African Tales Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tanzania

This short story by Ernest Hemingway was first published in 1936, in 'Esquire' magazine. The snowy peak of Mount Kilimanjaro is the focus of the opening paragraph, which informs us that the Masai name for the peak translates as House of God. the rest of the story focuses on Harry, a writer who is stranded in a safari camp (because of a vehicular breakdown) with Helen, who takes care of him as he lies dying from the gangrene that developed from an ignored, then mistreated, thorn scratch. As he lies there, he recalls significant incidents from his life, as well as reflecting on his current condition. The story ends as he dreams that he is being carried by helicopter to the top of Kilimanjaro, and Helen finds him unresponsive in the tent. The 1952 movie with Gregory Peck made significant changes to the ending!

While Hemingway did not live in Tanzania, he did spend a fair amount of time on safari there, and his understanding of that lifestyle is reflected in the story.

Answer: Egypt

This 1937 novel from the pen of Agatha Christie is firmly set in the world of the wealthy tourist exploring the quaint and exotic world of the Middle East. The onshore events, however, are not as central to the story as are those that take place on the cruise ship taking them along the Nile from Aswan to Wadi Halfa in Sudan. Obviously, they took place before the building of the Aswan High Dam turned this portion of the river into Lake Nasser.

The stop at Abu Simbel could still occur - during the building of the dam, that entire site was relocated to preserve the historic temples.

The novel's setting has led to it being adapted to film and television several times, with the role of Hercule Poirot played Peter Ustinov in the 1978 film, and by David Suchet in an episode of the ITV series 'Agatha Christie's Poirot'.

Answer: South Africa

Alan Paton's 1948 novel about the harm being done to his country by the social structures and division that were shortly to lead to the development of apartheid remains one of the best known novels from South Africa. Kumalo, a black minister from a small village in Natal goes to Johannesburg to look for his son, and discovers that the son had killed a leading white activist fighting for racial equality. That man's father, James Jarvis, and Kumalo share the experience of losing a son, and hope to face the future without fear while struggling for a better society.

Answer: Nigeria

Chinua Achebe's first novel, published in 1958, is often called the archetypical modern African novel. It starts by depicting life in a Nigerian village before the arrival of European colonists, and explores how the arrival of European social structures, starting with the Christian missionaries, has undermined the Igbo society. Because written Igbo is a language that has been cobbled together from a number of dialects (by a Christian missionary and linguist), Achebe felt it was stilted in use, and he chose to write his novel in English. given the subject matter, this has been a matter of some controversy.

It was republished in 2010 as the first part of 'The African Trilogy', which also includes 'No Longer at Ease' and 'Arrow of God'.

Answer: Kenya

Joyce Adamson's 1960 book about the process of raising a lion cub she and her husband George (Senior Wildlife Warden of the Northern Frontier District in Kenya) named Elsa after he had killed aggressive mother has touched hearts around the world, as the struggle to maintain her wild nature so that she could be successfully returned to the wild, while still maintaining a working relationship to her in captivity, unfolds.

The story of Elsa and her cubs was continued in 'Living Free' and 'Forever Free'.

Their story reached a wider audience through a 1966 film adaptation which, although not historically accurate was emotionally powerful.

Answer: South Africa

Australian author Bryce Courtenay's 1989 novel is set in South Africa, during the 1930s and '40s. It is written in the first person, with an adult Peekay recalling his youth as an English boy raised by a Zulu nanny after his mother's breakdown, and sent to a boarding school where the administrators and many of the boys are Afrikaans, harboring a deep resentment of the English based in the legacy of the Boer Wars. Life is tough until he learns to box, taking lessons while visiting his beloved piano teacher Doc in the prison where he was committed during World War II because of his German nationality. The novel shows Peekay encountering a number of situations of conflict, but he survives and succeeds, both because of his own resilience and because of the close friendships he forms along the way.

Although Bryce Courtenay is usually identified as an Australian author, he was born in the Lebombo Mountains, near Johannesburg, and grew up in the region, attending a school similar to the one described in this book, his first. While he was studying journalism in London, he met his wife, and they moved to Australia when he was 25.

Answer: DR Congo

Barbara Kingsolver published this novel about a Baptist family from the US state of Georgia who move to a small village in the Belgian Congo in 1959, planning to spend a year there on missionary work. Their ignorance of the culture they would find there raised barriers to their success, and their lives get caught up in the political turmoil of the fight for independence, achieved in 1960 (although the country did not change its name to Democratic Republic of Congo until 1964). The book is narrated by the mother and the four daughters, each providing their own perspective as they cover some of the same events.

Barbara Kingsolver is an American author, whose family spent some time in the Republic of Congo when she was a child (but nothing like as dramatic as the story).

Answer: Botswana

This was the first instalment of Alexander McCall Smith's series of novels featuring Mma Precious Ramotswe, who determinedly set up a private detective agency run by a woman - unheard of at that time and place. She specialises in the kind of case that traditionally are considered trivial by the police - a missing family member, for example. Since she feels it is important to understand the lives of the people with whom she deals, the mysteries give the author opportunity to convey a strong sense of life in Botswana, both in Gabarone where she has her office and in the smaller villages. The solid humor provided by the central figures keeps the social commentary from being intrusive, but it is definitely there!

Alexander McCall Smith was born in Bulwayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and raised there until he moved to Scotland at the age of 17 to study law at the University of Edinburgh, where he later became Professor of Medical Law, before appointment as Emeritus Professor of the School of Law. In 1981 he returned to Africa to help set up a law school at the University of Botswana.

Answer: Nigeria

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie sets this 2006 novel in the Nigerian Civil War (1967-70), which she felt the need to explore because of its residual effects on her native country. The leadup to, and the events of, the brutal civil war are seen from the perspectives of three central characters: Ugwu, a village boy who is forced into the army; Olanna, a professor of Sociology and wife of Odenigbo, in whose house Ugwu works as he gains an education, before his conscription; and Richard, an English journalist whose fascination with Olanna's sister leads him to try to write a book about the war, instead of the book on Igbo-Ukwu art which was his original project. While the stories are fictional, the historical events are accurately portrayed, and provide plenty of opportunity for the intellectuals to discuss post-colonialism (and for the author to show her sense that academia is out of touch with the realities of contemporary life).

The title of the book refers to the Biafran flag, which features a rising sun above a horizontal gold/yellow bar in the middle stripe. Its eleven rays represent the eleven provinces of Biafra.

Answer: Malawi

William Kamkwamba (with Bryan Mealer) published this memoir of the project that gained him fame at the age of 14, when he built a wind turbine using bits and pieces of material he scrounged, allowing his family to run electrical appliances. The international acclaim for his project led to scholarships that allowed him to study (and eventually attain a degree from Dartmouth College), and pursue further engineering projects, such as the solar-powered water pump that provided his village with convenient water for the first time.

The 2010 book was adapted into a 2019 film of the same name by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who also directed and had a central role in the film as William's father.