If we describe Kossoh Town Boy as an autobiography, we mean that it is

Step 1: Analyze the question The question asks what it means when a work is called an autobiography. (Kossoh Town Boy is Cyprian Ekwensi's... actually, it is Robert Wellesley Cole's 1960 memoir about growing up in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in the Krio community.) So the focus is on the meaning of the term "autobiography."

Step 2: Explain the concept Break the word into Greek parts:

• auto = self
• bio = life
• graphy = writing

So an autobiography is a writing about one's own life, told by the person who lived it. It is non-fiction and usually written in the first person ("I").

Step 3: Test each option

• A. A historical novel: This is fiction set in a past period. An autobiography is a factual account, not a novel. ❌
• B. A piece of writing telling us about the life of its author: This matches the definition exactly. ✅
• C. A short story: This is a brief fictional prose piece, and Kossoh Town Boy is a full-length book. ❌
• D. A narrative tale: This is too general. Any story is a narrative, but it need not be about the author's life. ❌

Step 4: Answer Calling Kossoh Town Boy an autobiography means it is a piece of writing in which the author tells us about his own life, so the correct option is B.

Tip: Remember the parts of the word: auto (self) + bio (life) + graphy (writing). Also keep these apart:

• Autobiography: you write about your own life.
• Biography: someone else writes about your life.

This pair of terms comes up often in JAMB Literature, so well done for practicing it. Keep going!