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READ THIS
A journalist interviews a survivor from the war. He notices that the man is missing an ear and presumes
it has been shot off in some heroic incident.
He therefore asks the survivor to tell this story and finds a very different reason for the ear being missing.
READ THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE:
I offered to carry his chair, but he insisted on carrying it alone. The sun was quite high, and the heat was
oppressive. I pretended not to mind.
"Come and sit on this side," he told me. One side of his face had no ear. It was a memorable souvenir
of his life as a soldier.
"You want me to tell you about my whole life or my life as a soldier?" he asked.
"Your life as a soldier," I replied.
"All right. I joined the army when the Great War broke out between the Germans and the British. I was
already a man by then with a family of four. The training did not take long. I first fought in Tanganyika.
There, I got the first big excitement of my life. You know what it was?" he asked me, smilingly.
"No, I don't," I replied, smiling back.
"I killed a Mzungu, a German. It sounds strange, eh? I don't know how I can explain it. But I was wildly
excited. Gradually, shooting them became commonplace. Of course, we also killed the Africans on the
side of the Germans, but that was not as exciting as killing the Azungu."
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
The narrator offers to carry the man's chair.
[Need help?]
Baba Fule was old. It's simple manners to offer to carry an old man's chair for him, especially since the
reporter was wanting the man to tell him his story.
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"One side of his face had no ear. It was a memorable souvenir of his life as a soldier."
- Was the loss of the ear indeed "a memorable souvenir of his life as a soldier"?
Explain. (2)
[Need help?]
The loss of the ear was certainly not a result of Baba Fule's life as a soldier. His wife had cut his ear off
when she found that he had been unfaithful to her!
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- The story of the loss of the ear is an example of BATHOS -- or anticlimax. What is meant by
BATHOS? (4)
[Need help?]
A CLIMAX is a chain of events which have been arranged in order of increasing importance: "He
came, he saw, he conquered".
An anti-climax or BATHOS, on the other hand, is a trivial or insignificant conclusion to something that
appeared as significant, especially where a climax was expected.
In other words, it is the exact opposite of a climax.
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- Why is the knowledge of the manner in which the soldier lost his ear an example of
BATHOS? (4)
[Need help?]
In this story, the reader expects as a climax how the old man lost his ear in some amazing battle during
the war.
Instead we find he lost his ear in a most insignificant way, namely by having it cut off by his wife because
he had been unfaithful to her.
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Baba Fule says that he joined the army during "the Great War".
- What is meant by "the Great War"? (1)
[Need help?]
The "Great War" was the name given to the world war which took place between 1914 and 1918.
When another world war happened between 1939 and 1945, that one was called the 2nd World War. The
"Great War" thereupon became known as the 1st World War.
These are of course just names. Historians could have called the Napoleonic wars the 1st World War,
in which case "the Great War" would have become the 2nd World War and the next war would
have been called the 3rd World War.
Perhaps then we could have called "the Cold War" the 3rd World War or even the 4th World War!
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- Where is "Tanganyika"? What is it known as today? (2)
[Need help?]
Tanganyika is in East Africa. Today it is known as Tanzania.
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"Of course, we also killed the Africans on the side of the Germans, but that was not as exciting as
killing the Azungu."
- What is meant by the "Azungu"? (1)
[Need help?]
The "Azungu" are the White people.
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- Explain why Baba Fule would have been so excited about killing the
"Azungu". (4)
[Need help?]
Back in those days the Black people were generally suppressed by the White people who ruled them.
When the war broke out and the Black men were allowed to become soldiers, it would therefore have
given them a special thrill to be shooting White soldiers.
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