August 18 2020

Cry, the Beloved Country (1946)

By Alan Paton

As a college freshman I saw "Lost in the Stars", the musical based on Cry, the Beloved Country, and the mournful cries of "Absolom, my son, my son..." still haunt me.  Now, half a century later, I have finally read this classic story of the lives of black nationals in Apartheid era South Africa.

Stephen Kumalo, an aging Anglican priest, serves an impoverished "native" African community in the Ndotsheni valley of South Africa.  Their only child, Absalom, had gone to Johannesburg to visit his cousin, but has not been heard from in ages.  As the story opens, Stephen is heading out to track down their son as well as Stephen's missing sister Gertrude.  He travels by train, bringing along his meager savings to finance the trip.  Stephen meets the kindly Rev Msimangu, with whom he has corresponded.  Msimangu helps him finds lodgings and they manage to locate Gertrude who, like a prodigal daughter, has been living off the sale of liquor and sleeping around.  Once Stephen brings Gertrude and her son to board with him, he and Msimangu start searching for Absalom, who seems to always be a step ahead, the men just missing him as he moves around the city.  Eventually, the mean learn that Absalom had been a student in a reformatory, but was released on good behavior and to support his pregnant girlfriend.  Meanwhile, Stephen is alarmed to hear that a prominent white civil rights activist has just been shot by a native.  His worst fears are then realized when he finally catches up with Absalom, who has confessed to the crime.  Stephen's sorrow and his dignity are heart-wrenching and, although Absalom is condemned to die, Stephen's life and the future of his village will become richly entwined with that of the dead man's family. 

This is a tender story of life for native South Africans under apartheid, a policy that would endure for nearly another 50 years.  As Rev Msimangu observes, "I see only one hope for our country, and that is when white men and black men, desiring neither power nor money, but desiring only the good of their country, come together to work for it." (p 71)