South Africa Extra Credit

Extra Credit Books and Movies for South Africa

Books

Cry, the Beloved Country - Alan Paton

Cry, the Beloved Country is a beautifully told and profoundly compassionate story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set in the troubled and changing South Africa of the 1940s. The book is written with such keen empathy and understanding that to read it is to share fully in the gravity of the characters' situations. It both touches your heart deeply and inspires a renewed faith in the dignity of mankind. Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic tale, passionately African, timeless and universal, and beyond all, selfless.

A Dry White Season - Andre Brink

André Brink's novel, A Dry White Season, is a captivating, yet realistic tale about the unfair treatment of blacks in Johannesburg, South Africa. I found it to be an excellent read because of how Brink is in touch with reality. He has his readers ponder a true-to-life question, an ongoing question about racism. Ben Du Toit, the protagonist, finds the deaths of his African-American friend, Gordon Ngubene, and Gordon's son, Jonathan, to be unusual. Both deaths appeared to be caused and covered up by the government. Ben spends his entire life in hopes of uncovering the truth behind these two mysterious deaths. Were they treated unjustly because they were black? This is the question that Ben solves throughout the novel and unfortunately, his quest draws him away from his family and friends. In the end, Ben, living in complete isolation and sadness, discovers that his country is unfair. He triumphs, however, because he is no longer ignorant of his country's behavior. This novel relates to us because we are well aware of racism and injustice. It is very true that Ben's family would leave him if he did not spend time with them. Brink did not falsify the truth with a happy ending but instead allowed the reader to feel Ben's loneliness.

Kaffir Boy - Mark Mathabane

Mark Mathabane was weaned on devastating poverty and schooled in the cruel streets of South Africa's most desperate ghetto, where bloody gang wars and midnight police raids were his rites of passage. Like every other child born in the hopelessness of apartheid, he learned to measure his life in days, not years. Yet Mark Mathabane, armed only with the courage of his family and a hard-won education, raised himself up from the squalor and humiliation to win a scholarship to an American university.

This extraordinary memoir of life under apartheid is a triumph of the human spirit over hatred and unspeakable degradation. For Mark Mathabane did what no physically and psychologically battered "Kaffir" from the rat-infested alleys of Alexandra was supposed to do -- he escaped to tell about it.

Burger’s Daughter - Nadine Gordimer

Rosa Burger grew up in a home under constant surveillance by the South African government. Her parents were detained for their political beliefs; her father died in prison, and her mother, whose health suffered from her time in jail, eventually dies. Rosa, a white South African in her early twenties, is left the only surviving member of her family. Yet even after her parents' deaths, the history of their anti-apartheid beliefs and practices have a daily impact on her life: it seems everyone has expectations of her and the government is still watching. A quiet, private person, Rosa constantly searches her memories to find herself, to grasp this heritage that weighs her down. Over a period of several years Rosa comes to understand the impact of the South African political climate on her and how she became who she is. Take time to read this novel; the political realities it describes are complicated. The narrative style varies from straightforward storytelling to Rosa's most personal thoughts. In Burger's Daughter, Nobel Prize-winner Nadine Gordimer takes a situation most read about in newspapers and makes it real, creating a memorable story of coming to terms with circumstances over which we have little control, yet which directly affect our lives.

You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town - Zoe Wicomb

Zoë Wicomb’s complex and deeply evocative fiction is among the most distinguished recent works of South African women’s literature. It is also among the only works of fiction to explore the experience of “Coloured” citizens in apartheid-era South Africa, whose mixed heritage traps them, as Bharati Mukherjee wrote in the New York Times, "in the racial crucible of their country."

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight : An African Childhood- Alexandra Fuller

In Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller remembers her African childhood with candor and sensitivity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it is suffused with Fuller’s endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate. Fuller’s debut is unsentimental and unflinching but always captivating. In wry and sometimes hilarious prose, she stares down disaster and looks back with rage and love at the life of an extraordinary family in an extraordinary time.

Movies (Check with your parents, many are rated R)

Cry, the Beloved Country

This moving 1995 adaptation of Alan Paton's celebrated novel stars James Earl Jones as a beloved, rural minister in South Africa who makes his first trip to Johannesburg in search of his son. The latter's destiny has been linked with that of a doomed, young white man, whose racist father (Richard Harris) is approached by Jones's character in the spirit of mutual understanding. Directed by Darrell James Roodt (Sarafina!), the film is most powerful in those scenes featuring Harris and Jones together, though early sequences grounded in the hard life and times of Jones's community are colorful and dramatic. It's impossible not to be touched by the cautious but real connection made between the principal characters and by the moral authenticity of the actors.

A World Apart

This true story reveals the world of apartheid South Africa through the eyes of the daughter of prominent anti-apartheid activists. The film's power lies in its understatement and attention to period detail. If you want to get an authentic look at what South Africa was like in that period, on both sides of the fence, this is the film to watch. It's a touching family story, too.

Sarafina

Academy Award-winning star Whoopi Goldberg ) lights up the screen in her latest hit -- the exhilarating and entertaining SARAFINA! In a world where truth is forbidden, an inspiring teacher dares to instill in her students lessons not found in schoolbooks. In doing so, she challenges their freedom and hers. Applauded by critics and audiences everywhere, this upbeat and powerful story promises to stir your emotions and make your spirits soar!


A Dry White Season

A movie about the Soweto uprising in 1976.

Bopha

In his directorial debut, actor Morgan Freeman cast a knowing eye on the ways the racist apartheid movement in South Africa--now demolished--divided South African blacks even from each other in this story of a black policeman. Danny Glover plays the cop, who believes he's trying to help his people, even while serving as a pawn of the racist government. When his son gets involved in the antiapartheid movement, he finds himself torn between his family (including long-suffering wife Alfre Woodard) and what he believes is his duty. A sorrowful, anger-tinged film featuring a complex performance by the marvelous Glover, who seems to come apart at the seams before your very eyes

Cry Freedom

When I saw this movie I knew next to nothing about South Africa, and I'd never heard of Steven Biko. After I'd seen the movie I wanted to know anything and everything about apartheid generally and Steven Biko in particular. One of the most disturbing parts of the film came at the very end when the names of those who died from "falling" scrolled by on the screen. That list seemed to be unending, and it was difficult to shake off the feelings the film left with me when the last name appeared on the screen. It doesn't seem right to label this film as good entertainment when the subject is about something so grim, but the movie rates 5 stars because of the actors' performances and because of the conversation it is bound to generate with those who see it.


Mandela

A vibrantly presented and emotionally charged portrait of the dynamic African leader, this needed tighter narration to close informational gaps. For instance, there is very little mention of F.W. de Klerk, although as the corecipient of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize (along with Nelson Mandela), he most certainly figured greatly in the peaceful passing of the political baton. It may leave you with a few questions but otherwise captures Mandela's remarkable spirit. It follows him from his early days and tribal education through his work with the African National Congress to his election as Africa's first black president. Produced by Jonathan Demme, this wisely includes poetry of Africa, as much a part of Mandela's story as his own inner strength. Nominated for 1997 Academy Award for Best Documentary.