging and fighting the justice system, he let's go and
decides to appeal for mercy from God alone.
Aksionov is treated unfairly when he is torn away from his family at a prime age, and locked up
for a crime he did not commit. His wife is in despair when Aksionov is charged with murder and
she does not know what to believe. Her children are small and one is still breastfeeding. She
takes them all with her when she visits her husband in jail. She is refused from seeing him at first
but after ceaseless entreaties she obtains permission from the official and gets the chance to see
him. She collapses and does not come to her senses for a long time when she sees her husband in
prison-dress and in chains, shut up with thieves and criminals. She had tried to dissuade him
from going to the Nizhny Fair. She had had a bad dream about him. In her dream, he returned
from the town when his hair was quite grey. Aksionov laughs it off and promises to bring her
some presents from the fair. That was the last time she saw him as a free man. Aksionov tells her
that they must petition the Czar and not let an innocent man perish. His wife informs him that the
petition she had sent had been declined. While serving his lengthy jail time, no news reaches him
about his family. He remains in the dark concerning the well-being of his wife and children.
When a fresh gang of convicts comes to the prison, Aksionov asks one of them about his
family: the merchants of Aksionov of Vladimir. He tells him that they are rich though their
father is in Siberia; a sinner like themselves. In his gloom, he nostalgically remembers the image
of his wife when he parted from her to go to the fair. Her face and her eyes rise before him. He
hears her speak in love. Then he sees the image of his children quite little as they were at the
time. One with a little cloak on, another at his mother’s breast. Nonetheless, he forgives Makar
Semyonich, the man responsible for his anguish. His heart grows light and the longing for home
leaves him.
Aksionov suffers more injustice when he is condemned to be flogged and sent to the mines. He is
flogged with a knot and when the wounds made by the knot are healed he is driven to Siberia
with other convicts. Aksionov lives in Siberia as a convict for 26 years. His hair turns white as
snow and his beard grows long, thin and grey. All his mirth goes, he stoops, he walks slowly,
speaks little and never laughs, but he often prays. He becomes a pale shadow of his former self: a
handsome, fair-haired, curly headed fellow, who was full of fun and loved singing. He learns to
make boots and earns a little money with which he uses to buy ‘The Lives of the Saints'. He
reads the book in prison and on Sundays in the prison-church, and sings in the choir. Despite his
predicament, Aksionov is likeable since he is meek. The prison authorities like him and his
fellow prisoners respect him. They call him ‘Grandfather’ and ‘The Saint’. He acts as an
arbitrator and puts things rights whenever there are quarrels among prisoners, and he also acts as
the prisoners’ spokesman. His contentment helps him to cope with his agony. Instead of holding
a bitter grudge, he remains patient, restrained and affable.
26
It is unfair that Aksionov suffers for the sins of Makar Semyonich, who gets arrested for less
serious crime of stealing a horse. When Aksionov asks Semyonich if he had had about the affair
of the murder of the merchant, Semyonich’s response makes him feel sure that he had killed the
merchant. That night he could not get any sleep. He felt so unhappy. He remembers the image of
his wife when he parted from her to go to the fair. Her face and her eyes rise before him. He
hears her speak in love. Then, he sees the image of his children quite little as they were at the
time. One with a little cloak on, another at his mother’s breast. He also remembers how he used
to be himself, young and merry. He remembers the day of his arrest while he was seated in the
porch playing the guitar. He bitterly remembers the flogging, the executioner and the people who
were standing around him. He remembers the chains, the convicts and all the 26 years of his
prison life, and his premature old age. These thoughts make him so wretched that he
contemplates suicide. His anger against Makar Semyonich is so great that he longs for revenge
even if it would mean perishing for it. He repeats his prayers all night but he does not get peace.
During the day he avoids going near Makar Semyonich and avoids even glancing at him. For two
weeks, Aksionov cannot sleep at night and he's so miserable and does not know what to do
considering the fact that the man who was responsible for his imprisonment was right there but
he had been locked up for a less serious crime. Despite this, he does not seek revenge. He had
accepted his fate. He says for his sins, he had been in prison for those 26 years. He did not like to
speak of his misfortune. He says that he must have deserved the punishment. This attitude helps
him to cope with the misery of the injustice the state had meted upon him.
Even when he gets a chance to avenge against Semyonich, Aksionov chooses to spare him the
pain and retribution instead. Aksionov catches Semyonich digging a hole under the wall with a
view of escaping from prison. Makar Semyonich threatens Aksionov and tells him to keep it a
secret or else he would kill him. Aksionov trembles with anger looking at his enemy. He tells
Makar Semyonich that he had no need to kill him for he killed him long ago. He adds that he will
do as God shall direct. When the prison officials find out about the hole and they question the
prisoners about it, all of them deny it. Those who knew would not betray Makar Semyonich, for
they knew he would be flogged almost to death. The governor at last turns to Aksionov, a just
man, and says: “Tell me before God who dug the hole?” Makar Semyonich ruined Aksionov’s
life and he contemplates letting the cat out of the bag so that Makar Semyonich can pay for what
he had suffered. However, he knows that if he opens his mouth, the officers would flog the life
out of Semyonich. Maybe he suspects him wrongly. Also he stands to gain nothing. He
surrenders in the hands of the Governor but refuses to tell him the truth, when he says that it is
not God's will that He should tell. He knows that two wrongs don’t make a right. He keeps his
mouth shut and spares his arch nemesis potential thorough flogging. The liberation of
forgiveness is more fulfilling than the temporary delight of revenge.
Semyonich is unjust to Aksionov when he chooses to confess his sins long after Aksionov had
endured untold retribution for a sin he did not commit. Nevertheless, Aksionov forgives Makar
Semyonich even after he confesses to killing the merchant and framing Aksionov. He confesses
that he meant to kill him too but fled when he heard a noise outside. Semyonich kneels on the
ground and cries asking Aksionov to forgive him. He promises to confess to the authorities that
he killed the merchant so that Aksionov could be released. Aksionov has suffered for 26 years.
He has nowhere to go. His wife is probably dead and his children may have forgotten him by
now. He has nowhere to go even if he is released. Makar Semyonich beats his head on the floor
27
and begs Aksionov to forgive him. The guilt in his heart is unbearable. He remembers that
Aksionov had screened him concerning the hole he was digging trying to escape. He sobs
bitterly. When Aksionov hears him sobbing he begins to weep too. He says, “God will forgive
you”. He also says that he may be a hundred times worse than Makar Semyonich. His heart
grows lighter and he does not long to go home anymore. He has no desires to leave the prison
and only hopes for his last hour to come. Forgiveness is liberating. It supersedes freedom.
