Q 01/05

The Xhosa language is spoken on screen as the native tongue of which fictional Marvel kingdom?

A) Latveria

B) Wakanda

C) Genosha

D) Sokovia

Answer · why

B) Wakanda

Wakanda speaks Xhosa because a South African actor in the cast was a native speaker, and Chadwick Boseman chose to learn whole scenes in it.

Q 02/05

The xh that begins the word Xhosa is pronounced as which kind of sound, rare among the world's languages?

A) A whistle

B) A trill

C) A click

D) A glottal stop

Answer · why

C) A click

A click made at the side of the mouth, like the sound English speakers use to urge on a horse, opens the word Xhosa. The language writes its three bas...

Q 03/05

Nelson Mandela is affectionately known across South Africa by which Xhosa clan name?

A) Madiba

B) Dalibunga

C) Jongintaba

D) Ngubengcuka

Answer · why

A) Madiba

Madiba honours the lineage he was born into, and in Xhosa etiquette addressing someone by clan name is the highest form of respect.

Q 04/05

Nelson Mandela's Xhosa birth name, Rolihlahla, carries which fitting colloquial meaning for a future revolutionary?

A) Peacemaker

B) Troublemaker

C) Gift of the rain

D) Storyteller

Answer · why

B) Troublemaker

Troublemaker is the colloquial sense of Rolihlahla; the English name Nelson came later, given to him by a teacher.

Q 05/05

The Xhosa wedding song Qongqothwane, popularised worldwide by Miriam Makeba, is named after which knocking creature?

A) Woodpecker

B) Cricket

C) Tree frog

D) Beetle

Answer · why

D) Beetle

Beetle, specifically the knocking beetle that taps the ground to attract a mate; in Xhosa oral tradition it guides lost children home.