Page 33 - SpringBoard_CloseReading_Workshop_Grade8_Flipbook

Close Reading of argumentative nonfiction Texts (continued)
key ideas and deTails
What effect might Lumumba’s repetition of the phrase “we are going to” have on his audience? What are some of the predictions he makes?
6 We have seen that the law was not the same for a white and for a black, accommodating for the first, cruel and inhuman for the other. We have witnessed atrocious sufferings of those condemned for their political opinions or religious beliefs; exiled in their own country, their fate truly worse than death itself. We have seen that in the towns there were magnificent houses for the whites and crumbling shanties for the blacks, that a black was not admitted in the motion-picture houses, in the restaurants, in the stores of the Europeans; that a black traveled in the holds, at the feet of the whites in their luxury cabins.
7 Whowilleverforgetthemassacreswheresomanyofourbrothersperished,thecells into which those who refused to submit to a regime of oppression and exploitation were thrown? All that, my brothers, we have endured.
8 But we, whom the vote of your elected representatives have given the right to direct our dear country, we who have suffered in our body and in our heart from colonial oppression, we tell you very loud, all that is henceforth ended. The Republic of the Congo has been proclaimed, and our country is now in the hands of its own children.
9 Together, my brothers, my sisters, we are going to begin a new struggle, a sublime struggle, which will lead our country to peace, prosperity, and greatness. Together, we are going to establish social justice and make sure everyone has just compensation for his labor.
10 We are going to show the world what the black man can do when he works in freedom, and we are going to make of the Congo the center of the sun’s radiance for all of Africa.
11 Wearegoingtokeepwatchoverthelandsofourcountrysothattheytrulyprofither children. We are going to restore ancient laws and make new ones which will be just and noble.
12 Thus, in the interior and the exterior, the new Congo, our dear Republic that my government will create, will be a rich, free, and prosperous country. But so that we will reach this aim without delay, I ask all of you, legislators and citizens, to help me with all your strength.
32 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 8
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