INHERITANCE ESSAYS – KCSE ESSAY QUESTIONS ANALYSIS
Many African problems are caused by ineffective leadership. With
reference to David Mulwa's Inheritance, write an essay to illustrate the
truth of this statement.
How to answer essay questions based on
Inheritance
1. Read the question keenly
2. Identify the KEYWORDS in the question
3. Identify the INEFFECTIVE practices by leaders that lead to PROBLEMS
4. Develop points of interpretation
The keywords in this question are INEFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP and PROBLEMS. Show how the citizens of Kutula republic experience a myriad of problems as a result of incompetent leadership by Lacuna Kasoo and his equally inept henchmen.
In each of the points you come up with, link the ineffective leadership to problems the citizens encounter.
Task
Show the link between ineffective leadership and suffering
of the people. The problem should be an outcome/consequence of ineffective leadership.
Reasons why students lost marks in this questions
Most essays lacked textual illustrations on:
1. The ineffective leadership
2. The problems
3. Background information about ineffective leadership
Inheritance essays: writing the introduction
1.
Tell us how you understood the question (es
the student understand the demands of the question? You must show how citizens suffer
because of inept leadership.
2.
Include the keywords in your introduction
3.
Do NOT simply rewrite the question as your
introduction
4.
Write a brief, precise introduction
In your introduction, we must see both the poor leadership
and the problems (suffering). The suffering must be directly linked to the
leadership.
Inheritance sample introduction
A good leader inspires his or her subjects to success not
failure. On the other hand, ineffective leaders bring disillusionment
and do not inspire confidence among their people. In the world today, scandals
have tainted reputations of many people, and leaders worthy of trust are more
in demand than ever. David Mulwa's Inheritance depicts an example of ineffective
leadership meted out on the people who suffer as a result.
Inheritance essay: developing the body
1. Give at least four well-developed points
2. Each point must occupy a separate paragraph
3. Give adequate textual illustrations on the action (ineffective leadership), background and outcome (problems)
Points of interpretation
1.
Impoverishment
2.
Poor planning
3.
Brutality
4.
Corruption
5.
Vengeance
6.
Exploitation
7.
Favouritism
Inheritance: Paragraph development
Action: Ineffective leadership -
Lacuna favours his incompetent friends and tribesmen at the expense of other
citizens of Kutula. (Give sufficient textual details to support this)
Outcome: Problems - Show how citizens of
Kutula e.g. Tamina, Lulu, Bengo and Judah bear the brunt of Kutula's nepotism
and favouritism. (Give sufficient textual illustrations)
Background information
“These many years and he hasn’t seen anyone but
his clansmen. And his bevy of concubines” -Tamina (p29)
“So I took courage and made friends with the manager
who’s a tribesman of Leader Kasoo. It pays to know the leaders' tribesman.” -Zen
(p34)
“I have the report here. It says there's no
management worth talking of … political appointees and lax tribesmen” – Goldstein
(p71)
“Anyone against the evacuation is to be
dismissed forthwith. And start an immediate recruitment of people from our
loyal clan, regardless of this education. Fill those positions with people …
men I can trust.” -Lacuna (p96)
Sample set book essay question and answer based on Inheritance.
Ineffective leadership leads to abject poverty. Tamina
tells Bengo that Judah Zen Melo is wandering looking for jobs, competing with
young people. Judah used to work for the government. When he falls out with the
leader Lacuna, he is kicked out of his government house. Judah and Tamina lose
their cars, government house and piece of land in Bukelenge. They are left wallowing in abject poverty. Tamina
is forced to pick coffee for Chipande on her former farm. Bengo says poverty
makes it hard for them to see straight. Also, Lulu is sent home to collect
school fees but Tamina cannot raise the money yet she works on the coffee farm
all day with no extra money. On the other hand, Judah roams in search of a job
and settles for one as a security guard in Patola. He lives in a cardboard
house. Because of poverty, he is forced to compromise his principles. He
befriends Mithambo, Lacuna's tribesman and a manager at Kasoo mines, because he
needs his favour in getting a machine operator job. The desperation makes him
to start drinking and to produce fake letters in pursuit of the job. In his
drunken stupor, Judah says that a black man only rests when he dies and is buried. He is overworked and
underpaid. Sangoi tells Lacuna that there are many poor people crying at their
doorsteps. Tamina's hut and clothes also depict poverty. Judah's family and
many other citizens suffer impoverishment due to Lacuna's ineffective leadership.
