Part Two

1. Part Two Background Information ENTER

2. Background Information Contents • Author • His Works • Apartheid

3. Author Alan Paton (1903-1988) “I do not like to mention itBut there is a voice I cannot silence.” —Paton Paton, craggy old liberal, hater of and hated by apartheid, loved and unloved by the ANC, famous for Cry, the Beloved Country. To be continued on the next page.

4. Author Alan Paton was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. He started his career by teaching  at a school in Ixopo. The dramatic career change to director of a reformatory for black youths at Diepkloof, near Johannesburg, had a profound effect on his thinking. The publication of Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) made him one of South Africa’s best known writers, and by the time he died, it had sold over 15 million copies. Following his non-racial ideals, he helped to found the South African Liberal Party and became its president. The end of Author.

5. His Works Cry, the Beloved CountryPerhaps the most famous novel to come out of South Africa, Paton’s 1948 work brought to the notice of the world the dilemmas of ordinary South Africans living under an oppressive system, one which threatened to destroy their very humanity. Informed by Paton’s Christian and liberal beliefs, the novel tells of a rural Zulu parson’s heart-breaking search for his son, who has been drawn into the criminal underworld of the city. Cry, the Beloved Country has sold millions of copies around the world. To be continued on the next page.

6. His Works “Cry, the Beloved Country, —universal, liberal, reforming. Reads like an aloe in the cool morning, reads like the taste of soap in your mouth. His poetry, to my mind, is a truer voice. No breathtaking, romantic landscape: nature, particularly plants and sunlight, forms a spiritual cipher. There is a sense of individual tragedy as history catches up with itself. There is passion and tenderness. There is political comment, but also a flickering uncertainty absent from the mountainous liberalism of the novels.” —An anonymous comment To be continued on the next page.

7. His Works “Cry, the Beloved Country, however, is also a monument to the future. One of South Africa’s leading humanists, Alan Paton, vividly captured his eloquent faith in the essential goodness of people in his epic work.” —Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa To be continued on the next page.

8. II. His Works 1953. Too Late the Phalarope 1961. Debbie, Go Home 1968. Instrument of Thy Peace 1973. Apartheid and the Archbishop: the life and times of Geoffrey Clayton, Archbishop of Cape Town 1975. Knocking at the door 1980. Towards the Mountain 1981. Ah, but your land is beautiful 1986. Diepkloof: reflections of Diepkloof Reformatory 1988. Journey Continued 1995. Songs of Africa: collected poems The end of His Works.

9. III. Apartheid South Africa was colonized by the English and Dutch in the 17th century. English domination of the Dutch descendents (known as Boers or Afrikaners) resulted in the Dutch establishing the new colonies of Orange Free State and Transvaal. The discovery of diamonds in these lands around 1900 resulted in an English invasion which sparked the Boer War. Following independence from England, an uneasy power-sharing between the two groups held sway until the 1940’s, when the To be continued on the next page.

10. III. Apartheid Afrikaner National Party was able to gain a strong majority. Strategists in the National Party invented apartheid as a means to cement their control over the economic and social system. Initially, aim of the apartheid was to maintain white domination while extending racial separation. Starting in the 1960s, a plan of “Grand Apartheid” was executed, emphasizing territorial separation and police repression. To be continued on the next page.

11. III. Apartheid With the enactment of apartheid laws in 1948, racial discrimination was institutionalized. Race laws touched every aspect of social life, including a prohibition of marriage between non-whites and whites, and the sanctioning of “white-only” jobs. In 1950, the Population Registration Act required that all South Africans be racially classified into one of three categories: white, black (African), or colored (of mixed decent). The coloured category included To be continued on the next page.

12. III. Apartheid major subgroups of Indians and Asians. Classification into these categories was based on appearance, social acceptance, and descent. Non-compliance with the race laws were dealt with harshly. All blacks were required to carry “pass books” containing fingerprints, photo and information on access to non-black areas. In 1953, the Public Safety Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act were passed, which empowered the government to declare stringent states of To be continued on the next page.

13. III. Apartheid emergency and increased penalties for protesting against or supporting the repeal of a law. The penalties included fines, imprisonment and whippings. In 1960, a large group of blacks in Sharpeville refused to carry their passes; the government declared a state of emergency. The emergency lasted for 156 days, leaving 69 people dead and 187 people wounded. Wielding the Public Safety Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act, To be continued on the next page.

14. III. Apartheid the white regime had no intention of changing the unjust laws of apartheid. The penalties imposed on political protest, even non-violent protest, were severe. During the states of emergency which continued intermittently until 1989, anyone could be detained without a hearing by a low-level police official for up to six months. Thousands of individuals died in custody, frequently after gruesome acts of torture. Those who were To be continued on the next page.

15. III. Apartheid triedwere sentenced to death, banished, or imprisoned for life, like Nelson Mandela. The apartheid policy was highly effective of achieving its goal of preferential treatment for whites, as is demonstrated by the statistics in Figure 1. To be continued on the next page.

16. III. Apartheid The end of Apartheid.

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