100+ Points for Second Class Citizen Objective Test – Chapter One

Are you looking for details or points to help you provide the right answers to a Second Class Citizen objective test? Then this post is just right for you. You will find here most of the important details in chapter one of Buchi Emecheta’s novel, Second Class Citizen.

In fact, these essential points, in a way, give a summary of Chapter One of Second Class Citizen.

I’m promising myself to make this the first of a series of 13 posts on all the 13 chapters of the novel. I really need your prayers and support to carry this promise through. Will you say Amen to that.

Let’s move on.

… and for tutors of WASSCE Literature

Now, if you’re a tutor of WASSCE Literature-in-English I can assure you about one thing. The points here should enable you to set your Second Class Citizen objective test questions with ease.

My goal today is to give you details from Chapter One of Second Class Citizen. They will assist you to prepare your Literature students in the best way possible. Testing students on the essential points they must not forget about key incidents in this first chapter of the novel has one huge advantage. It will make life easier for them in the examination room.

Major incidents in Chapter One

Some key incidents in chapter one of the novel are:

• How Adah started school

• Ma’s experience at the police station

• The return of Lawyer Nweze from the United Kindom and its significance. (or the welcome reception for Nweze on his return from his studies in the United Kingdom)

The notes here are the key points to note regarding the above important incidents in the novel.

How to approach this post

Just read the points over as many times as you can. This will enable you to answer a good number of questions in a Second Class Citizen objective test.

Do not also forget this other fact. Armed with these points, you will be better placed to provide the best illustration of your points in any essay based on this novel.

To err is human …

Let the truth be told. I have taken a great deal of trouble cross-checking these points in the novel several times before finally publishing this post. But as you’re aware, I’m still human. For that matter, I cannot completely rule out a typo or a genuine error somewhere along the way. I therefore urge you to feel free to draw my attention to any such mistake you may come across. I’ll be most grateful for that. Thank you.

I think we’ve had enough of the introduction. Let’s go straight ahead to discover the essential details for a Second Class Citizen objective test or essay.

You will find the important points in bold lettering.

Below are some equally important posts you might want to take a quick look at before you leave.

SUMMARY OF RAIDER OF THE TREASURE TROVE

CAGED BIRD ANALYZED – SUBJECT MATTER, THEMES AND POETIC DEVICES

SUBJECT MATTER OF SONG OF THE WOMEN OF MY LAND

The Young Adah

1. Adah was roughly 8 years old when she first dreamt of travelling to the United Kingdom.
2. Adah’s younger brother’s name is Boy.
3. Boy started going to school before Adah.
4. The name of Boy’s school is Ladi-Lak Institute.
5. Adah compares going to the United Kingdom to entering God’s Holiest of Holies.
6. Adah’s parents’ hometown is Ibuza.
7. Ibuza is an Igbo town.
8. So Adah and her parents are from the Igbo tribe in Nigeria.

Oboshi, The River Goddess of Ibuza

1. The name of the river goddess of Ibuza is Oboshi.
2. The disease that Oboshi uses to punish anyone that offends her is Leprosy.
3. The people that Oboshi appears to lack the power to punish are the European oil explorers.
4. Adah later reflects on the idea that probably Oboshi has decided to “move with the times” that is why she has failed to strike the oil explorers who drilled inside the river with leprosy.
5. One negative effect of European oil exploration in Ibuza is environmental degradation.

Adah’s Parents

1. Adah’s mother in the novel is simply called Ma.
2. Ma is a seamstress.
3. Adah’s father in the novel is simply called Pa.
4. Pa works as a government employee – a railwayman.
5. Paa is a Second World War veteran.
6. The object Adah took for a slate on the day she absconded to the Methodist school without her mother’s knowledge was a broken slate her father used for sharpening his shaving knife.
7. The reason Ma couldn’t notice Adah when she fled to the Methodist school was that she was engrossed in a conversation with a visitor friend.

Adah’s Names

Adah’s maiden name is Adah Ofili

Adah’s marital name will become Adah Obi by virtue of her marriage to Francis Obi.