Poor planning by Kutula's leaderships also
causes problems for the citizens. The government dam project
results in more harm than good. The valley dries up and Tamina has no choice
but to walk up to fifteen kilometres from sunrise to sunset in search of the
precious necessity. Also, schools charge exorbitant fees and most parents
cannot afford. Lulu and three hundred others are sent home to collect fees for
construction of a second perimeter wall, computer laboratory, games, and
examination fees. In addition, the leaders borrow loans in their people's names
but bank them in their individual accounts. They also throw useless lavish
banquets and poor innocent citizens do not benefit at all. Everything is
imported including the whiskies, canned beer, coffee etc. Lacuna also buys
himself a swanky airplane and banks thirty percent of the balance in his
account abroad. He cannot account for the expenditure of the loan and blames his
cronies. As he squanders borrowed money, his subjects suffer poverty,
unemployment and famine. This inefficiency can be attributed to appointment
based on political loyalty and tribalism. Surely, citizens suffer when leaders
run the affair of a country poorly.
More often than not, inefficient leaders are
brutal. Bengo tells Tamina that elected leaders are
servants not masters – but are they? When Judah refuses to murder his brother
Bengo as instructed by Lacuna, he is fired and beaten to a pulp. He is saved by
Dr. Jonathan. The cruel leader also arrests and detains Bengo for dissenting
his savage leadership. Reverend Sangoi says many people disappeared on the day
of his coronation. Lacuna wants Lulu to perform for him at his palace but her
mother protests vehemently. She warns Tamina does not take no for an answer and
may harm her family. Also, Lacuna plans to cruelly punish Lulu for dancing with
Robert. She is to be charged with treason. This after detaining her illicitly against
her will. She says Lacuna killed her father. Judah was murdered but Lacuna passed
it off as an accident caused by the rotting machines. Robert dismisses this and
affirms that it was murder for Judah. Lacuna is a cold-blooded tyrant who plans
to violently quell an imminent uprising in Kutula. He asks colonel Yakumba to
shoot protesters. He also executes a martial law with a strict dawn to dusk curfew.
He instructs his officers to shoot looters and thieves on sight. Robert refers
to this barbaric leader as a murderous thief , since he even requests for guns
and ammunitions to use against his own people. Many innocent citizen like Lulu,
Tamina and Judah suffer under this ruthless regime because of Lacuna's
brutality.
In addition to that, Kutula faces the trial of
corrupt leadership. First, Bengo notes that the people's
sweat poured through Lacuna's porous pockets and bank accounts. Due to misuse
of public funds, Lacuna plans to overwork government workers. He is also
compelled by the foreign financiers to evacuate citizens from the valley and
privatise the land. Although he grossly
misused the first loan disbursed to him, Lacuna still clamours to borrow more. Robert
also notes that Lacuna banks these monies in his own foreign accounts across
the world including Canada and Luxemberg. Due to the cash crunch caused by
corruption, Lacuna plans to freeze people’s salaries, overtax businesses,
abolish positions etc. Bengo says he has lost his family through Lacuna's greed
and mismanagement . Surely, Bengo and others suffer because of Lacuna's
incompetent leadership. Ineffective leadership thrives on corruption.
The leaders in Kutula are hell-bent on wreaking
vengeance on any dissidents. Citizens like Bengo and Judah
Zen Melo suffer for opposing the policies of Lacuna's authoritarian rule.