Semyonich confesses, and an order for Aksionov’s release comes: too little too late. He was
already dead.
The fact that someone has done something unjust does not justify revenge. When we forgive our
oppressors, we are contented and we can bear the anguish of the oppression.
12.Lack of courtesy between the police and civilians leads to lethal conflicts. Justify the
validity of this statement using illustrations from Meja Mwangi’s incident in the park.
(20 marks).
Across the world, over centuries, the behaviour of some of the police officers has caused dire
repercussions. Sometimes this happens due to excessive use of force or simply wrongful
application of the law and policies, but majorly this occurs as a result of impolitel interactions
between the two parties.
Incident in the Park shows how city dwellers, hawkers and loafers find themselves in conflicts
with the police over flimsy and petty reasons often ending unpleasantly. When the two
constables accost the fruit peddler, he gets startled and confused. They demand for his licence
and identity card which he obviously doesn’t have. Then he offers five shillings which doesn’t
seem good enough as one constable shrugs. This means that at times if the offer were attractive,
they would have accepted it and left him.
The police refuse to listen to the fruit merchant and harshly shove him along the street to the city
telling him he will explain to the judge. This complicates matters even more because the fruit-
seller fears the judge more, It throws him into more panic as he has a case that is coming up the
following week and the judge is a “tyrant”. He explains further that he is selling this time so that
he can afford a fine but all his entreaties fall on deaf ears They remain unimpressed saying
nothing until he breaks away and flees into the crowded city.
The situation escalates when the constables chase the fleeing man shouting for help from the
passers-by. They actually betroth him unto the mob. A city man intercepts him and another man
lunges for him as shouts increase. Tossed here and there as a suspect, the desperate fruit peddler
stumbles and falls into a ditch, No one seems to care to find out what really is happening before
taking action. No one listens as he pleads for mercy, This is where he meets his Verdict’ which is
death. According to the crowd, ‘justice’ is administered. The mob universally condemn him
without plausible evidence.
By the time the police arrive at the scene, it is too late. Their action is irreversible and fatal. The
mob has already killed him for being a “thief”. They who are supposed to ensure public safety
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and security have aided the killing of a hardworking hawker by their silly mistake. This should
not have happened if they had treated the man politely. An innocent life is so unnecessarily lost.
This makes the public lose confidence in the police. After investigations the truth will come out
and it will be hard to trust the police.
In conclusion, wanton conflicts and deaths of innocent citizens could be averted if the police
handled matters with courtesy and sobriety
13.Drawing illustrations from Meja Mwangi's an incident in the park, write an essay to
discuss the problems of urbanization
Points of interpretation
i. Unemployment
ii. Overpopulation
iii. Social injustice/mob justice
iv. Poverty
v. Conflict between the constables and the hawkers
vi. Unhygienic condition
vii. Drug abuse
14 “When one is given power, he/she should use it only for good but more often than not,
people use it for wrong purpose.” Support this statement basing your argument
from Nagulb Mahfouz’s A man of Awesome Power.
When one is given power, he/she should use it only for good but more often than not people us
it for wrong purposes. Support this statement basing your argument from Naguib Mahfouz’s ‘A
Man of Awesome Power’
Many people who are in powerful positions or who have been gifted with some sort of power
tend to abuse it. Instead of utilizing it for improvement of the society at large, they use if for their
own selfish interests or to punish those that have wronged them, scenario is seen it ‘A Man of
Awesome Power through a number of illustrations.
We see Tayyib al-Mahdi utilizing the power given to him for revenge. This is not a good a way
of power utilization as it causes harm to others. Tayyib realizes that he has power to order things
to be and he sets out to utilize the power to change’ his country. However, the first episode
where he utilizes this power shows that he is utilizing it to hit back at a person who offends him.
The driver of the taxi that he hails suffers his wrath for refusing to stop. When Tayyib is on his
way to the heart of the town, he hails a taxi but the driver simply waves a hand at him in haughty
refuses. Tayyib’s irritation makes him stare at the rear wheels of the taxi and the two explode
suddenly.
Revenge: He ignores the voice that reminds him that he should only use his power for good and
lets his anger control him. This act of revenge was deliberate since as Tayyib bypasses the driver
he feels that he has taught the man a lesson. By utilizing his power to hit back at the taxi driver.
Tayyib shows that people with power use it for wrong purposes.
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Stomach pain: We further see wrong utilization of power where Tayyib causes the man in the
bus to suffer stomach pains. Although the man had physically attacked a woman, causing him to
suffer stomach cramps not justified. Tayyib encounters a confrontation between the man and a
woman in a public bus and the man ends up slapping the woman. Just like the incident with the
taxi driver. Tayyib lets his anger control him where he focused it on the man’s stomach and
immediately the man suffers severe cramps that cause him to moan and scream in pain. The pain
is so intense that an ambulance had to be called to fetch him.
Slap paisn: Allowing his anger to control him and causing pain to the man who had slapped a
woman is a vengeful act which is wrong thus showing how people with power use it for wrong
purposes.
Radio: Beside. Tayyib uses the power bestowed on him to interfere with the radio presentation
by causing the presenter to start sneezing. While seated in the café, he hears a radio
announcer expounding on the developments that were to be expected in the future. Tayyib feels
that the announce should report on what has been achieved yet instead of giving false hopes to
the people. Tayyib thus decided to cause some sneezing to attack the announcer since it was the
only way to stop him.
Soon after, the announcer develops massive sneezes that prevent him from carrying on with the
presentation. Tayyib feels happy and victorious after the unexpected conclusion of the
announcement. Although his desire is to purify the broadcasting sector, the approach of causing
massive sneezing to the presenter is harmful and thus wrong.
Passion: Lastly, Tayyib is seen to sue the power given to him to satisfy his sexual passion and
desires Tayyib utilizes the power to make a woman that he is attracted to notice him.
While he is seated at the tea garden planning how to effectively use his power Tayyib notices a
beautiful woman approaching the entrance of the garden. The woman does not notice him at first
and Tayyib thinks of how through his powers he can cause her to be head-over-heels with him.
He then send her a hidden message and she responds to him. He sees nothing wrong with
satisfying his desires as a way of repairing himself. He closes his note book and they surrender to
fate. This is an immoral act since Tayyib is married to Haniya whom he had remained faithful to
throughout their marriage.
