Cursed Daughters: Full Book Quiz (20 Questions)

Take this quiz to test your understanding of the plot, characters, themes, and deeper meanings in Oyinkan Braithwaite's Cursed Daughters. Questions span the entire narrative, from the family tree to Eniiyi's final liberation. Each answer is explained briefly based on the story.

Quiz Questions

Plot and Sequence (Questions 1-8)

1. What event opens the book?

   • A) Ebun gives birth to her daughter.
   • B) Monife drowns herself at Elegushi Beach.
   • C) The Falodun family tree is introduced.
   • D) Eniiyi returns home after her master's.

2. What does Ebun find when she returns home after Monife's funeral?

   • A) Her aunt Bunmi has moved into the house.
   • B) All photographs of Monife have been removed.
   • C) Her water breaks and she goes into labor.
   • D) The dog Sango has died.

3. What gift does Golden Boy give Monife?

   • A) A gold necklace.
   • B) A camera.
   • C) An ankle bracelet.
   • D) A puppy.

4. What does Monife bury under the iroko tree as an antidote ritual against the curse?

   • A) A note with Golden Boy's name.
   • B) Golden Boy's handkerchief.
   • C) A lock of her hair.
   • D) The juju pad.

5. How does Eniiyi discover the truth about Monife's death from Uncle Tolu?

   • A) She reads Monife's notebook.
   • B) Tolu tells her it was suicide, not an accident.
   • C) She finds a voicemail from Kalu.
   • D) Grandma West confesses on her deathbed.

6. What object does Eniiyi find buried under the iroko tree while digging to bury Zubby's bracelet?

   • A) A Royal Dansk biscuit tin.
   • B) A photograph of Monife.
   • C) A juju pad.
   • D) Golden Boy's ankle bracelet.

7. What action does Eniiyi take to claim her own identity separate from Monife? (Synthesis question, but plot-based)

   • A) She moves to the UK permanently.
   • B) She shaves her head and sleeps with Funsho.
   • C) She confronts Kalu at his home.
   • D) She burns Monife's notebook.

8. What happens at the very end of the Epilogue?

   • A) Eniiyi and Zubby reunite in a Lagos restaurant.
   • B) Eniiyi battles the curse underwater and the plane takes off.
   • C) Osagie proposes to Ebun.
   • D) Sango dies.

Character Motivation (Questions 9-13)

1. Why does Monife first visit Mama G?

   • A) To ask for a love potion for Golden Boy.
   • B) To get a refund for her mother's failed husband-retrieval ritual.
   • C) To learn how to break the family curse.
   • D) To ask for protection from Amara.

2. Why does Ebun force Eniiyi into swimming lessons with the abusive coach Mr. Alieu?

   • A) She wants Eniiyi to become a competitive swimmer.
   • B) She believes learning to swim will protect Eniiyi from the water spirit (Monife).
   • C) She thinks swimming will help Eniiyi's asthma.
   • D) She is trying to get Eniiyi out of the house.

3. Why does Monife agree to have an abortion?

   • A) Her mother forces her.
   • B) Ebun questions Kalu's love and reliability.
   • C) Kalu pays her to do it.
   • D) She decides she doesn't want a child.

4. Why does Eniiyi confess her infidelity with Funsho to Zubby?

   • A) She wants to hurt Zubby.
   • B) She needs to prove she is not being manipulated by Monife's ghost.
   • C) She hopes Zubby will break up with her.
   • D) Funsho threatens to tell Zubby first.

5. How does Osagie realize that Eniiyi is his daughter?

   • A) He sees her birth certificate.
   • B) Ebun tells him outright.
   • C) He notices her vitiligo birthmark, which he also has.
   • D) Eniiyi shows him a photograph of her mother.

Theme and Symbol (Questions 14-17)

1. What does the iroko tree symbolically represent in the novel?

   • A) Growth and new life.
   • B) The family curse and the burial of secrets across generations.
   • C) The connection between ancestors and the divine.
   • D) A place for children to play.

