Down Second Avenue Flashcards
What is Es’kia Mphalele’s birth name?
Ezekiel Mphalele. Later in life, he Africanized his first name.
Where is Mphalele from?
South Africa
Where does Mphalele and his family go at the end of Down Second Avenue?
Nigeria/Lagos
What was apartheid?
Segregation in South Africa that lasted officially from 1948 - 1991, though the mistreatment of native South Africans by white colonists was taking place long before that.
From what poet does Mphalele quote in the epigraph to this book?
Yeats (The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.)
Where is the Second Avenue of that title?
Marabastad in Praetoria
What is the name of the village Mphalele lived in as a child?
Maupaneng
When were beer raids usually conducted? How were beer kegs often hidden?
Saturday nights; Buried in yards.
What was a common way for women to make extra money?
Brewing beer
Who is Ezekiel’s particular friend in the neighborhood (with whom he almost has a romance)?
Rebone
What is the name of Rebone’s father?
Dinku Dikae
What is Dinku Dikae particularly afraid of?
Police
What is the name of the dominating matriarch of Second Avenue who always frightens away her potential daughters in law?
Ma-Lebona (Son: Joel)
What is a common tragedy of winter in Marabastad?
Children would try to warm themselves by huddling near pots of boiling water. The water would spill and children would die from the burns.
Who is Big Eye?
A school principal who keeps discipline by frequently caning his students for various offenses.
How does Ezekiel perform in school?
He struggles a little at first after moving to the city from the country, but loves to read. By the time he is in 5th form, he and Rebone are constantly competing for first place in their class.
Ezekiel must memorize poems by which two poets for school in 6th form?
Tennyson and Byron; he also enjoys reading Don Quixote
He comes to love reading/writing through a Western tradition, but it becomes his life mission to help an African tradition flourish. He comes to be known as the “Dean of African Letters.”
What does “Boeta Lem” mean? Who is he? What happens to him?
Brother Blade; a man who lives in the neighborhood who has been to prison for murder.
He commits crimes around the neighborhood, including theft and rape, and is eventually condemned by the community at large and sentenced to ten years of hard labor.
What is Ezekiel’s worst subject in school?
Mathematics
What is the name of the girl with whom Ezekiel loses his virginity? What happens to their relationship?
Maria; he decides he is too busy for a girlfriend.
What is the difference between a “kaffir” and a “couloured” person?
Kaffir was a term used for dark-skinned people of South African heritage. Coloured was used for people who were of mixed blood or were lighter skinned.
What is the name of the secondary school Ezekiel attends?
St. Peter’s
What does Ezekiel do after graduating from high school?
Attend teacher training college
What happens to Dinku Dikae?
After a policeman arbitrarily enters his home and begins questioning him - insinuating that he has been sleeping with his daughter - Dinku Dikae strikes and kills him. He is convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
What happens to Marabastad?
While Mphalele is away at teacher’s college, the white people of the town decide they want it moved. Many people lose their homes and livelihoods, and are given no choice but to uproot themselves and leave. The former site of the neighborhood is converted into a rugby field.
What is the name of Mphalele’s wife?
Rebecca
Why does Mphalele stop going to church?
He comes to see it as a hypocritical institution that takes advantage of oppressed people’s hope for salvation while teaching them to “love their neighbors” - their oppressors. Their oppressors, of course, claim to be Christian while still upholding white supremacy.
What’s an early critical response to his writing that particularly bothers Mphalele? Why?
One white reviewer suggests that Mphalele should be writing more from his African identity rather than “imitating” the white experiences/styles he has been taught. Mphalele agrees, but observes that the white reviewer is able to make this suggestion without ever having experienced the pain of inhabiting a South African identity.
What was the Bantu Education Act?
A piece of apartheid legislation that legalized segregated schools and other discriminatory practices that were already active under apartheid.
It is for opposition to this Act that Mphalele must stop teaching.
What was the subject of Mphalele’s MA thesis?
“The Non-European Character in South African English Fiction”
What important achievement does Mphalele make during the years after he can no longer teach?
He successfully earns a M.A. degree