In conclusion, People gifted with power should strive to use it only for good purposes and not to
cause pain suffering to others or for immoral deeds like Tayyib did.
15.People living on the streets apply wisdom in order to survive the difficult conditions.
Write an essay to qualify this statement citing illustrations from Rem'y Ngamije’s The
Neighbourhood Watch.
On the streets, conditions are challenging. One needs experience, knowledge, and sound
judgment in addition to dedication and effort to survive.
To endure the harsh conditions on the streets, Neighbourhood Watch members use wisdom.
They are shrewd enough to get up early in the morning to go food hunting. Before the full dawn,
Elias, Lazarus, and Omagano leave. They depart early so they can find the overflowing trash can
s behind eateries, which are the true rewards. One can purchase palatable, semi-
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fresh morsels in the early morning. The food begins to spoil in the late morning. "The early bird
does not catch the worm," the neighborhood watch is aware. Elias, Lazarus, and Omagano prolo
ng their strides in order to arrive on time. They are aware that in the streets, time is of the import
ance.
The crew is aware that maintaining strong relationships with other people is essential to their
survival. The vast majority of the city's kitchen personnel like working with Elias. They call him
"Soldier" or "Captain," respectively. For him and his crew, they occasionally leave produce that
is nearly rotting away. Elias occasionally found himself lucky enough to receive rotting
mangoes, wrinkled carrots, and potatoes with broken skins due to the positive relationship. The
employees would be kind enough to provide them the night before's smushed leftovers, such as
half-eaten burgers, sauce-drenched chips, or salads. Since the majority of the kitchen staff is
underpaid, they frequently have to carry leftovers home to their own families. It is It is amazing
that Elias manages to get some food from them.
Because the Neighbourhood Watch team is so clever, they have divided into specialized units.
While Silas and Martin are charged with looking for additional necessities, Elias, Lazarus, and
Omagano are always on duty. Elias had previously been living alone, but when he met Lazarus,
he suggested that they form a partnership because it was exhausting to scavenge for food and
other necessities of life on the streets. Lazarus first resisted. The chilly evenings compelled him
to cooperate. Since two individuals could cover more ground, it worked for them.
When not out on a foraging mission, the crew is wise enough to secure a safe haven where they
can sleep or simply hide. The Neighbourhood Watch considers the underside of the bridge to be
valuable real estate. When it rains and on chilly winter evenings, it provides a crucial shelter.
The letters NW painted on the columns have the same impact as a leopard's territory bordering
musty pee.Other crews are wise to avoid intruding there for fear of bloody vengeance.
Additionally, it provides a secure location to store their supplies so they won't have to carry their
sparse belongings with them wherever they go. They would move more slowly if they had more
luggage while they searched their neighborhoods for food and other necessities. Elias dials their
regional command center. He wakes up the rest of the team in the morning, and they all share a
can of water to wash their faces. A safe area is essential to a street family.
They might accomplish more in a day if one searched for food and the other for other necessities.
They are aware now that women and children make excellent recruits. Some obstinate guards
demand a 10 or 20 dollar bribe before allowing them to go through gated containers. Elias
typically pays them, but when he is strapped for cash, Omagano takes care of business alongside
a guard behind the garbage. On the other hand, the treasures team offers discarded blankets,
beds, clothes, reusable shoes, trolleys, etc. While trolleys are practical, they can also be
exchanged for more helpful items. Separately working, the two crews come together in the late
afternoon. Bread, mashed potatoes, grapes, and water are shared as food. The valuables crew
brings newspapers, plastic piping and poor boy caps.
Additionally, the Neighbourhood Watch is familiar with the city and its neighborhoods. Elias
requests the group's rest because they will be going foraging in Ausblick tonight. Right now, it's
too hot to be outside. The Neighbourhood Watch is better and more profitable at night. The crew
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is aware that by hitting the bins early, they may be able to find some useful items in Ausblick,
such as broken toasters, blenders, water bottles, teflon pots or pans, flat-screen TV cardboard
boxes, and even some food. In Ausblick, people still know how to dispose of stuff.
While Martin and Omagano push the cart, Elias, Lazarus, and Silas will scan the area in front of
them for valuables. They are aware that Ausblick, like Olympia and Suiderhof, will soon be
congested. Previously, Pionierspark was worthwhile, but not any longer. Presently, the
Neighbourhood Watch are dissuaded by ocular prowls, canine barking, and patrol vehicles
manned by irate, screaming individuals. They are aware that the faster they can arrive at
Ausblick, the better.
The neighborhood watch is aware that living on the streets requires a present-focused mindset
rather than one that is preoccupied with the past or the future. Each person enters the streets with
a history. Lazarus' tattoos are proof of his time spent in jail. Since he was shot at by the South
African Defense Forces, Elias does not fear him. They don't have time to reflect on the past
because of their hunger or need for food on the streets. Lazarus and Elias both have some street
smarts. He claims that there is only now and no future for the streets. "You must eat today. Your
need for refuge today. You have today's needs to attend to.
The staff stays away from the streets on Fridays and Saturdays and makes a secure retreat to
Headquarters. They take this action to prevent scuffles with police on patrol. Martin can't go with
Silas, despite his desire to do so. Elias and Lazarus make fun of the fools who wait by the side of
the road in Klein Windhoek and Eros to fix a window, paint a room, install a sink, or lay some
tiles because they are too proud to go scavenging for food. They ultimately return home hungry.
Martin believes that if those "fools" could occasionally find employment, perhaps things might
improve. There is only now, says Elias, and "maybe is tomorrow." To survive on the streets, one
must pay attention to the here and now. "Today is every day."
The rest of the team hears Elias and Lazarus' observations from the streets, including how they
came to their decision to switch directions. The group discovered that being near people who are
striving to survive is not a good way to survive. When foraging in the underprivileged areas, you
only find what people don't require to survive.
The Neighbourhood Watch is aware that poor people only discard filthy waste and useless
newborns. You had to be prepared to find shit in the impoverished areas: expired food, condoms
that had been used, women's items that had been stained with blood, and broken items. Once,
while searching for newspapers to start a fire, Elias and Lazarus were horrified to discover a
dead infant. They realized that an upgrade was necessary. Only because they had to survive did
they go there.
You do everything and travel everywhere to survive. Being picky is impossible. But now they
are aware that they need to advance and visit locations where there is enough trash to go around.
Such people live in neighborhoods where there are both white people and black people
attempting to pass for white. They finally make the wise decision to leave the impoverished who
have nothing to discard on their own.
