C. It takes patience and respect to navigate someone else's culture.
Farida chuckled. "This game is not known to you, cousin?" She tucked a stray hair back under her hijab. "All Zazibari start learning to play bao when they're toddlers."
"We have a game like this in the U.S.," Aisha said, running her fingers over the smooth hollows of the wooden board. "But it's called mancala. It's simpler."
"You like things simple in America, I think," said Farida, setting up the board and placing large white seeds—game pieces—into the hollows. "Simple dramas on TV. Simple food."
Aisha bit back a salty reply and instead said carefully, "Cousin, I think we are far more complex than you expect. Is this square hollow my home base?"
"Yes. We call that the nyumba, the home. Shall we play the bao la kujifunza, the simplified game, for my simple American cousin?"
"No, Farida. Let's play the regular version,” Aisha insisted. “I know how to lose graciously."
Farida smiled a shark's smile and explained more of the rules. She beat Aisha soundly: once, twice. But Aisha lost the third game so narrowly that Farida stopped mocking her—and the fourth game, Aisha won outright. To celebrate Aisha’s win, Farida bought her cousin some mishkaki, barbecue skewers, from a street vendor. Aisha took a bite, and the flavors transported her home—to Missouri, where her father had taught her to cook traditional Zanzibari food.
Which of these best states a theme of the passage?
(2 points)
Responses
A. Winning is the most important outcome of an exchange between two cultures.
A. Winning is the most important outcome of an exchange between two cultures.
B. Humility and grace are weaknesses when engaged in cultural conflict.
B. Humility and grace are weaknesses when engaged in cultural conflict.
C. It takes patience and respect to navigate someone else's culture.
C. It takes patience and respect to navigate someone else's culture.
Engagement in another culture's practices rarely results in genuine connections.
1 answer