APWH SAQ: Democratic Republic of the Congo

“Men and women of the Congo, Victorious independence fighters, I salute you in the name of the Congolese Government. I ask all of you, my friends, who tirelessly fought in our ranks, to mark this June 30, 1960, as an illustrious date that will be ever engraved in your hearts ...We shall show the world what the black man can do when working in liberty, and we shall make the Congo the pride of Africa. ...And in all this, my dear compatriots, we can rely not only on our own enormous forces and immense wealth, but also on the assistance of the numerous foreign states, whose co-operation we shall accept when it is not aimed at imposing upon us an alien policy, but is given in a spirit of friendship. ...I call on all Congolese citizens, men, women and children, to set themselves resolutely to the task of creating a national economy and ensuring our economic independence. Eternal glory to the fighters for national liberation! Long live independence and African unity! Long live the independent and sovereign Congo!”

“Speech at the Ceremony of the Proclamation of the Congo’s Independence,” Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1960

Identify ONE nation in Africa, Latin America, or Asia, other than the Democratic Republic of the Congo, that embodies the connection between decolonization and the Cold War.

Explain ONE way in which this speech reflects the global political context of the second half of the twentieth century.

Explain ONE way in which this speech reflects global social issues of the second half of the twentieth century