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faintgirl 's review for:
Cry, the Beloved Country
by Alan Paton
I feel really conflicted about Cry, The Beloved Country. It's an astonishingly powerful description of the divide between black and white in South Africa immediately prior to the establishment of apartheid. It follows a single priest as he leaves his rural community to go and find his relatives in Johannesburg, and ultimately meets with a lot of sadness and a little light. I feel conflicted about the role of the Christian church in the novel, which is generally depicted as a force for good, versus the arrival of the white man, which is generally (and quite rightly, of course) seen as a force for the bad. The discussions of breaking the tribe, and the inability of the white man to fix what he broke includes and incredible discussion on the failings of the white savior, and the complex ideas handled with such flair are exceptional.
But how can the church be extricated from the white man? Can people be brought out of darkness into the church, and that action separated from breaking the tribe? Are they not honestly one and the same, both bearing responsibility? I can't claim to be any kind of expert on South African history, so maybe that's not the case. But it just didn't feel right.
But how can the church be extricated from the white man? Can people be brought out of darkness into the church, and that action separated from breaking the tribe? Are they not honestly one and the same, both bearing responsibility? I can't claim to be any kind of expert on South African history, so maybe that's not the case. But it just didn't feel right.