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Finally, the Neighbourhood Watch is astute enough to recognize that some neighborhoods must
be avoided. They stay away from Khomsadal because it is busy and overly drunken there. Due of
his pride and drunkenness, they lost their friend Amos there. He formerly called people names,
used foul language, and never asked for forgiveness. Then he was fatally stabbed.
The neighborhood watch is aware of the problem of dead bodies on the streets. Police would
essentially ask witnesses to provide explanations. They beat people with batons, caused
paperwork headaches, and detained innocent people. Everyone, including Elias and Lazarus,
understood they had to flee when Amos died. When the police caught up with them, they had the
good sense to stay with their original explanation that they had nothing to do with the murder.
They had fractured ribs, swollen eyes, bruises, bleeding, damaged skin, and injured limbs, but
that was better than dying. They know enough to stay far away from Khomsadal.
In conclusion, adversity teaches people how to adapt and survive. Survival depends on acuity.
16.War causes a lot of harm and thus should be avoided at any cost. Validate this statement
basing your illustrations from Chimamanda Adichie’s ‘Ghosts’ (20 Marks)
Whenever parties engage in some form of fighting, there are grave implications that follow as is
seen in Ghosts’ where the civil war that happened in July 6, 1967 cause suffering and pain to the
people. To start with, war is seen to cause displacement of several people. Many people are
forced to run away from their country and their homes when the civil war broke Prof. James and
Ikenna’s meeting takes James down the memory lane where he recounts how they were forced to
evacuate Nsukka in a hurry in July 6, 1967 when the war began. Through their conversation, we
learn that Ikenna has lived in Sweden ever since the war began and has only come back to
Nsukka recently. He discloses that he was flown out on Red Cross planes just like many other
children had been airlifted to Gabon. Prof. James did not escape the displacement since he and
his wife, Ebere had to move to America when the war broke out. Many people are seen to have
been forced to leave their motherland as a result of the civil war.
Secondly, we see that war leads to loss of lives. Several people had their lives cut short due to
the civil war that broke out. The return of Ikenna comes as a surprise to Prof, James since Ikenna
was thought to have died in the war. It is no wonder that Prof initially thought of throwing a
handful of sand at him just like his people did to ensure that it was not a ghost. Actual loss of life
is seen through Ikenna’s family. While explaining to prof the reason why he never returned to
Nsukka after the war, Ikenna tells him that his whole family was killed when Orlu was bombed
during the war thus he had nobody to come back to. It is not just Ikenna who lost loved ones but
Prof too. His first daughter Zik died in the war. He tells Ikenna that the war took Zik. It is no
wonder they named their second daughter Nkiruka which means: what is ahead is better.
Thirdly, war is seen to cause massive destruction and loss of properties. When Prof James and
his wife first returned to Nsukka when the war ended in 1970, they notice major destructions that
had occurred. Prof recounts how they found their house and items destroyed. His books were
lying in front of the gate, his Mathematical Annals torn and used as tissue paper, the bath tab
used as toilet and their photos ripped and their frames broken. The massive destruction of their
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house was too much that they had to be assigned a different house in a different street to avoid
seeing their old house. In the process of their house being destroyed, they lose their Piano that
belonged to Ebere. Prof also remembers the landscape of drove back to Nsukka after the war.
The massive destruction a recounted by Prof shows how destructive war is.
Lastly, war causes psychological and physical suffering o live with nightmares the victims.
Those who experience war and sad memories of it. Prof James is seen to have lived with the
memories of the war. He easily remembers every detail of the war as he recounts it to Ikenna.
Ikenna has suffered psychologically as is seen from the fact that he lost all his family in Orlu
hence the reason he does not return to Nsukka. His psychological suffering is further seen from
the fact that he never remarries after the war took his wife. Further evidence o psychological pain
is seen where Prof observes how his people avoided the topic of war and if they engaged in it, it
was with some vagueness. The naming of their second daughter Nkiruka- what is aheadis better,
also shows the pain that Prof and Ebere: were trying to avoid. The people also suffer physical
pain. Prof. James remembers how a wounded soldier was shoved in their car on the day they
returned to Nsukka.
In conclusion, war causes loss of lives, displacement of people and destruction of properties
among other effects. People should thus strive to live in harmony and avoid it at all costs.
Essay 17
Ninema
People with admirable traits stand out. Basing your illustrations on Vrenika Pather's
Ninema, write an essay to validate this assertion.
Exemplary attributes arouse respect and approval. Ninema is a young beautiful woman whose
praiseworthy character makes her the embodiment of magnificence. She stands out from the pack
at the market place.
First, Ninema is industrious. She rises early at 4:00 AM to reap her herbs from her garden. She
has green fingers and her crops are healthy. She is also an enterprising businesswoman. To earn a
living, she sells fresh produce at the Indian market. She learned the trade from her parents. Her
business makes good profit. At the end of a long working day, her hanky bulges with notes and
coins. Her diligence makes her remarkably superior to others.
Secondly, Ninema is resilient. She is as tough as old boots. She is contented and accepts her
situation but does not resign to it. She faces many challenges and wins. She is thus respected.
Ninema is also focused. She does not pay heed to the trifles when people admire her for her
physical beauty. She is indeed a beautiful woman with long black hair. Her beauty turns heads.
As she walks balancing her baskets on her head, her hips sway from side to side. Her sari drapes
around her perfect body kept in place by her high, firm breasts. Her long, toned arms and cinched
waist cause men to stop and stare. She faces them with piercing black eyes. Women admire her
high cheekbones. She does not pay heed to the attention. She has laser-like focus on earning a
living. She doesn’t waste time chatting with other women at the market because she has no time
to waste. Indeed Ninema is focused.
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Ninema is good-natured and she treats her customers well. She is wise enough to provide genial
customer service. She takes extra care of her first and last customer. She says they bring luck.
She learned her trade from her parents and thus she believes in the grace and power of
generational knowledge. She is also good at accounting. She can count faster than you can utter
the word “herb”. She treats all her loyal customers with respect and appreciation. She masterfully
handles the stubborn Mrs. Singh and respectfully calls her auntie.
Furthermore, Ninema is affable and the clients like her. Mr. Chimran is always the first to
support her. The other women joke that he is in love with Ninema. He is a rich lawyer from the
high Brahmin caste. Nonetheless, he is infatuated with Ninema a poor girl from the low caste.
She makes his days. He buys too much from her until the mother complains. He cannot fathom
the idea of an arranged marriage which will deny him the chance of visiting Ninema's stall. Mrs.
