866 Paton, Alan
crime. He writes, “The old tribal system was, for
all its violence and savagery, for all its superstition
and witchcraft, a moral system. Our natives today
produce criminals and prostitutes and drunkards,
not because it is their nature to do so, but because
their simple system of order and tradition . . . has
been destroyed.” Clearly, Jarvis finds blame not in a
native tendency toward crime but, rather, as a violent
reaction to the colonial system that has ravaged the
country’s traditional tribal structure. It is Jarvis’s
support of the natives and their economic struggle
that makes his murder, to white South Africans,
even more despicable. The sadness and ultimately
the irony of the situation is that Jarvis’s support and
theories seem to go unanswered, both by the whites
in power and the natives in poverty.
Jarvis, however, is not the only politician and
activist in the novel who focuses primarily on race.
John Kumalo, brother of Stephen, is a powerful
figure in the black politics of the time. He is known
as an explosive and charismatic speaker who desires
social and economic change for his struggling breth-
ren. His primary concern involving race is the eco-
nomic inequality that faces black South Africans. In
a vivid speech, he says, “Go to our hospitals . . . and
see our people lying on the floors. They lie so close
you cannot step over them. But it is they who dig the
gold. For three schillings a day . . . And when gold is
not found it is we who get more labour.” For Kum-
alo, the racial struggle is most aptly demonstrated in
the workplace, where scores of men, young and old,
toil in the white-owned mines for a paltry salary.
The whites provide the land and means of mining,
and the blacks are forced to do the hard labor. This
system has caused a huge gap between the wealthy
and the working class, resulting in a rich white elite
and a poor black majority. The irony, of course, is
that while John appears to be a selfless worker for
the people, he is, in fact, incredibly selfish. When
Absalom’s murder case commences, John does not
join the fight against the injustice of the court sys-
tems or the way in which race has influenced the
media coverage. Rather, he is concerned only with
the safety and acquittal of his son, an accomplice in
the crime.
The characters of Arthur Jarvis and John Kum-
alo highlight the tension that festers between the
white and black residents of South Africa. Absa-
lom Kumalo’s crime and the bus boycott show the
importance of race in the country’s media, politics,
and workplaces. However, the book’s message is sim-
ple and clearly stated by Msimangu, who says, “I see
only one hope for our country, and it is when white
men and black men, desiring neither power nor
money, but desiring only the good of our country,
come together and work for it.” This dream scenario
is at least begun in the end of the novel, as Stephen
Kumalo and James Jarvis selflessly work together
for the good of Kumalo’s village. The intertwining
stories of Kumalo and Jarvis show that even in the
face of great tragedy, loss, and injustice, hope and
brotherhood can emerge.
Kevin FitzgeraldSuFFerInG in Cry, the Beloved Country
The opening words of each book in Alan Paton’s
Cry, the Beloved Country are identical. The passages
describe a trail up South Africa’s rolling hills and fair
valleys, into the small village of Ndotsheni, where
the landscape undergoes a drastic change. The lush
green grass and chirping birds are replaced with a
barren, dusty terrain, afflicted by drought and over-
grazing. The reader’s first glimpse of South Africa
reveals a physical landscape that is suffering, unable
to reach its full potential and beauty. The very title of
the novel, Cry, the Beloved Country, suggests a nation
that is in pain.
The suffering of South Africa itself is mir-
rored by that of its inhabitants. Stephen Kumalo,
the local priest (or umfundisi) in Ndotsheni, gazes
helplessly as his village decays. Kumalo watches the
land wither, just as he sees countless inhabitants,
including his own family, leave for the great city
of Johannesburg. This mass migration into the city
represents, to Kumalo, the breakdown of the old
tribal structure, or, more important, the erosion of
the familial relationships that were the hallmarks of
the town. And worst of all for the umfundisi, when
people leave for Johannesburg, they do not write.
Kumalo’s sister, brother, and son all left for the city,
and each stopped writing home.
One day, however, Kumalo receives a letter from
Johannesburg regarding his sister. It is from a fellow
priest who urges the umfundisi to travel to the city