Lite 211: East African Drama And Poetry Question Paper
Lite 211: East African Drama And Poetry
Course:Bachelor Of Education Arts English And Literature (English Literature)
Institution: Kabarak University question papers
Exam Year:2011
KABARAK UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS
2011/2012 ACADEMIC YEAR
FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF EDUCATION ARTS
LITE 211: EAST AFRICAN DRAMA AND POETRY
DAY: THURSDAY DATE: 12/04/2012
TIME: 2.00 – 4.00 P.M. STREAM: SESS 2
INSTRUCTIONS:
• Answer questions one and any other two questions.
• Question one is compulsory and carries 30 marks. The rest of the questions carry
20 marks each.
SECTION A
Q1. Compulsory
(a) Discuss the development of drama in East Africa right from the precolonial
period to today. (30 marks)
SECTION B
Q2. Either
(a) Choose any one poet (from East Africa) whose poems you have studied
and analyze them following this criteria:
(i) themes
(ii) imagery
(iii) social vision (20 marks)
Or
(b) Write a literary appreciation of the following poem by analyzing
according to:
(i) themes
(ii) imager
(iii) social vision (20 marks)
HENRY BARLOW: I Refuse to Take Your Brotherly Hand
Your nails are black with dirt, Brother
And your palms are clammy with sweat
I refuse to take the hand you extend in help
I shall not join hands with you brother
For unclean hands make me uneasy
For filthy fingernails rob me my pride.
You argue, gesticulating with your once
Impeccably clean and beautiful hands
That before long it shall not matter
For ‘everybody’ is delving and digging
And all shall hands dripping with dirt.
That nobody shall know what clean hands look like
And there shall be comfort in the dirty crowd
And enough to eat, for there are good yields
When the stinking manure is well dug in
With strong and bold hands in time.
Are you going blind brother?
I ask how many have the sludge
Or the strong and bold hands like yours
With which to dig and delve?
Brother the hands of many are too weak with hunger
And for many the sludge is out of reach
And yet for others the stink is too nauseating!
But all have eyes and hunger fills them with anger
As they watch your fingernails fill with dirt!
I have seen hungry envious eyes
Watching silently through your chin-link fence
I have seen eyes in deep sunken sockets
Burning with anger intently watching you
I have seen parched mouths water with saliva
And heard the rumbling of hollow empty stomachs
As they watched you feed the dog with meat
From the heavy yields of the city sludge.
Have you entirely forgotten Brother
The fragrance and comfort of clean hands?
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The confidence, the peace you have when you know
You’ll leave no ugly sludge upon the sheet?
Don’t you remember the repulsion you had
When you shook hands with fat dirty men
With their dirty clammy palms?
Let me alone Brother and from the top of the cliff
Don’t offer me your dirty hand in help.
Let me trudge the long way up
For the short cuts are soiled and slippery
Your palms are clammy with the sweat of fear
And your fingernails are clogged with dirt
Q3. Choose any one play you have studied on the course and discuss how the
playwright uses stylistic devices to articulate the various societal concerns in
the play you have chosen from East Africa. (20 marks)
Q4. “I WILL MARRY WHEN I WANT by Ngugi wa Thiong’o is a crossfertilization
between modern drama and traditional theatrical forms of
communication”. Discuss. (20 marks)
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