Summary:
Racial divide in South Africa occured during the era of colonialism. The book written By Alan Paton it tells of a tragic story of a young man who was sentenced to death by hanging for a crime he did not intend to commit. In a country where justice is granted to whites and blacks have none illustates a tragedy which befell on this young man that his father, a pastor, faced great difficulty in bearing the thoughts of losing his son.
Although set in South Africa, Cry the Beloved Country has themes that
have permanent and universal interests. These are themes of crime and punishment,
the human cost of power and wealth, and division and reconciliation.
The underlying cause of crime in Johannesburg is rural-urban migration.
The aborigines had small farmlands which are arid and dry making it difficult for them to
cultivate any food crop the popular one being maize. The white farmers on the other
hand, had large acres and fertile farmlands making it possible for them to grow different
kinds of crops. They had farming equipments such as the tractor which the black folks
lacked or haven't even seen one before. In the harsh conditions of the weather, where
there is little or no rain, their state of affairs worsens. The white farmers really do not
suffer since their scale of production was high; they were able to survive during
unfavorable weather conditions. With this, they were able to export their produce to the
outside world and also to neighboring towns and cities making them rich while the black
farmers lived in adverse poverty.
Hearing the trumpet sound of Johannesburg they set out from their farmlands one
after the other. Like the story in Aesop's fables The Pied Piper of Hamelin where we find
children following the sweet sounds of a bagpipe from the Pied Piper only to find
themselves trapped in a cage. Over a long period of time the long full dangers were not
seen, but fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters went to work in Johannesburg and never
came back. In time, black folks tried to set up new homes and began to experience with
bewilderment and shame the shocks of disobedient children, pregnant daughters, and
delinquent sons. Home life decayed in the overcrowded slums; and it also putrefied
in the tribal reserves, where men did not come back, and where women went to look
for them and often found someone else. Among those, for example, who went to work
was the husband of Gertrude, who in turn, went to look for him and found other men
instead. And in Absalom with his girlfriend we have instances of a delinquent son
and a pregnant daughter. In the quest for survival, they find themselves in the
negligence to their responsibilities and face the full wrath of the law which doesn't
favor them and the society as a whole.
This created criminal cases; rape, robbery, and murder. There were instances
where white housewives were raped, murdered and robbed when their husbands were
away. The black folks who were regarded as a menace to society being prime suspects to
such criminal activities and so they were looked upon as outcasts. For this they were
either tortured or murdered when caught and put into prison. Absalom found himself in
such a predicament after going to prison and having been reformed, he was faced with the
claws of the law for murder which he admitted.
His judgment opens, in a language of solemn formality, with a description
of the setting for the trial in a segregated South African courtroom. This description
develops into a commentary on the majesty of the law, the status of judges who must
administer them. The Judge does not make the law it is made by the whites. Therefore if
the law is unjust, and if the Judge judges according to the Law, that is justice, even if it is
not just. Under these harsh laws, which generally intensified the dilemma of judges, the
authorities were given vast powers of punishment outside the courts and legal system.
These powers included detentions without trial, house arrests, and white mob justice.
In the climate created by these laws, Absalom makes a poor witness on his own behalf;
and the prosecutor has little difficulty in supporting his case for a verdict of premeditated
murder. His defense collapses in the face of the strategy devised by his uncle, John
Kumalo, when his cousin, Matthew, and friend Johannes Pafuri deny their presence at
the scene. After the proceedings, he was sentenced to death by hanging. In this case if it
had been a white man he would be exonerated on the basis of self defense even if it
wasn't the case. Indeed the justice or legal system is flawed. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, in
his inaugural speech as president of The United States of America, stated:
When at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment
on each one of us- recording whether in our brief span of service
we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state our success or failure,
in whatever office we may hold, will be measured by the answers
to four questions: Were we truly men of courage ? Were we truly
men of judgment ? Were we truly men of integrity? Were \ we truly
men of dedication"
Referring to Kennedy's first question, in the case of Absalom he was courageous because
he came to terms with his wrongdoing and he felt sorry for what he did as it wasn't his intention.
On the other hand, the judge, prosecutor, and the defense lawyer were not because they failed to
execute their duties for fear of being thought weak in the minds of both the white and black folks.