Singh is rich but she also enjoys buying her herbs from Ninema. She haggles for lower prizes
simply to spend more time with Ninema, away from the boredom of her big lonely house. She
lingers bargaining in order to interact with Ninema more. Ninema also takes personal interest in
the lives of her customers. She knows whose son is studying medicine in India, whose daughter
just got married, and who moved into a new house and where they bought it.
Ninema is self assured and confident. She runs her business with an iron fist. She is her own
person – acts independently with confidence. She does not give in to what other people expect of
her. This thrills as much as it irks many people. It makes the ladies in the other stands fond of
her. They often compromised themselves at work and at home. This makes them angry with
themselves. They look up to Ninema. They admire her since she is different though she’s one of
them. They want to learn her secret. Mrs. Singh relentlessly bargains for lower prices but
Ninema does not budge.
Ninema is organized and that is why her business flourishes. She has a steady flow of customers.
She arranges her herbs appetizingly. The customers are attracted by the look and smell of her
stall. There is high demand for Ninema’s herbs. She is always busy at lunchtime when the rich
professionals patronize her during their lunch break.
Ninema is also tough. When an amorous man blocks her way and tries to harass her, she stares
directly at him. She defends herself by fighting him so ferociously that the shameless man is left
astounded. This attracts cheers and jeers and hearty laughs of approval from the other women at
the market.
Lastly, Ninema is prudent. She is a poor girl living a modest lifestyle but she has big plans. She
saves part of her money with a view of buying a big house of her own. Currently her house has
neither hot running water nor a kitchen inside. She has to wash her face and feet using cold water
in the outside tap. However, with the money she’s saving she plans to buy a house with the
running hot water and a kitchen inside. It will have a big garden where she can plant fruits.
In conclusion, Ninema is the pinnacle of magnificence. Because of her praiseworthy traits, she
seems remarkably superior to her peers. Indeed, exemplary attributes attract respect and make us
stand out.
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Essay 17
Ivory Bangles by Eric Ng'maryo.
Question Love knows no bounds though it can lead one to misery if not handled
cautiously', write an essay to bring out the truth in this assertion basing your illustrations
from the story Ivory Bungles by Eric Ng'maryo.
Affection has no limits, however, it can make one suffer if not handled with care. The old man
and his wife love each other too much that he fails to give his wife a ritual beating as demanded
by the pebblee earning his wife an untimely demise.
Out of Love, the old man. fails/refuses to give his wife a ritual beating as demanded by the
pebbles. Pg 21, "The seer's pebble said someone was going to die. The pebbles said a wife was
going to die. The pebbler said the spirits were jealous of a happy wife, a woman unmolested by
her husband until old age, until she was called 'Grandmother'. He is over-whelmed by the love he
has for his wife and what he can do to avert the beating. (Pg 22) He suggests they could be
appeased by any number of goats. He began telling the wife where he had gone but is carried
away when she offers the meals and the warmth. He says, "This was not the atmosphere for
discussing the words of the pebbles. He delays this until they agree to hatch a plan to counter
attack. In the end, he losesr his wife just as the pebbles had prophesied.
Out of Love, the old man fails to heed to the advice of the ageing chief to get himself another
wife.This was shortly after he was made Councillor as a reward for bravery shown in the Battle
of Five Rainy Day, he answers mwith a riddle on why he cannot marry other wives. In the end he
loses the wife. Pg 22, "He still was the chief's councillor, much respected, but also much talked
about because he had only one wife and a councillor was a small chief and whoever heard of a
chief with one wife? The old man fails to marry another wife Out of the love and satisfaction he
derived from the one wife he had. In the end, he loses the wife and remains a wifeless chief.
Out of Love, the Old Man goes out of his way to poach an elephant, extract its tusks which he
uses to make coweries for his wife. Pg 23, "She is very comely in the many ivory bangles. she
wears. I made them, Sir and the ivory was from the elephant I shot with a poisoned arrow. I
brought one of the tusks as it is custom. "People say you bought the bangles, He pretends to a
carver. The woman pleased him in the bangles. The ones on her hands were etched with
mnemonic marks for a long love poem. He had presented the bangles to her when their first born
child, now their only son, was given a name. She had looked like a chief's bride. She later
becomes the victim of human-animal conflict when The elephants whose tusks she adorns kill
her mercilessly. her.
The Old Man's wife out of love for the husband remarks that she knows the seer and that he once
wanted to marry. She agrees to hatch a plan in order to go to her brother's place in pretense that
she has been beaten. Then later call for reconciliation by the parents (Pg 24). She deliberately
delays her going to the brother and decides to go first weed the garden, In her own words she
says his son has beaten the wife to near death. "Why is my son so different ,from his father?" Pg.
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25. As she plans to go while weeding her garden, a rouge elephant trumps her down. In
conclusion, Love is good. It knows no limits but coupled with defiance or lack of caution can
lead us to unforeseen misery.
This is clearly seen in the lives of the old man and his wife.
Essay 18
A Man of Awesome Power Lack of sound judgment results in regret. Making reference to
A Man of Awesome Power, write an essay to justify this claim.
Lack of good sense results in misguided decisions which may torment us eternally. In A Man of
Awesome Power Tayyib al-Mahdi misuses and in turn loses his awesome power due to moments
of rash imprudence.
Tayyib al-Mahdi uses his awesome power to punish the taxi driver who ignores him when he
hails it. Tayyib al-Mahdi tries to flag down the taxi but the driver ignores him disdainfully.
Unlike when this happened in the past, now Tayyib al-Mahdi is filled with greater irritation. In
this moment of anger, he makes an impulsive decision to punish the man. He considers that he
could make the driver suffer an accident. He decides to shatter the taxi's rear wheels instead. He
knows that he should use his powers only for good but his anger results in his recklessness. As
he walks by the helpless man, Tayyib al-Mahdi stares at him, resentful and enraged. He feels like
he had taught the man a much needed lesson .
Tayyib al-Mahdi hastily punishes the radio announcer only because he is irritated with his views.
