SchulLV Logo
Lerninhalte in Englisch
Abi-Aufgaben LK
Lektürehilfen
Inhaltsverzeichnis

Task A

1.
Summarize what we learn about life in Kosawa and Pexton’s role in it.
Comprehension (12 Punkte)
2.
Analyze the atmosphere created in the text and its effect on the reader. Focus on narrative techniques and use of language.
(Analysis) (16 Punkte)
3.
Choose one of the following tasks:
3.1
Steve Killelea, founder of the Institute for Economics and Peace, warns that "ecological threats pose serious challenges to global peace. [...] In the absence of action, civil unrest, riots and conflict will most likely increase."
Comment on this prediction, referring to economic, ecological and political issues of globalization.
(Evaluation: comment) (14 Punkte)
3.2
Having committed her life to fight against oil drilling in Nigeria, Thula, the narrator, has been awarded an international prize for her outstanding achievements for sustainable development in Nigeria. In consequence, she has been invited to write an article for The Guardian about how her childhood in Kosawa has motivated her to become an environmental activist and about her demands for the future. Write the article.
(Evaluation: re-creation of text) (14 Punkte)

Imbolo Mbue
How Beautiful We Were

This is the beginning of the novel. The story is told from Thula’s perspective and is set in the fictional African village Kosawa in the 1980ies.
1
We should have known the end was near. How could we not have known? When the sky
2
began to pour acid and rivers began to turn green, we should have known our land would
3
soon be dead. Then again, how could we have known when they didn’t want us to know?
4
When we began to wobble and stagger, tumbling and snapping like feeble little branches,
5
they told us it would soon be over, that we would all be well in no time. They asked us to
6
come to village meetings, to talk about it. They told us we had to trust them.
7
We should have spat in their faces, heaped upon them names most befitting – liars,
8
savages, unscrupulous, evil. We should have cursed their mothers and their grandmothers,
9
flung pejoratives upon their fathers, prayed for unspeakable calamities to befall their
10
children. We hated them and we hated their meetings, but we attended all of them. Every
11
eight weeks we went to the village square to listen to them. We were dying. We were
12
helpless. We were afraid. Those meetings were our only chance at salvation. […]
13
In the square we sat in near silence as the sun left us for the day, oblivious to how the
14
beauty of its descent heightened our anguish. We watched as the Pexton men placed their
15
briefcases on the table our village head, Woja Beki, had set for them. There were always
16
three of them – we called them the Round One (his face was as round as a ball we would
17
have had fun kicking), the Sick One (his suits were oversized, giving him the look of a man
18
dying of a flesh-stealing disease), and the Leader (he did the talking, the other two did the
19
nodding). We mumbled among ourselves as they opened their briefcases and passed sheets
20
of paper among themselves, covering their mouths as they whispered into each other’s ears
21
to ensure they had their lies straight. We had nowhere more important to be so we waited,
22
desperate for good news. We whispered at intervals, wondering what they were thinking
23
whenever they paused to look at us […].
24
We inhaled, waited, exhaled. We remembered those who had died from diseases with
25
neither names nor cures – our siblings and cousins and friends who had perished from the
26
poison in the water and the poison in the air and the poisoned food growing from the land
27
that lost its purity the day Pexton came drilling. We hoped the men would look into our eyes
28
and feel something for us. We were children, like their children, and we wanted them to
29
recognize that. If they did, it wasn’t apparent in their countenance. They’d come for Pexton,
30
to keep its conscience clean; they hadn’t come for us.
31
Woja Beki walked up to the front and thanked everyone for coming.
32
“My dear people,” he said, exposing the teeth no one wanted to see, “if we don’t ask for
33
what we want, we’ll never get it. If we don’t expunge what’s in our bellies, are we not
34
going to suffer from constipation and die?”
35
We did not respond; we cared nothing for what he had t 35 o say. We knew he was one of
36
them. We’d known for years that though he was our leader, descended from the same
37
ancestors as us, we no longer meant anything to him. Pexton had bought his cooperation
38
and he had, in turn, sold our future to them. […]
39
In the glow of the fading sun our village looked almost beautiful, our faces almost free
40
of anguish. Our grandfathers and grandmothers appeared serene, but we knew they weren’t
41
– they’d seen much, and yet they’d never seen anything like this.
42
“We’ll now hear from Mr. Honorable Representative of Pexton, all the way from Bézam
43
to speak to us again,” Woja Beki said, before returning to his seat.
44
The Leader rose up, walked toward us, and stood in the center of the square.
45
For several seconds, he stared at us, his head angled, his smile so strenuously earnest we
46
wondered if he was admiring a radiance we’d never been told we had. We waited for him to
47
say something that would make us burst into song and dance. We wanted him to tell us that
48
Pexton had decided to leave and take the diseases with them.
49
His smile broadened, narrowed, landed on our faces, scanning our stillness. Seemingly
50
satisfied, he began speaking. He was happy to be back in Kosawa on this fine day, he said.
51
What a lovely evening it was, with the half-moon in the distance, such a perfect breeze, was
52
that the sound of sparrows singing in one accord? What a gorgeous village. He wanted to thank
53
us for coming. It was great to see everyone again. Incredible how many precious children
54
Kosawa has. We had to believe him that the people at headquarters were sad about what was
55
happening to us. They were all working hard to resolve this issue so everyone could be
56
healthy and happy again. He spoke slowly, his smile constant, as if he was about to deliver
57
the good news we so yearned for.
58
We barely blinked as we watched him, listening to lies we’d heard before. Lies about how
59
the people who controlled Pexton cared about us. Lies about how the big men in the
60
government of His Excellency cared about us. Lies about how hundreds of people in the
61
capital had asked him to relay their condolences to us. “They mourn with you at the news of
62
every death,” he said. “It’ll be over soon. It’s time your suffering ended, isn’t it?”
Imbolo Mbue, How Beautiful We Were, Edinburgh: Canongate 2021, S. 3 – 7

Weiter lernen mit SchulLV-PLUS!

monatlich kündbarSchulLV-PLUS-Vorteile im ÜberblickDu hast bereits einen Account?