Bengo was thrown behind bars for opposing Lacuna's brand of leadership. Lacuna
had initially hatched a plan which would involve killing his brother Bengo, a
thorn in Lacuna's political side. When he declined, Judah was sacked,
grievously attacked and stripped off of all government property and condemned
to a life of insolvency. He suffers wandering from town to town in search of
employment with a view of feeding his family. Lacuna also takes revenge on Lulu
for dancing with Robert due to jealousy. He detains her for ostensibly for
refusing to participate in some traditional ceremony. Lacuna tells Sangoi that
drastic measures would be taken against all dissidents if they resist the
evacuation of citizens from the valley. Lacuna also vengefully kills Judah Zen
Melo. Lastly, Bengo refuses to take up leadership to avoid taking people to the
dark days of anger and revenge, exemplified by Lacuna's cruel regime. Surely, vengeful
leaders cause many problems in Africa.
Citizens of Kutula suffer exploitation by their leaders.
First, the schools charge obscene amounts of fees at the
expense of struggling parents like Tamina. Students like Lulu suffer as they
struggle to achieve their dreams. Lulu wants to be a doctor but the mother
cannot afford school fees despite working tirelessly at Chipande's farm. Lulu
is so desperate to finish her studies that she pleads with her mother to borrow
money. She has worked hard in school and is always among the top three in
class. Chipande uses his position to forcibly buy land from Tamina for peanuts,
deny others license to grow coffee and employ Tamina to pick coffee beans at
his farm for low wages. Lacuna only cares about his clansmen and bevy of
concubines and cannot help Tamina, or other citizens for that matter, to raise
the school fees. After toiling at Kasoo mines, Judah can only raise a paltry
eight hundred shillings which can barely meet their needs. Moreover, the
leadership also plans to forcibly evacuate poor citizens from the nationalised
valley. Lacuna also plans to freeze salaries and overtax citizens. Citizens in
Kutula are overworked and thus suffer because of this exploitation.
Lulu suffers in Lacuna's hands since he is
shamelessly immoral. He forces Lulu and other school girls to
dance for him. He expects Lulu to sup with him in his private chambers
supposedly to quench a national itch. Robert refers to Lacuna as an immoral
ragamuffin in adult panty-hoses. Lacuna is angry at Robert for dancing with
Lulu. Goldstein warns Robert against infatuation
for Lulu since she is a goddess to be used in some immoral ritual. Lacuna stoops too low as a leader, as he
flirts with and even kisses a nineteen year old schoolgirl. Lulu resists his
advances telling him that she respects him as an elder and a leader. She is his
daughter and still in school. Because of his immoral lust, Lacuna abuses his
own wife in front of Lulu, insolently describing her as a demon and a
cobra-headed hand grenade. Lacuna even has the temerity to send emissaries to
ask Tamina for Lulu's hand in marriage. He wants to marry her by force, with
Chipande as a best man. Because of his amorous lust, he even ignores his
spiritual leader's advice. Lulu and her
mother really suffer this ordeal. This is testament to Lacuna's ineffective
leadership.
Lastly, Lacuna favours his friends and
relatives at the expense of other citizens. Lacuna does not care about
people like Tamina's problems. He only entertains his clansmen and assemblage
of concubines. Mithambo, his cousin, manages Kasoo mines. Judah has to befriend
him in order to get the machine operator's job. This is after days of fawning
and buying him drinks. He says it pays to know the leader's tribesman. Lacuna's
leadership is inept because he hires inept officers with questionable management
skills or no skills whatsoever. These are his political appointees and lax
tribesmen. During the insurrection, Lacuna orders recruitment of army officers
from his loyal tribe regardless of their education. He replaces industrious
citizens with incompetent men he can trust. Surely, African problems arise due
to such ineptitude.
In conclusion, ineffective leadership breeds
corruption, abuse and misuse of authority, arrests, detention among other ills.
As a result, citizens suffer.
Comment below if you have any thoughts, questions or suggestions.