The announcer was expounding on promising developments expected in the future this is after
Tayyib alMahdi's memorable services were mistaken for an awakening of the state or outright
renaissance. Tayyib al-Mahdi fills a gaping pothole, locks a dangerously hanging electrical box,
removes a pile of rubbish and drains a sewer using his awesome power. Tayyib al-Mahdi is irked
by the announcer’s promises who talks about the future instead of talking about what has been
accomplished. Tayyib al-Mahdy is overcome with fury and thoughtlessly punishes the man with
a bout of incessant sneezing. He sneezes uncontrollably until he cannot speak and instead plays a
recorded song “Walk Around and See”. Al-Mahdi plans to censor mass media by stopping any
talk that annoys him. He would make speakers that displease him to sneeze spontaneously, emit
shrill cries like women at a wedding, or suffer uncontrollable diarrhoea. Tayyib alMahdi is drunk
with happiness and joy.
Tayyib al-Mahdi also misuses his awesome power when he uses it to chase the gorgeous woman
at the zoo at the expense of the righteous plans he has. Tayyib al-Mahdi visits the tea garden at
the zoo purposely to properly plan how to put his new powers to greater use. However, he
instead uses it to seduce a gorgeous and enticing woman that catches his eye. Tayyib al-Mahdi is
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filled with an inexplicable desire - one that is not ordinary and his inappropriate since he has a
tremendous burden of proper planning and awareness of need. This woman does not take notice
of Tayyib al-Mahdi until he sends her a hidden message using his awesome powers, instantly
setting her head-over-heels. He decides to heal himself instead of repairing the world. This ill-
advised move results in the loss of his powers and his vibrant mood. The miracle disappears like
a dream because of his selfish imprudence. He will be haunted eternally by an awesome sadness.
Tayyib al-Mahdi also makes the unwise decision of applying his power before properly planning
how to use it. First, he performs random miracles. Some are memorable services like removing a
pile of rubbish and draining an open sewer. Others are born out of sheer resentment and unwise
personal vendetta for example shattering the taxi wheels. He later realizes that he had to
consciously plan how to best utilize the powers. He obtains guides to the department of
government, factories and private companies coastal among the things he plans to fix our prisons
schools and universities commercial markets, then the press etc. He plans to map out every phase
deliberately. He intends to quell any clamor, and deter any digression. He plans to fix his country
then later the world. However, he fails to remain focused on the plan and is distracted by the
beautiful woman at the zoo. He puts his plans on hold as he instead chooses to use the powers to
pursue the woman. This imprudent resolve results in the loss of his power end he is forlornly
tormented by an eternal sadness.
In conclusion, poor decisions are preceded by lack of good judgment and Tayyib al-Mahdi learns
this the hard way.
Essay 19
Ninema Ninema serves as an example of a virtuous woman who should be emulated in the
society. Using illustrations from the short story “Ninema” by Vrenika Pather, discuss this
assertion.
Hardwork :Ninema works very hard, selling her fresh produce at the Indian market so as to earn
a living. She is Independent and does not wait for handouts from anyone but works very hard to
earn herself a decent living.
Resilient :Ninema is as tough as old boots. Despite the challenges that Ninema faces, she has her
eyes fixed on her goal which is to achieve a good lifestyle (buy her own house) after working so
hard. We are told that she has never had running hot water and has to make do with washing her
face and feet with cold water from the outside tap. She has to contend with boiling water on the
open fire to take her weekly bath.
Generous; Ninema gifts her new customers, the last customer of the day, a bunch of mint for
free, which makes the customer very happy and she promiss to always shop for her herbs at
Ninema’s stall.
Self-respecting and courageous: Ninema does not condone being disrespected by anyone. When
an arrogant man pinched her erect nipple at the market, she stood up for herself to the
encouragement and cheers and jeers of the other women. She roughed up the man single-
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handedly for his immoral and unbecoming behaviour. The other women were so encouraged by
this courage and cheered her for having stood firm against the disrespect.
Ambitious and determined ;Ninema dreams of owning a home so that she does not have to
contend with bullying from landlords, a home where she will have hot water and the kitchen will
be in the inside. She vows to work hard to single handedly achieve this.
Humble ;Ninema is beautiful and she knows it. Everyone admires her beauty. She however
does not let the idea of her beauty get into her head or the idea of peoples’ admiration get into
her heart as her chief concern is to earn a living.
Respectful and accommodative; Ninema knows her place in the society, as a woman from the
lower caste, she does not entertain Mr. Chinran’s infatuation. He is a rich lawyer from Brahmin
caste. Ninema however treats him as she treats all other customers, with respect and
appreciation. She also takes a personal interest in each of her customers despite being very busy.
In conclusion, the character of ninema as discussed in this essay is truly admirable and all
women should emulate and try to be like her. (Accept any other valid conclusion)
Essay 20
Ivory Bangles
Write a composition to illustrate effects of human-animal conflict drawing illustrations
from Eric Ng‟maryo‟s „‟ Ivory Bangles‟‟.
Introduction
Confrontation between wild animals and human being is becoming more rampant in the modern
world. During such scenarios, the result becomes adverse both for humans and the animals
including and destruction of property. (Accept any other relevant introduction)
C1: Death of people Human-animal conflict sometimes gives rise to casualties. People may lose
their lives during human-animal confrontation. The Councilors’ wife is killed by a bull elephant.
As the scouts chased the elephants which invaded the village with noise and arrows, the bull
elephant is wounded. Instead of following the cows into the banana grove, the he elephant picks
the path up from the stream out of rage. The elephant enters the Councilors’ grove where his
wife had been weeding. The bull attacked the woman, lifting her bodily. It then bashed her on
trees and banana plants before putting her on the ground and stamping on her repeatedly. In this
manner the woman loses her life.
C2: Destruction of property Conflict between human and animals also leads to destruction of
property. When the councilor’s wife goes to the market, she gets to learn that a herd of elephants
have invaded the village. The people express fear that the beasts would be devastating to the
young plants. The scouts warn people of the invasion by a herd of elephants. The elephants have
invaded the area including banana groves. The animals cross river Marwe into Mtorobo village.
39
The scouts shout to warn the people of Mtoboro that five she elephants have invaded their
banana groves. The wounded bull also invades the grove where the wife of the chief’s councilor
had been weeding.
C3: Killing of animals Animals are also killed during confrontation between humans and
animals. The killing of animals happens for various reasons. On one the one hand, the scouts
strike to scare the animals out of their property as in the case of the wounded bull. Also, at the
market, the councilor’ wife gets wind that the village has been invaded by elephants,. People
however, are somehow relieved because people who know how to use poisoned arrows are
already following the herd. They hope that with poisoned arrows, some can be killed. On the
other hand, people kill animals for aesthetics and for money. The Chief appreciates the
councilor’s wife saying she is comely in the twenty-four bangles she adorned. The chief is privy
to the fact the councilor bought them but he is made to understand that the councilor carved them
from the elephant he short with a poisoned arrow. This proves that people may kill animals
during human- animal conflict.
