Discuss the major problem facing the native population in South Africa.

Paton’s novel is primarily concerned with the tragedy that has afflicted South Africa: the exploitation of the blacks by whites and the consequence of the loss of an entire way of life. The cries of South Africa are delivered to the readers. These cries are based on the discrimination due to the difference in colour.

First of all, racial discrimination is apparent in the novel through the unfair distribution of the land. The lush grass of the hills clings to the rain and mist which makes it green and fruitful, “for the ground is holy, being just as it came from God.” Paton describes the land as sacred, as something to live upon and look after, believing that it will always support its residents. Similarly, traditions deserve respect, and without traditions and land, man’s sense of belonging disappears.

        On the other hand, blacks live in the damaged, neglected valleys, at the bottom of the superior white hills which “fall to the valley below and falling changes their nature.” There is a great difference between both farms and lands.  The blacks live where the land is “tough and sharp”, beside the “red hills” that stand empty. “The great red hills” is symbolic; the land is read and when it is washed into the rivers due to erosion, it colours the rivers, symbolizing the suffering of the people because of the unfair human rights and distribution of land. “The earth has torn away like flesh” as if the land was one great wound and Africa bleeds because of injustice and discrimination.

        The landscape is the mirror image if the South African society, devastated but with the hope of being unified. This is one of Africa’s fairest valleys but when the land and the people are not able to co-exist, when the equally born blacks and whites are not able to respect each other, that beauty is disrupted. All the whites have taken the most profitable farm from the blacks; there is a sharp contrast between the whites' lush hills and the blacks’ barren fields. This contrast highlights the two opposing worlds in the novel and stresses the co-existence of the 2 South Africas.

        As a result of the unfair distribution of land and the breaking of the tribal society occurs, in addition to the breaking of families and loss of traditions and identities. The people of the land are losing their traditions and identity, and their society is falling into despair. Their “own world is slipping away, dying, being destroyed, beyond any recall.” Young men and women are moving out of town to look for opportunities in other places – usually Johannesburg due to the city’s temptations. “When people go to Johannesburg, they don’t come back.” For example, Kumalo’s family is disintegrated because most of his close relatives went to Johannesburg. His sister, Gertrude and her child, his brother John, and his son Absalom, all went and never came back.

Due to the disintegration of Kumalo’s family, he is trying to bring his family back together and have some hope. There can be no tribal unit until the basic family unit is restored.

“Cry, the Beloved Country” had a certain purpose which is to awaken the population of South Africa to the racism that is slowly disintegrating the society and its people. Alan Paton designed his work to express his views on the injustices and racial hatred that plagued South Africa, in an attempt to bring about change and understanding.

By: Laila Sherif 7B