Cry Beloved Country

Marcus Garvey, a ‘proponent of Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements” (), once stated that “a people without knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” (Good Reads Quotes) He was in fact very much so right. Most people in this world care about where they come from, who they descended from and where the backbone of their identity lies. Have you ever wondered why almost most orphans tend to look for their family lines or go out in search of where they belong? It is with this very essence my quest to look for answers and investigate about two very distinct yet similar groups. The groups I examine throughout this paper are Africans and African-Americans. What I seek to find out is why two very ‘distinct’ yet similar groups of people fail to see eye to eye, judging from the fact that Africans and African-Americans look alike, originated from Africa and their histories and culture somehow intertwine with each other. The main question here really is: what are the factors that hinder the relationship between Africans and African-American people.

Aminata’s and Chekura’s son was born, but soon sold to another slave owner. Due to this, Aminata become depressed

And might not he himself be grandfather to a child that would have no name? ... He would go back with a new and quickened interest in the school, not as a place where children learned to read and write and count only, but as a place where they must be prepared for life… For a moment he was caught up in a vision, a man so often is when he sits in a place of ashes and destruction” (120). Like the mythological phoenix, Kumalo has a sense of new purpose and has come to

The mother begins to rebel against tradition by taking an active role in educating and freeing herself. Through her radio, telephone and trips out with her sons she develops her own opinions about the world, the war, and the domination and seclusion of woman. She loses her innocence as a result to her new knowledge and experience.

This section demonstrates how the fear manifested itself among the whites. The Afrikaners’ power is not in numbers, as “they were few” but instead in political authority. They exploit this and impose harsh laws on the black to try to control and restrict them. However, they have bound themselves in their fear of the natives, a force that is perhaps more confining than their rules. Instead of trying to understand their fear and show their compassion towards these other human beings, they instead choose to hide it so that they will not appear weak. Additionally, the solution of love that Paton suggests presents a conundrum. In order end the fear, they must love, but to love they must stop being afraid. This demonstrates the almost impossible nature of true equality occurring between the natives and the Afrikaners.

We commence by examining South-African apartheid and its historical and theoretical context. Apartheid was a system of racial segregation used in the overtly racist regime in South Africa from 1948 to 1991. It was based on laws that banned “marriage and sexual relations between different “population groups” and requir[ed] separate residential areas for people of mixed race (“Coloreds”), as well as for Africans” (Fredrickson 3). These laws were based on the same obsession with “race purity” that characterized other racist regimes, most notably Jim Crow America and Nazi Germany. The system was justified in terms of “cultural essentialism” and “seperate development”. Cultural essentialism means that each culture has inherent features that differentiate the members of this cultural group from others. The concept of separate development

Throughout the narrative, the author shows readers the loyalty of people present in the young woman’s life. Cahalan’s family, in particular, play an incredible role. Cahalan’s mother, father, and boyfriend are continually present, especially as Cahalan faces hardships. This loyalty is seen as Cahalan’s mother and father reunite in order to support the young woman, overcoming the

The lessons to be drawn from this, and the lessons King tries to bring out, is that the need for survival, in Folks’ case is racial passing, thwarts and reigns supreme over the need of “kinship and cultural connection.” Another lesson would be racial passing can equate to adaptation that could be used to deceive and exploit or be used to blend into the white community. But whiteness does not guarantee protection from violence or social death.

In the Novel “Cry the Beloved Country” by Alan Paton, two fathers are trying to put the pieces of there families back together while also keeping themselves together. They each go through a variety of struggles, with one learning his sister is a prostitute and his son is a murder while the other deals with his sons death and tries to move passed it. Throughout the novel, racial tension is a theme frequently seen from the beginning of the book til the very end. Paton uses the setting of South Africa to underscore racial tension associated with the apartheid movement to illustrate these themes. The concept of racism is prevalent during the story as it is used by the government to caused both blacks and whites to fear each other which eventually tears apart Kumalo’s family.

As a result of colonialism, the resistance in both the United States and South Africa was rising. Throughout the history of the African civil rights movement are lessons that taught: “Nationalism has been tested in the people’s struggles . . . and found to be the only antidote against foreign rule and modern imperialism” (Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom 2008, 156). By comparing and contrasting the Jim Crow Laws and apartheid, we are able to shape our understanding of conflicts, activism, and reform.

Some of us go through tough experiences as children. In Patricia Grace’s novel Baby No-Eyes under the chapter of Kura, the reader gets to see how Gran Kura’s traumatic experience as a child is finally revealed after being held secret for sixty years.

In both texts language and the stylistic feature of imagery is used to present the impact of the belief of superiority of race to enhance the idea of racism in both texts. In Cry, The Beloved Country, Alan Paton bases the novel around black African people living in South Africa, awakening others to realise the lives of non-whites living in South Africa. Cry, The Beloved Country is set during a period of time of historical racial tension in South Africa which lead to a strict political policy where white people

Over the past five weeks, my group and I read the novel, When Morning Comes written by Arushi Raina. This story takes place in 1976 during the Soweto Uprising in South Africa; a student-lead protest against the Baas Laws, which required subjects to be taught in Afrikaans. The protagonists: Jack, Zanele, Meena, and Thabo start out as strangers with different racial identities, but through a series of chance meetings, each of their lives change significantly. During our Booktalk meetings, I was able to greater discuss some of the challenges that the protagonists faced, gain knowledge and insight about the novel from my peers, compare and contrast the themes in When Morning Comes with those in other books, and connect the novel to concepts learned in class. Before reading When Morning Comes, I hoped that the book would offer me some insight into how much our education system has progressed and improved, but it made me think about so much more than that.

The resentment within the young girl’s family is essential to the novel because one can understand the young girl better as she makes her decision.

This poverty, he thought was the main reason for black crime. Kumalo also forgives people of his own family for their mistakes. Although, his sister Gertrude was a prostitute and his son had an illegitimate affair with a young girl, he accepted both Gertrude and the young girl into his family. A lawyer took the case of Kumalo for God, Msimangu helped him financially, Ms Lithebe provided his family shelter, and although Jarvis had lost his son to black crime, he still helped rebuild Ndotsheni.