C4: Disturbance There is disturbance during conflict between human beings and animals. When
the elephants invade the village, people who know how to use poisoned arrows are appointed to
follow them. The scouts monitor the elephants and warn the public the whole day. They climb on
top of trees and make noise relaying warning from one scout to another. They warn people as the
elephants move from Sangeyo across river Marwe to Mtoboro homestead in Bware village. The
elephants cause great disturbance to the people disrupting their activities.
C5: Injuries to the animals Conflict between people and animals leads to animals being injured
by people who attack with a view to driving them away. The bull elephant which eventually kills
the woman is enraged because it had been wounded. The elephants are also followed by people
who are trained to trained to use arrows.
In conclusion, humans and animals sometimes experience strife with far reaching effects. Animal
and humans may cross each other’s paths leading to retaliation and counter-retaliation which turn
calamitous as lives and property are lost in the duel.
Essay 21 Boyi
‘War can cause a lot of problems in our society and should be avoided at all costs’ With
close reference to ‘Boyi’ by Gloria Mwaniga , Write an essay justifying this assertion.
Conflict destroys family ties and communal bonds. Family members are separated from one
another, some are traumatized and others are killed as a result of conflict. In Gloria Mwaniga’s
‘Boyi’ the militia which should protect the community land ends up being the one terrorizing the
community they vowed to protect. Below are illustrations showing the challenges the community
faced as result of conflict within the community.(It can be general/contextual or both)
Displacement Conflict causes displacement of people who leave their homes in huge masses to
Bungoma and Uganda. The family of the narrator’s friend Chemutai moves to Chwele.The
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villages of Kopsiro, Saromet, Chepyuk and Chebei are engulfed by a fog of fear. The did not
understand the Militia’s motive anymore. The Militia took away girls to go cook for them.
People’s heads were chopped off and bodies were thrown into river Cheptap-burbur. The Militia
also raped their own relatives resulting to children born who were transparent as plastic bags.
The narrator imagines Boyi’s children playing appearing transparent as the plastic bags. This
horrifies her terribly. Since school is disrupted by the conflict such thoughts haunts the narrator
and she spends most of her time idle under the flame tree at home.
Family Disintegration ;Most of the families are disunited from the rest of their members. The
Militia demanded 40,000 land protection tax, 10,000 land protection tax and 30,000 betrayal tax.
Boyi’s father could raise the amount and suggested giving away his savings, precious radio and
hunting gun and promises to give his bull Mtabakaki to raise the cash but the Militia is adamant
and threatens to kill his entire family. Therefore resulted to giving away Boyi who is only 15
years old until he could raise the amount. Boyi’s mother falls into depression, talking in
monologues. She shouts at her husband for giving their son away she tears her Kitenge head
scurf and tells him that their son is not cloth that one gives away casually. Boyi’s mother and
father’s relationship disintegrated as a result of them losing their son to the Militia. Baba tries to
justify his action by saying that he had to give him away otherwise the entire family would have
have been tortured to death. He, however, is saddened that the boys who had vowed to protect
their land had turned on them like a hungry chameleon that eats its intestines. Conflict really
ruined their community.
Mental anguish. Conflict causes devastation that pushes Boyi’s mother to a state of insanity.
The narrator finds the mother seated alone on a kiti moto in the kitchen. She neither looks up nor
respond to greetings.She screams at the narrator to leave some tea for Boyi who will return from
the caves hungry. The screaming goes on for weeks ‘stupid girl you want to finish tea for your
brother and he will come from the caves hungry’, she bawls. She would sit stunned gazing at the
wall declaring she envisions her son returning home after escaping from the snare of the militia.
After her monologues, she would sit sadly and silently. When her madness takes a walk they
would brew tea together with the narrator and would nostalgically reminisce stories about Boyi;
about how he saved her marriage being a testament that her womb was not tied by Djinis.
Conflict drives Baba to partake in strange tradition of burying a banana stem to drive the spirit of
death away and appease Boyi’s spirit. The narrator is surprised by her father turning his back on
religion. The mother refuses to be part of the ritual of sending her son’s spirit away. She has lost
touch with reality and lives in denial. Boyi’s family was traumatized by the militia.
Misery In her anguish, Mama is too despondent to eat. She sits muttering to herself without
touching her ugali until it would form a brown crust. The narrator would take it and throw it
away in the chicken coop. She sits and talks to herself for hours on end lamenting about her
suffering. She asks God to tie a rope around her stomach. Boyi’s family was devasted that he had
been recruited by the militia by force.
Work disruption Conflict disrupts work in the village. That December the farmers do not
clear their farms for the second planting of maize. The militia steals young crops from the fields
and goats from pens. Instead of working, men and women sit and exchange dreadful tales of the
41
horrendous cruelty of the militia. The militia cut people and throw their bodies in rivers, pit
latrines and wells. They recruit boys as young as ten years who are forced to kill their own
relatives. Instead of protecting the land, the militia goes on an indiscriminate killing spreeand
their kins are victims of the aggression instead of beneficiaries. Boyi’s sister has a terrible dream
that her brother attacks her and chops her head off into small pieces. She is traumatized by this
dream.
Dehumanisation .As result of war, innocent children turn into savages. These young boys are
forced to murder or rape their own kinsmen. Boyi has gone from a God fearing young man to a
wanted criminal. Chesaina tells his parents that he is now a marked man. The distressing news
crashes Boyi’s parents and reduces oth of them to tears. They cannot wrap their heads around the
fact that their good son who recited Psalms devotedly is now Matwakei’s right hand man and an
enemy of the state. War truly ruins families.
Killings Boyi’s family is devastated by the news of his killing. The nation newspaper
headlines screams coldly ‘Ragtag militia leaders killed by Army Forces’ Baba crumples like an
old coat due to shock. Mama is too stunned to cry. She simply laughs. Boyi’s sister is too gutted
to cry. War has robbed them of their kin in the prime of his youth. Boyi is murdered brutally
after being flung out of a helicopter which was midair. There was no body to bury or for Mama
to slap for that matter. She does not roll on the ground as is custom. She is neither bitter nor sad.
She only has eyes of lunacy and a voice of death. She truly is devastated. She sits on Boyi’s bed
together with the daughter who weeps uncontrollably, her tears soaking her clothes. Boyi’s
family was deeply destroyed by the war.
