Cry,%20the%20Beloved%20Country

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Cry, the Beloved Country

• Context of Production

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Alan Paton, author

• Born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
• Birthday January 11, 1903
• Father Scottish Farmer
• Mother South African
• of English heritage

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Paton, cont.

• Attended Natal University
• At 22, became a teacher and taught at two of
  South Africas elite, all-white schools.
• Ten years later, became principal of the
  Diepkloof Reformatory, a prison school for black
  youths.

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Paton, cont.

• While principal, he tried to loosen the
  restrictions on the students and prepare them for
  life outside the reformatory walls.

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Paton, cont.

• He traveled to study reformatory schools
  worldwide.
• It was on one of these trips, shortly after WW2,
  he wrote Cry, the Beloved Country.
• It was published in 1948.
• After its success, he resigned to pursue writing
  fulltime.

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Setting

• Set in South Africa in 1940s.
• The story is set against a backdrop of economic
  and political tensions that have a lengthy and
  complicated history.

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South Africa without Europeans

• Thousands of years before the first Europeans
  arrived, southern Africa was populated by various
  African tribes
• The San ?
• The Khoikhoi
• Bantu-speaking
• people (ancestors
• of modern Zulus)

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The Dutch arrive

• The first European settlers in South Africa were
  the Dutch in the 1600s.
• They only wanted to set up trade, not colonize
  the country, so they met with little resistance.

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The Dutch get pushy

• By the mid-1700s, the Dutch had
• Come to be known as the Boers
• Developed their own language, Afrikaans
• Begun to settle deeper into the country

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The Dutch get pushier

• In a process similar to the displacement and
  destruction of the Native Americans in the US,
  African tribes were forced off their lands.
• Many Africans died from disease and loss in
  battle against the well-armed Boers.

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The English arrive

• English settlers first arrived in 1795.
• Unlike the Dutch, by the early 1800s, the English
  decided to make it a full-fledged colony.

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Dutch and English clash

• Concentrated in the coastal cities, the English
  soon found themselves in conflict with the Boer
  farmers, who called themselves the white tribe
  of Africa.
• The Boers moved north, away from the coast,
  leaving the English alone.

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English and Zulus fight

• While the Dutch moved north, the Zulus (led by
  the famous warrior-leader Shaka), pressed south
  on a military campaign.
• They and the English fought many bloody
  battles before the Zulus were defeated.

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English pick a fight with the Dutchagain

• The Boers created several independent republics
  and kept to themselves.
• When diamonds and gold were discovered in their
  territories, however, the British moved to annex
  them.
• This led to the first Anglo-Boer war in 1881.

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Dutch winkind of

• The Boers regained independence of their
  territories, but when gold was discovered on
  their land in 1886, the British invaded the area
  again.
• The second Anglo-Boer war lasted from 1899 to
  1902.
• The British won and officially established the
  Union of South Africa in 1910.

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Cry, the Beloved Country

• Cry, the Beloved Country takes place after these
  upheavals and immediately before the
  implementation of apartheid (in 1948).
• During this time, black workers were permitted to
  hold only unskilled jobs and were subject to
  pass laws that restricted their freedom of
  movement.

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CBC

• In 1913, the Natives Land Act radically limited
  the amount of land that black South Africans were
  permitted to own.
• As the character Arthur Jarvis states in the
  novel, just one-tenth of the land was set aside
  for four-fifths of the countrys people.

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CBC

• This led to massive overcrowding.
• Because of this, many black South Africans moved
  to Johannesburg to work in the mines.
• Those in power welcomed all the cheap labor that
  was coming into town, but they didnt build
  sufficient housing for all of them.

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CBC

• These are the circumstances under which the
  character Stephen Kumalo leaves his impoverished
  rural village to search for his son in
  Johannesburg.

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CBC

• Though Patons novel helped raise the social
  consciousness of white South Africa, things got
  much worse before they got better.
• In 1948, the National Party introduced apartheid.

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Themes

• Cry, the Beloved Country is set in this tense and
  fragile society, where the breathtaking beauty of
  the nations natural landscape is tainted by the
  fears of the people.
• And yet, the message of the novel is one of hope.

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Themes, cont.

• Characters such as Stephen Kumalo, James Jarvis,
  and Theophilus Msimangu reveal a potential for
  goodness in humankind.
• They are able to defuse hatred, overcome fear,
  and take the first steps necessary for mending a
  broken nation.

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While Reading

• Track character relationships. Pay attention to
  the bond between the characters and the emotions
  generated.
• Note conflicts.
• Follow the money/wealth politics.