Secondly, the judgment pronounced on Absalom was based on hatred towards him for
Killing a white and not on the motive for the crime he committed. For Absalom being able to
confess his crime to the hearing in expressing regrets and repentance, he should have been
awarded a lesser sentence for instance, a limited years in prison. The blood of Absalom
was what they wanted therefore, judgment based on vengeance was carried out-an unfair trial.
Thirdly, there was lack of sincerity on Absalom's lawyer because, he put up a poor
defense for his client making it easier for the prosecutor to win the case. In other words, if indeed
he were sincere on his profession he could have declined defending Absalom. Like his peers he
wanted the same thing-vengeance.
Lastly, Absalom was dedicated to one thing which was to tell the truth. He may have
taken an unwise decision by not lying in order for him to save his life just as his cousin and
friend did. Unlike the judge who dispensed a death penalty on Absalom was not loyal to his
profession. In a court of law the weight of judgment must be in equilibrium to a case in question
considering the motives or intentions. There was an imbalance of measure in Absalom's murder
trial because justice was rendered to protect the whites and oppress the blacks. With this, there is
an element of favoritism therefore the society in itself is lawless.
As can be seen, the theme of new gold discoveries-this time, not from the
perspective of mine owners and shareholders, but from the point of view of those
seeking to unionize black workers. The valor and popularity of Johannesburg was
the presence of mineral wealth such as gold and diamonds which the whites clamored
for at the expense of the blacks. The wealth was used in creating sophisticated towns
and cities at their luxury whereas the blacks resided in slums and even some had to
sleep on the streets particularly the black miners. All roads lead to Johannesburg like
the spokes of the wheel it calls out for blacks residing in the rural areas not to come
for a share in the wealth, but to come and enslave themselves at the mercy of the
white man. This is for him to enjoy the lavishness and sophistication of life while the
blacks struggle and toil in order for them to survive. They pay high taxes, their
transportation fares are high but the income given to them is just not enough for them to
meet their basic needs such as food, shelter, and clothes. It's like spending a dime while
earning a nickel no love for the people who are really suffering.
The greater part of this event was how John Kumalo used his wealth and
influence on various people. These include Dubula, who organized the bus boycott and
the building of Shanty Town. John Kumalo is here represented as a man gifted with a
voice amazing power, who, if he dared, could stir black men to frenzy of revolt. All who
hear him agree on this? John Kumalo, has a good cause, and he presents a good case.
After all, he is attacking the slaving mining interest satirized earlier. But as his
associates, Dubula and Tomlinson know, he is not committed to the cause of the
downtrodden. He is only interested in himself and the applause of the crowds. He will
not risk losing what he already has-the carpenter's shop, which brings in a good, reliable
income, and the adulation of admirers who gather there. There follows a scene which
contemplates the possibilities of a strike, and then it sketches a scenario of events that
may occur. Two white people who realized how dependent they are on black labor, the
thought of miners' strike escalating into a general strike of all black workers is terrifying.
There had been some trouble, but it was contained within the mines and did not intrude
on the lives of the public. All is now quiet. In the strike's aftermath a few concerned
people continue to discuss the case for a black miners' union; a spokesman for the
Chamber of Mines responds that simple miners are not qualified to run a union and
would only become the tools of agitators. Others continue their endless talking about
social problems without offering to do anything practical.
The murdered man, Arthur Jarvis, never comes on the theme before us in
the novel. He is nonetheless the character about whom we learnt the most. It becomes
known to us that Arthur Jarvis, as his father, James Jarvis, belatedly comes into
reconciliation with him: through his letters and writings; through the many books in his
study; and even through his choice of pictures on the walls which later placed him on the
same page with his son later.
James Jarvis's first introduction to the quality of his son's mind comes
from the letters on the dead man's desk-the invitations to speak, for example, at the
Claremont African Boys' Club, of which he was president-and from several writings
on social justice his son left behind. These writings argue the case for racial recon-
ciliation in South Africa from the Christians' point of view. They begin to open James
Jarvis's eyes to the real plight of both urban and rural Africans as consequence of the
destruction of their tribal organization without provision for its replacement by something
better.
The many books in the Afrikaans's language, for example, reveal a
mentality of wonder and jumbled questions and it is quite evident, too, that some
amounts of knowledge of Abraham Lincoln were obtained from young man's writings.