2. What duality does water (sea, swimming, drowning) primarily represent?

   • A) Joy and playfulness.
   • B) Danger and death versus freedom and rebirth.
   • C) Purity and baptism.
   • D) Wealth and travel.

3. What does the black kite that enters the house foreshadow?

   • A) The arrival of a new suitor.
   • B) Chaos, death, and Monife's eventual fate.
   • C) A financial windfall.
   • D) The end of the family feud.

4. How does the "curse" consistently manifest across the Falodun women?

   • A) They all suffer from autoimmune diseases.
   • B) They love in vain, suffer for men, and are ultimately abandoned or left alone.
   • C) They fail to have children.
   • D) They become wealthy but unhappy.

Synthesis and Analysis (Questions 18-20)

1. In what way does Eniiyi break the cycle of the curse more successfully than previous generations?

   • A) She marries Zubby despite his father's history.
   • B) She reclaims her bodily autonomy, moves abroad, and symbolically defeats the curse underwater.
   • C) She openly confronts Kalu and Amara.
   • D) She rejects her family entirely.

2. What is the significance of the shared vitiligo birthmark between Eniiyi and Osagie?

   • A) It proves the curse is real.
   • B) It provides a genetic link and a unique marker of identity that sets Eniiyi apart from being merely Monife's double.
   • C) It is a sign of good luck.
   • D) It is a mark of the curse.

3. How does the novel use the concept of atunwa (reincarnation) to explore the theme of identity?

   • A) It shows that the dead can truly return in new bodies.
   • B) It illustrates how family members project the dead onto the living, forcing a conflicted identity that Eniiyi must ultimately reject.
   • C) It proves the curse can be escaped through rebirth.
   • D) It shows that everyone is a reincarnation of an ancestor.

Answer Key

1. B. The Prologue shows Monife drowning herself at Elegushi Beach, establishing the central tragedy.
2. B. Ebun returns to find all photos of Monife removed by the family to prevent her spirit from lingering.
3. C. Golden Boy gives Monife an ankle bracelet as a token of his love when he returns early from England.
4. B. Monife buries Golden Boy's handkerchief under the iroko tree as a ritual to counteract the curse.
5. B. Uncle Tolu tells Eniiyi that Monife's death was suicide, shattering the family's narrative of an accident.
6. A. Eniiyi uncovers a Royal Dansk biscuit tin while digging, hinting at other buried family secrets.
7. B. Eniiyi shaves her head and has sex with Funsho to reclaim her free will separate from Monife's influence.
8. B. The Epilogue shows Eniiyi defeating the curse in an underwater battle while simultaneously flying away in a plane, claiming full ownership of her body.
9. B. Monife goes with Ebun to demand a refund for the money Mama G took from her mother for a failed ritual.
10. B. Ebun is terrified that Monife's water spirit will try to drown Eniiyi, so she forces her to learn to swim as survival.
11. B. After Ebun questions whether Kalu truly loves her or will be there for her, Monife joins Ebun in seeking the abortion pills.
12. B. Eniiyi tells Zubby about the infidelity to prove she acted on her own free will, not as a puppet of Monife's ghost.
13. C. At Grandma West's funeral, Osagie sees Eniiyi's birthmark and recognizes it as the same vitiligo pattern he has, realizing she is his daughter.
14. B. The iroko tree is a recurring location where characters bury objects tied to the curse and family secrets.
15. B. Water is both a site of death (Monife's suicide, near-drownings) and liberation (Eniiyi's swimming, the epilogue battle).
16. B. The black kite crashes inside, shattering a picture of Monife, and its impossible entry foreshadows the chaos and tragedy to come.
17. B. Across the interwoven family curse chapters, women repeatedly love men who leave, betray, or abandon them, reinforcing the pattern.
18. B. Unlike her ancestors who submit to the pattern, Eniiyi physically fights the curse underwater and leaves for the UK, claiming bodily autonomy.
19. B. The birthmark is a concrete genetic link to her biological father, giving Eniiyi a unique identity apart from being Monife's twin-like vessel.
20. B. The family pressures Eniiyi into the role of reincarnation, but the novel ultimately argues for self-determination and breaking the imposed identity.