Goromonzi High School

Form One English Online Lesson

Reading Comprehension.

Read the following passage adapted from the novel Victory, by G. Mujajati and answer the
questions which follow.

Zuze’s Birth

Zuze was born at Little England Farm. Little England Farm was one of the richest farms in
one of Rhodesia’s farming areas. Zuze was born in a pole and dagga hut. While it is true to
say that some people are born with a spoon of gold in their mouths, it should be said that Zuze
was born with a spoonful of hunger in his mouth. Zuze was born amidst hunger and
emptiness. It is said on the day he was born, ruthless storm fell. The storm blew off part of the
grass-thatched conical roof from the pole and dagga hut in which he was born. A violent gust
of wind had immediately stormed into the hut, and piercing rods of coldness had then bored
through the baby’s nakedness. AAA! What a brutal storm it was!

“It’s a boy!” his semi-conscious mother was told, “…a very big boy!” News had spread
throughout the farm compound. Soon the good news reached the beer hall. Musindo
whispered into Jairos’s ears, “Your wife has given birth to a baby boy .The storm has taken
away the roof from your hut!”

Jairos let out a cry, a mixture of delight fright and drunkenness. He staggered up, “A boy did
you say?” He ran out of the beer hall headlong into the storm. A sharp cry greeted him as he
arrived at his pole and dagga hut. The baby’s sharp cry stabbed deep into Jairos’s heart like an
arrow piercing though a careless warrior’s unshielded heart. The cry contained tomorrow’s
dark shadows.

“Is it a boy?” Jairos asked, unnecessarily. Nobody answered him. Angry rain drops continued
to hit at the naked baby. The storm was still spitting out thick raindrops onto the still tender
and unprotected skin of the naked child. Within a few minutes, Jairos had returned with pieces
of sack and plastic. He had to go up the roof of the pole and dagga hut and work in the harsh
storm. Within a few minutes Jairos was mending the roof. The baby calmed down and
stopped crying. Jairos stood at the doorway. Deep inside him, he smiled as he watched his
son, hungrily sucking at Sosana’s swollen breasts. The storm seemed temporarily calm. At
least, it is no longer inside the pole and dagga hut. Jairos shook off the dropping sweat and
mud from his overalls before entering the hut.

“He taken after my grandfather. The one they called Zuze .He is the one who came from
Malawi and started working here at Rituru Hingirande a long time ago. Just look at the big fat
nose, just like that of my grandfather,” he said, shivering like a lonely reed in the midst of a
river in flood. He looked for a reasonably dry patch onto which he could squat. He muttered,
“….Why, there is no fire…..? The child needs some warmth.” Too tired and weary to speak,
Sosana just cast a questioning glance at Jairos. The thin midwife answered, “How could we
make fire with all this rain falling into the house? Do you have some matches?”

“We have nothing here!” Sosana started. The midwife ran out into the simmering storm. She
had just tottered past the doorway when a gush of wind pounded on the poorly hinged door
wrenching it off the decayed, termite-infested door post. The door landed on the muddy
ground with sailing into the pole and dagga hut that had now turned into a doorless pole and
dagga cave. The midwife trotted back with a bundle of firewood and a box matches.
“You haven’t given him a name yet,” the midwife muttered. “Aren’t you going to give him
any name at all, maybe call him Boy! After all he shall grow up to become a boy at this farm
just like his father is!” Jairos scratched his forehead. “His name is Zuze,” he announced after
a brief moment.

QUESTIONS

1. Where was Zuze born?

2. What was little England Farm well known for?
3. Give two words which show that Zuze was born to a life of many troubles?
4. a) What was the weather like when Zuze was born?
b) How did it make his situation worse than it could have been?
5. How did the news about Zuze’s birth reach his father at the beerhall?
6. Why was Zuze crying when his father arrived to see him?
7. What did Jairos use to mend his roof?
8. How did Zuze resemble his grandfather he was named after?
9. “He looked for a reasonably dry patch onto which he could squat” What does
“reasonably” mean in this sentence?
10. Where did the midwife get matches and firewood for making fire?
11. Summary writing
Describe in about 60 words the things done and said by Jairos when he arrived at his
home where the baby had been born.