1. Adah’s other names are Nne Nna, Adah Nna and Adah Eze.
2. Adah is presumed to have been the reincarnation of her father’s late mother.
3. Pa’s dying mother promised him she would come back to compensate for leaving him so young.
4. Pa’s mother passed away when he was just about 5 years old.
5. Adah is her parents’ first born child.
6. Pa was expecting a boy for his first born but a girl (Adah) came instead.
7. In Igbo society, boys are valued more than girls.
8. Pa married Ma at the Christ Church in Lagos.
9. Adah was born prematurely. That is 2 months too soon.
10. Pa thinks Adah is “the very picture of his mother”. This metaphor means Adah resembles her father’s mother a lot.
11. Adah Eze means Princess or Daughter of a King.
12. Adah’s pet name is Nne Nna.
13. Nne Nna in Igbo means Father’s Mother

Adah Flees to School

1. Young Adah unceremoniously left the house to the Methodist school.
2. The Methodist school is cheaper to attend than Ladi-Lak Institute.
3. During her childhood, Adah lived with her parents on Akinwunmi Street.
4. Little Adah usually wears baggy (oversized) dresses.
5. Adah’s dresses are sewn by her own mother.
6. Who is Mr Cole? Mr Cole is Adah’s next door neighbour and a teacher at the Methodist school Adah run away to. The following are Mr Cole’s main attributes.
7. Mr Cole is huge in frame and structure.
8. Mr Cole is a friendly person.
9. Mr Cole is a very quiet man.
10. Mr Cole is kind towards Adah.
11. Mr Cole is young and handsome.
12. Mr Cole is a Sierra Leonean
13. Mr Cole is very black in complexion
14. His blackness shone like polished black leather. The figure of speech used in this expression is simile.
15. The time of the day Adah run away to school was just after midday while it was very hot. Three notable notorious behaviours Adah has put up so far are:
16. She ran away to school and put her mother in trouble with the police
17. She stole money to enable her to sit for the Common Entrance Examination (Chapter Two)
18. She bit the flesh on the back of a high school mate who held her for a severe corporal punishment from a teacher. (Chapter Two)
19. Adah was going for Sunday school at the Methodist school compound long before she ran away to the school on the compound.
20. The two buildings on the Methodist mission premises are the church and the school.
21. The exact words that came out of Adah’s mouth when Mr Cole smiled at her were “I came to school – my parents would not send me.”.
22. The young Adah had “a little and loud voice”.
23. Who gave a bit of his pencil to Adah when she ran away to school without one? The boy with the “craw-craw” on his head.
24. The boy with “craw-craw” on his head grew up to become a lecturer in Lagos City Hospital (a lecturer in medical school).
25. Which of the genders made Adah more nervous? The female gender/women.
26. Adah would rather look for a man when she found herself in trouble because men, unlike women, were “so solid and so safe”.
27. The Yoruba name for roasted plantain is boli.
28. On the day Adah run away to school, Mr Cole bought for her “a big boli”.
29. For giving Adah the opportunity to run away to school unannounced, Ma was charged with child neglect at the police station.
30. Where was Pa at the time Adah run away to school? He was at work.
31. Pa works as a railwayman.
32. What made Adah feel proud of her action of running away to school? When people repeatedly said she had nearly sent her mother to prison.
33. Pa punished Adah with a few feeble strokes of the cane just “for Ma’s benefit”.
34. The punishment Pa gave Adah on their return from the police station fell below Adah’s expectation.

Ma and Her Bitter Experience at the Police Station

1. As punishment for allowing the young Adah to run away to school the police forced Ma to drink a bowl of gari with water.
2. The narrator describes Ma’s punishment at the police station as “torture”.
3. The police station where Ma was taken to is located at Sabo Market.
4. Mad had to drink all the gari at the police station in order to avoid being taken to court.
5. Describe Adah’s emotions while she witnessed Ma being tortured by the police. She was scared and cried loudly.
6. Ma’s two character attributes that Pa said were responsible for Adah’s escape to school are. She is a great talker and very careless.
7. Five criticisms Pa levelled against women at the police station are as follows
8. idleness/sitting at home
9. eating
10. gossiping
11. sleeping
12. child neglect/carelessness
13. Ma’s special way of saying prison is “pilizon”.
14. Two possible severe punishments Ma stands the risk of receiving if she ever let Adah disappear from home again are as follows
15. A heavy fine
16. A prison term
17. The police advised Ma to find the means to send Adah to school by “selling one of her colourful lappas”
18. One impression little Adah made on the police was that they thought “she looked like a child who was keen to learn”.
19. The three emotions Ma experienced as she looked at Adah at the police station were love, fear and wonder.

