diff --git a/tests/test_ctokenizer.py b/tests/test_ctokenizer.py
index 4dbeceb..7ef8975 100644
--- a/tests/test_ctokenizer.py
+++ b/tests/test_ctokenizer.py
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 import unittest
 
+from mwparserfromhell.parser._tokenizer import CTokenizer
+
 from _test_tokenizer import TokenizerTestCase
 
 class TestCTokenizer(TokenizerTestCase, unittest.TestCase):
@@ -30,8 +32,12 @@ class TestCTokenizer(TokenizerTestCase, unittest.TestCase):
 
     @classmethod
     def setUpClass(cls):
-        from mwparserfromhell.parser._tokenizer import CTokenizer
         cls.tokenizer = CTokenizer
 
+    def test_uses_c(self):
+        """make sure the C tokenizer identifies as using a C extension"""
+        self.assertTrue(CTokenizer.USES_C)
+        self.assertTrue(CTokenizer().USES_C)
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     unittest.main(verbosity=2)
diff --git a/tests/test_pytokenizer.py b/tests/test_pytokenizer.py
index 73e6fe7..3e598bf 100644
--- a/tests/test_pytokenizer.py
+++ b/tests/test_pytokenizer.py
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 import unittest
 
+from mwparserfromhell.parser.tokenizer import Tokenizer
+
 from _test_tokenizer import TokenizerTestCase
 
 class TestPyTokenizer(TokenizerTestCase, unittest.TestCase):
@@ -30,8 +32,12 @@ class TestPyTokenizer(TokenizerTestCase, unittest.TestCase):
 
     @classmethod
     def setUpClass(cls):
-        from mwparserfromhell.parser.tokenizer import Tokenizer
         cls.tokenizer = Tokenizer
 
+    def test_uses_c(self):
+        """make sure the Python tokenizer identifies as not using C"""
+        self.assertFalse(Tokenizer.USES_C)
+        self.assertFalse(Tokenizer().USES_C)
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     unittest.main(verbosity=2)