Nasila’s Three blind mice Excerpt | Blossoms of the Savannah

Read the following excerpt and answer the questions that follow.
They were silent as they climbed the hill on their way back from Nasila river to draw water. The water containers that they carried on their backs were now heavy. The straps that supported the containers pressed down their heads with a painful exhaustion.

As they walked, each one of them allowed her mind to fleetingly roam the fanciful land of wishful thinking. Resian thought how wonderful it would be, had she had a chance to enroll at the Egerton University and after graduation had a chance to work with her role model, Minik ene Nkoitoi, the Emakererei at the sheep ranch that she managed. She imagined herself already there driving a large flock of sheep. And when she thought of sheep, her mind flew back to fifteen years or so earlier and reminisced the first time she saw a sheep. I t was a childhood memory, a memorable picture from the swirling scene around her which had been captured and preserved by her mind when she and Taiyo accompanied their father to the Nakuru Agricultural Show. She could still see in her mind a group of big, docile, tawny woolly animals that stood panting drowsily in a green pasture, with the sun beaming down brightly from a clear blue sky. She had then admired the white long overcoats that the handlers wore. Taiyo also thought of Emakererei. She would ask Joseph Parmuat, to assist her compose a song in her praise.

She had already put words to a tune she had composed to ridicule the three women who she thought
collaborated with men to oppress the women folk. They were Nasila’s three blind mice who, she thought, did not seem to know that the world was changing. Those were the enkasakutoni, who threatened to curse intoiye nemengalana and ensured they did not get husbands nor children: the midwife Enkaitoyoni who threatened to spy on the young women as they gave birth to ensure that any who was still among intoiye-nemengalana had her status altered there and then; and the dreaded Enkamuratani, who would never tire of wielding her olmurunya menacingly.

Questions

1 . Place the excerpt in its immediate context. (2Mks)

2. I identify and illustrate two aspects of style in this excerpt. (2Mks)

3. Discuss two themes evident in the excerpt.(2 Mks)

4. Discuss one-character trait of Resian and Taiyo in the excerpt. (2 Mks)

5. The straps that supported the containers pressed down their heads with a painful exhaustion.                Rewrite beginning: With           (1 Mk)

6. How do Resian’s thoughts now come to be fulfilled in future? Briefly explain.      (4Mks)

7. Explain the meaning of the following words as used in the excerpt.(2 Mks)
(i) Reminisced
(ii) Collaborated