James Jarvis, a man of little reading, was astonished to find in his son's study a whole
bookcase full of books about Lincoln. Browsing in these, he reads Lincoln's Gettysburg
address and, later, his Second Inaugural address. His father's subsequent actions are
motivated by what he encounters in Lincoln's writings where he slipped the volume of
Lincoln's book into his pocket for further reading after discovering that Lincoln was the
world's greatest champion of racial justice-who was not a South African.
The value James Jarvis placed on his son's was very great as he respected
the pictures on the wall. The first picture which really caught his attention was the
Crucifixion of Christ representing his son's Christian faith. There was an emphasis on
Christians' responsibility in a country where the term "Christian Civilization" was
adopted as a self-description by most of the white community. It was a theme based on
moral responsibility which the whites breached.
Secondly, there was a picture of a historic architectural gem, which
was the house of Simon van der Stel. The house Simon built was based on his
aftermath on arriving in Cape of Good Hope, and from which an architecture
recognizably South African was derived. Lastly, there was a picture, "the painting of
leafless willows by a river in a wintry veldt", symbolizes Jarvis love of the land itself in
the most bleak and desolate seasons; the veldt speaks of home, South Africa.
It is very difficult to see two fathers coming together as friends and
neighbors in the midst of a tragedy that has befallen them. One has a murdered son
and the other has a murdered son and the other has a son who would soon receive a
death penalty. For example, kumalo's actions of sitting with his head bowed, of
dropping the stick and hat, of struggling to rise, and of dropping the papers from his
trembling hands, are actions of an actor might have thought up to interprete a character in
such an emotional situation since it was Kumalo's first time being in a house belonging
to a white man. He was drowned in fear just as his son Absalom when he shot Arthur. So
are Jarvis's hesitant movements in picking up a stick and hat and restoring them to the
old man. This showed how clearly Jarvis understood his son and how slowly he moved
into a new dispensation of his moments and days.
In this theme, too, that we first observe the direction of growth in
Jarvis's character. He is moved by the old man's distress and by his humility, and he
pulls himself together, resolutely, after the shock of recognition. When his wife's niece
returns and says that she dismissed Sibeko's daughter for bad behavior, that she doesn't
know where her former maid is, and, what's more, that she doesn't care, Jarvis softens
the edge of her rudeness by not translating her "I don't care" into Zulu. This was made
possible on the part of Jarvis by the readings of his son's essays and passages from
Abraham Lincoln, which opened his mind to change and took the determination to carry
his son's work. He also went as far as donating some amount of money to Stephen
Kumalo in order for a new church to be built just as his son established a youth center
for the black community in Johannesburg and his Christian faith.
The life experiences of the old clergyman, Stephen Kumalo, in
Cry, the Beloved Country encompasses love in three senses which are love for his wife,
his son and daughter in law, and his love for God. As an Anglican priest he is a married
married man. Now on the verge of old age, the mutual love between him and his wife-
which can be defined from love called passion-is still strong.
So is his paternal affection for his wayward son that draws him to
undertake the arduous quest that is the novel's more conventional theme. His love for
Absalom extended through the boundaries by officiating the marriage between his son,
Absalom, and his pregnant wife. He forgave his son, by attending all the court
proceedings on his son's case on a charge for murder.
Lastly, as the east brightens with the rising sun, Kumalo rises,
uncovers his head, and prays for his son on the mountain. Throughout his night of
tribulation, subconsciously reenacting the sacred sites of his priestly function, he had
remained faithful to his calling. He never held Absalom's wrongdoing and reports
against him rather, he forgave him and that's the biggest reconciliation a parent can give
to a child.
Rather than waiting for time or governments to bring about change, each
of these characters set about whatever good is within his power; for each has come to
recognize how individual fear and indifference infects society with moral paralysis,
and each also realizes that the antidote to moral paralysis is individual courage and the
willingness to go forward in faith. They do not wait for some miraculous healing of this
paralysis to be brought about by the direct intervention of God, or through the
implementation of some theoretical scheme for a final solution, or through the flowering
of some political manifesto.
This is the complete article, containing 2,567 words
(approx. 9 pages at 300 words per page).