Nweze’s Return from the United Kingdom

1. The name given to the uniform the women of Ibuza wore to meet Nweze on his return from the United Kingdom is Ezidiji ji de ogoli ome oba.
2. Ezidiji ji de ogoli ome oba means … When a good man holds a woman she becomes like the queen.
3. The welcome song for Nweze contains the name of the uniform.
4. Lawyer Nweze will arrive in Nigeria at the Apapa Wharf in Lagos.
5. The figure of speech present in the expression, “They wove the name of the uniform into the song” is Metaphor.
6. According to the narrator, the following 9 things show that Ma’s generation had a simpler life than Adah’s …
7. Their wants were simple
8. Their wants were easily met
9. They didn’t have to grapple with the consequences of industrialization
10. They didn’t have to care about mortgage payments
11. They owned no family car and therefore were spared the trouble of worrying about regular car maintenance and repairs.
12. They had no worries about pollution
13. Population explosion was not their problem
14. They never suffered racial discrimination
15. They led a carefree life devoid of the trappings of “civilization”.
16. The shoes the women of Ibuza wore to the Apapa Wharf were called “nine-nine shoes”.
17. For their musical instruments, the women carried along gourds covered with colourful beads to the wharf.
18. The narrator compares the sounds from the gourds to those of “the Spanish Samba with a wild African overtone”.
19. Adah boasted and lied to her friends at school that Nweze was her cousin.
20. The fact that every person from Ibuza “talked big” about Nweze means that he made them feel very proud.
21. As far as Adah is concerned, Ma’s knowledge is limited to only three things namely
22. The Igbo Bible
23. The Igbo Anglican hymn book (from the introduction to the index)
24. The erroneous belief that Jerusalem is located at the right hand of God.
25. Adah Ofili’s family are Christians. Four points we can use at this stage to support this are
26. Pa and Ma got married at the Christ Church
27. The young Adah attended Sunday school at the Methodist church.
28. Ma had a fairly good knowledge of the Igbo Bible
29. At least Ma must be a member of the Anglican church going by her possession and extensive knowledge of the Igbo Anglican hymn book

Important Motifs to Note

Let’s conclude this post with some key words and concepts that are repeated very often in Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen. Note that their repetition points to the significant role they play in the novel. Therefore, you must expect a question about them any time.

1. One word used multiple times in Second Class Citizen, coming as the very last word of Chapter One is Presence.
2. The term Presence is often used in association with another word, dream/dreams.
3. The word dream/dreams occurs multiple times in the novel. It occurs in the very first sentence of Chapter One.
4. Another word used for dream/dreams in Buchi Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen is ambition.
5. The young Adah considered her dream arrival in the United Kingdom as “the pinnacle of her ambition”.

Other Key Details for Second Class Citizen Objective Test

1. The first time Adah came into contact with European missionaries was when she was a student at the Methodist Girls High School in Lagos.
2. Two of Adah’s Yoruba school mates at the Methodist Girls High School were
3. Adebisi Gbangbose and
4. Oluwafunmilayo Olorunshogo
5. The incident which deprived Adah of early success in life is Pa’s sudden death.
6. When Pa was alive, he made Adah start schooling at Ladi-Lak Institute.
7. Which of these happened first? Nweze’s return from the United Kingdom or Adah’s starting school officially. Answer: Nweze’s return from the United Kingdom
8. The reason why Ma would not allow Adah to absent herself from school to follow her to the wharf for Nweze’s welcome ceremony was that Ma could not forget how Adah made her go through the gari drinking ordeal at the hands of the police a few weeks before.
9. Ma could have landed in prison which she called “pillizon”.
10. Adah started attending school just a few weeks before preparations began for Nweze’s arrival from the United Kingdom.
11. Nweze went to the United Kingdom to study Law.
12. Nweze is the first son of Ibuza to have studied Law in the United Kingdom and qualify as a lawyer.

Congratulations for coming this far. You can now look out for the second in the series of this post on the essential details for Second Class Citizen objective test and essay.

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