In conclusion, it is evident that conflict or crisis has no positive outcome. It instead destroys
families and communities and should therefore be shunned.
Essay 22
A Silent Song People living with disability may face certain limitations. Using illustrations
from Leonard Kibera’s A Silent Song, write an essay to validate this statement.
People living with disability find it more difficult to do certain activities or to interact with the
world around them. In the short story A Silent Song, Mbane is visually impaired and disabled,
and he finds it difficult to move and to conduct other activities because of his disability. (Any
other relevant introduction, 2 marks)
Mbane’s movement is inhibited because of his disability. He gropes slowly towards the door of
his hut. He can only crawl weakly on his knees and elbows. He cannot go further since the pain
in his spine and stomach gather violence rapidly. The pain pangs paralyze him for a short
tormenting moment. The pain soon disappears but with the same savage fury of its onslaught,
leaving Mbane cold with sweat. He anticipates another imminent attack. Giving up the fight, he
lets go his chin and hits his forehead on the dirty flea-ridden floor. Mbane’s freedom of
movement is curtailed by his visual impairment, disability and pain. He is restricted to the lonely
hut.
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Mbane’s perception of time, day or beauty is limited by his inability to see. Although he is
hungry, he does not know what time it is. He wallows in the gloom of his eternal night. Time,
day and beauty lie beyond the bitter limits of darkness. He is restricted to feeling, hearing and
running away from danger. He is also limited to a world of retreat. Due to his lameness, he can
only crawl away. He has no power to hit back. Surely, people living with disability suffer certain
restrictions.
When his brother brings him from the streets to his home, Mbane is restricted to his new
confinement, the hut. His brother says that he rescued him from the barbaric city so that he could
see the light of God. The hut is serene but so suspicious. This is Mbane’s new life away from the
streets of the city. His new confinement is devoid of the urban ruggedness and noise. It lacks the
quick prancing footsteps of the busy city people. In his limitation, Mbane can never fathom their
business. Also, he is restricted to pleading with the people to help him stay alive by offering him
some coins.
Due to his disability. Mane had little comprehension or knowledge of the city, though he lived in
it. He earns his living on one street only, retreating to the back lane when it was deserted. His
condition inhibits him from telling the length, width, beauty or the size of the street. He is just
used to the talk of bright weather, lovely morning or beautiful sunset but he cannot take part in
the small talk. He feels challenged when pedestrians sing to the blue sky and whistle to the gay
morning. In his impediment, he cannot perceive these senses. During the day, Mbane has to
endure the overly generous heat of the sun and obstinate flies mobbing the edges of his lips. At
night, he cannot escape the hostile biting cold when he retreats to the back lane unsheltered, to
surrender to his vulnerability to sleep and is occasionally by some ignoble thieves.
Mbane is constrained in his ability to eke out a living since he is disabled. He is forced to beg on
that lonely street of the city. Mbane has come to understand that money is the essence of urban
life. He is therefore happy with gay people since they mostly answer his plea. Dull people with
heavy tired footsteps and voices have empty pockets. Unlike him, the good men and women of
the city have the ability to work in the buildings next to him and more up the street. He has no
option but to endure the scorching sun and stubborn flies. At night, he is tempted by the strange
rhythms but cannot indulge because of his condition. He is limited to hearing voices cursing and
singing and bottles cracking. Mbane is restricted from joining the good men’s women’s merry
making after a hard day’s work. Only pimps and whores enjoyed the proceeds of the good men’s
sweat.
Mbane’s condition has restricted him from getting married. His brother Ezekiel is married to
Sarah. He must have been around Mbane’s age. Mbane would never be able to reach out his
hand in fullfilement of his life in the same way. He can only yearn impotently, sadly constrained
because of his darkness and lameness. He is overcome by bitter self-pity and can only console
himself about his own light and thus he would only smile broadly and bravely. His brother’s wife
occasionally brings him some bitter medicine. His condition impedes him from getting a wife of
his own and settling down.
43
Mbane has become accustomed to limited conversation or communication. His brother enters
his hut and sits on his bed but for a long time no one speaks. Mbane cannot be expected to start a
conversation. All his life, he has been speaking to himself in his thoughts while living on the
streets. He had no one to address apart from himself. Occasionally, he would blurt out a
mechanical plea of “Yes?”. Now, if anyone speaks to him, he carries the subject on a line of
uncommunicative thought in his own mind. When his brother asks if he believes in God, Mbane
replies that he does not know, since to him he does not matter.
Mbane’s condition makes him feel alienated and thus he holds a different religious view from his
mother’s and his brother’s his mother views men as one stream flowing through the rocks of life.
They would twist and turn the pebbles and get dirty in the muddy earth. They cry in the falls and
whirlpools of life and laugh and sing when the flow is smooth and undisturbed. Some cry in the
potholes of life’s valley, while others laugh triumph elsewhere. Mbane’s condition inhibits him
to not only ceaselessly crying but also feeling that he is not even part of the stream. He feels like
the bitter fluid in his own throat. His pain gives him no reason to believe in God. No one
understands his darkness. God is white cleanliness of eternal light but his life only contains
darkness and blackness. He is forgotten and unnoticed. Sometimes, he is cursed and called able-
bodied, only crippled by idleness of leisurely begging.
Mbane feels trapped in his unwashed body which reeks of sweat. He craves freedom that he
cannot achieve. He dreams of a glorious future away from his pangs of darkness where light lies.
Right now he is restricted since his eyes are denied the light. He dreams of a future where
someone would understand him and raise the innocence of his cripple life along with the chosen.
It gives him hope and he sings his own happy song, silently to himself. He cannot seek refuge in
the brothels like other men, so he can only find it in his silent song. His soul has a destination, or
so he thinks. But for now, he has to make do with it being incarcerated in his sweaty smelly
body, which is unwashed except when in the rain. Surely, disability can be limiting.
In conclusion, people living with disability undergo many impediments and limitations that deny
them some pleasures or opportunities in life/ unlike those who are not disabled, the disabled
people face a lot of limitations and challenges, which deny them the opportunity to enjoy life.
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A Silent Song and Other Stories

• A Man of Awesome Power

A SILENT SONG AND OTHER STORIES ESSAY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

3.Lack of sound judgment results in regret. Making reference to A Man of Awesome

6.In some communities, marriage is regarded as a valued custom. Making reference to

In conclusion, marriage is surely regarded as a cherished and important practice.

In conclusion, it is important to maintain a loving relationship with family members suffering

In conclusion, one’s weakness can end up causing disagreements.

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