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Summary - ENG2603 - Colonial And Postcolonial African Literatures
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- University Of South Africa (Unisa)
ENG2603 MOCK exam pack
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ENG2603 Mock Exam 1B.V. SIBIYA
Answer ONE ques on from Sec on A, and ONE ques on from Sec on B.
Your answers should be two to four pages in length, and wri en in the form of carefully constructed
essays.
Sec on A
Answer ONE ques on in this sec on for 50 marks.
Ques on 1: Poetry
By making close reference to content and poe c devices, discuss how this poem uses sa re to portray
the coloniser (“The Bri sh Se ler”). Remember to quote from the poem to support your argument.
The Bri sh Se ler
Tune – ‘Oh what a row’; or, ‘The humours of a Steam-boat’
Oh! what a gay, what a rambling life a Se ler’s leading!
Spooring ca le, doing ba le, quite jocose;
Winning, losing; Whigs abusing; shopping now, then mu on breeding;
Never fearing, persevering, on he goes!
When to the Cape I first came out, in days of Charlie Somerset,
My lands were neatly measured off, and reg’larly my number set;
I stru ed round on my own ground, lord of a hundred acres, sir,
And said I’d plough, I’d buy a cow, the butchers cut and bakers, sir.
Oh! what a gay, &c.
On Kowie’s banks I built a house, and made a snug loca on there;
I fenc’d my lands with my own hands to keep all ght;
The river rose, and fore my nose made awful desola on there;
The Kafirs stole my only cow away that night!
,I made a trip to Kafirland, in hopes to find my cow again,
And tried to act the den st then, which no one can do now again;
I drew the Kafir’s ivory teeth, at risk of hempen collar, sir.
Which at Graham’s Town on the market brought me full 300 dollars, sir!
Oh! what a gay, &c.
My second go was but so so, although the trade was brisk enough;
The patrols nearly boned me in a secret maze;
I hid my load out of the road, and, faith, I just had risk enough,
For this trade was hanging ma er in those good old days!
My stock-in-trade on pack-ox laid, I tried my luck at smouching then,
But found the Boers were wide awake as Yorkshiremen at chousing them;
They swept me some rock chrystals – gems, they swore, of purest water, sir;
And for breeding stock, a scurvy lot of hamels and kapaters, sir!
Oh! what a gay, &c.
Of fortune’s frowns, smiles, ups, and downs, I had a great variety;
I smouching drop. I open shop, the buy a farm;
Doing charming with my farming, best with friends’ society,
When all at once the Amakose break the charm!
Assegaing, yelling, crying – murder! fire! and revelry!
Stealing ca le, bloody ba le, every kind of devilry –
Helter-skelter, seeking shelter, wives and children rustling in!
Husbands wounded – lost confounded, tender friends are justling in!
Oh! what a gay, &c.
Hopes are blasted, pale and fasted, now reduced to beggary;
Burnt loca ons, public ra ons all we’ve le ;
Names abused, of climes accused by agents vile of whiggery,
,Any sympathy withheld, when of our all bere .
Compensa on for spol’a on, a er such representa on,
Seemed so fu le, and inu le, that ‘twas scouted by the na on!
And that we’ve s ll a dollar le , our thanks be to no s ngy-man,
Whose name’s a charm our souls to warm, – THE GOOD, THE BRAVE
SIR BENJAMIN!
Oh! what a gay, &c.
Kafirs lauded and rewarded for their savage, fierce irrup on,
By the folks of Downing-street and Ex’ter hall!
Then no checking Boers from trekking, fleeing, seeing such corrup on;
Ho entots and Fingoes, saucy vagrants all!
Such delusion and confusion seldom are exhibited,
When for convenience of the blacks the whites are stabbed and gibbeted!
Yet, persevering through those ills, the storm again I’ve weathered, sir!
My children married happy, and my nest again feathered sir!
Oh! what a gay, &c.
’Tis four and twenty years, my friends, since first on Afric’s shore we landed!
And retrospec ons crowd my mind of that great day;
Fear and doubt shut hope all out, for on a desert we seemed stranded,
And dreary was our prospect then in Algoa Bay!
View contrasted, while they lasted, mes of which I’m now rela ng
And our happy mee ng here, this great event commemora ng!
Then may our heart be grateful s ll, that Heaven has so guarded us
Through all our toilsome pilgrimage, and now so well rewarded us!
Oh! what a gay, what a rambling life, a Se ler’s leading!
Spooring ca le, doing ba le, quite jocose;
Winning, losing; Whigs abusing, shopping now, then ca le breeding;
, Never fearing, persevering, on he goes!
Ques on 2: Nervous Condi ons
Discuss how Nervous Condi ons portrays resistance to European colonialism. In your answer, pay
par cular a en on to the role of tradi on in the novel.
Sec on B
Answer ONE ques on in this sec on for 50 marks.
Ques on 3: Seven Steps to Heaven
“You are dead. Now you come here bothering me. Who do you think I am? God? You think I can bring
you from the dead?
No, it’s you that are dead. You are dead before dying. You are a nobody because there is nothing that
marks you out as you. You are always trying to be somebody. You are always living in the shadow of other
people’s words, ideas beliefs. That’s why you are here. It is not that you love me, that you wanted to
empathize with me as they pumped bullets into me. You are here because without me you can’t be you.”
(2007:41)
Using the passage above as your star ng point, comment on the rela onship between Sizwe and Thulani
as depicted in the novel as a whole.
Ques on 4: A Raisin in the Sun
Discuss how Walter Lee displays a sexist a tude towards his sister Beneatha’s ambi ons. What
stereotype of a woman is he imagining? How does this relate to stereotypes of women in the play as a
whole?
ENG2603 Mock exam 1 – Feedback
Ques on 1: Poetry
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