Cry The Beloved Country By Alan Paton

A Book Review

Cry The Beloved Country is a book by Alan Paton. It is an old bestseller. Written in 1948, it is based on the situation in South Africa under apartheid. The book sold so well that the author said he had no need to ever worry about money. It sold for the right reasons.

Cry The Beloved Country is a soul-searching book that picks issues in society and gives heart to them. In several passages, the author describes people as persons with hearts. He puts a heart to capitalism, puts a heart to society, puts a heart to crime, puts a heart to infrastructural development, and puts a heart to human relations. The book is an emotional roller coaster.
The story begins with Stephen Kumalo heading to the city to find his son. After so much struggle and travel, he did find the son, behind bars. He was facing a murder trial, he had shot a prominent activist, Mr. Jarvis. Mr. Jarvis is a white man who is deeply involved in advocating for the cause of the downtrodden. The murder was a mistake that result from a robbery attack organized by Kumalo’s son and two of his friends. In the trial that ensued, the two denied any involvement and were discharged. Only Kumalo’s son is found guilty. The story ends on the day Kumalo’s son is to be hanged.
The crux of the book is the relationship that grows between Kumalo and Jarvis (Snr). It was Kumalo’s son that killed Jarvis (Jnr), the son of Jarvis (Snr), yet these two men moved beyond their pain and were involved in community efforts that were supposed to better Ndotsheni, the community Kumalo hails from. It began with the simple gesture of milk, then moved to new farming techniques including a new teacher and then to building a new church.

All through the book, I had hoped that somehow the son will find mercy and will not be killed. I was disappointed when I realized he is not saved. But again, this is the perfect reminder of what life really is. Sometimes, mercy, like justice or fairness is difficult to obtain. If I could ask for the killer to find mercy, why couldn’t I ask that the victim not be killed in the first place? We are in a messed-up world, my friend.

The book offers some important insight into the problems society faced during apartheid, and human lives in general. The wisdom shared should have saved South Africa, if it was applied in those years. Tragically, South Africa had to wait until the last decade of the 20th Century.

The touring message of the book is the Christianity in it. Christianity gives Stephen Kumalo hope and resilience to face the tough times he had to face like a loving father. He loved his son to the very end, yet the child chose a very different path. And Kumalo and Jarvis Snr could only have found a common ground to build something within the Christian framework. Christianity says, and I believe it, that despite the mess in this world, there is hope for some redemption here and then a permanent eternal redemption beyond here. Christianity says that despite the problems in our world, we can be salt and light of the world. Our light can shine brightly and reach to the very hate and ugliness that lurks in our hearts. Christianity holds out the olive branch, proclaiming from the rooftop that “Let’s give peace a chance”. South Africa described in Cry The Beloved Country is a country with so many problems, problems that several people were trying to resolve. In today’s world, with so many problems, the message of Cry The Beloved Country is relevant.

A favorite statement of Stephen Kumalo is “I am just a selfish man whom God has touched”. May that be the truth and reality of each and every one of us! I hope to be a selfish man whom God has touched, for that is the only way to truly change the world.

This is an old book that several others have read before now, I am ashamed that I arrived at the party late, forgive me. I am even more ashamed that I had to be forced.

FAVORITE QUOTES

“The humble man reached in his pocket for his sacred book, and began to read. It was this world alone that was certain.”

“The peace of God escapes us.”

“–God forgives us, he says. Who am I not to forgive? Let us pray.”

“But there is only one thing that has power completely, and that is love. Because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power. 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.”

“ALL ROADS LEAD to Johannesburg. If you are white or if you are black they lead to Johannesburg. If the crops fail, there is work in Johannesburg. If there are taxes to be paid, there is work in Johannesburg. If the farm is too small to be divided further, some must go to Johannesburg. If there is a child to be born that must be delivered in secret, it can be delivered in Johannesburg.”

“Such is the lot of women, to carry, to bear, to watch, and to lose.”

“–There is no prayer left in me. I am dumb here inside. I have no words at all.”

“There are times, no doubt, when God seems no more to be about the world.
–The world is full of trouble, she said.”

“He would go back with a new and quickened interest in the school, not as a place where children learned to read and write and count only, but as a place where they must be prepared for life in any place to which they might go. Oh for education for his people, for schools up and down the land, where something might be built that would serve them when they went away to the towns, something that would take the place of the tribal law and custom. For a moment he was caught up in a vision, as man so often is when he sits in a place of ashes and destruction.”

“It is my work to reform, to help, to uplift.”

“When he turned back to look at her, she was smiling at him.”

“I didn’t know it would ever be so important to understand it.”

“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 and convention has been destroyed. It was destroyed by the impact of our own civilization. Our civilization has therefore an inescapable duty to set up another system of order and tradition and convention.”

“KUMALO BEGAN TO pray regularly in his church for the restoration of Ndotsheni. But he knew that was not enough. Somewhere down here upon the earth men must come together, think something, do something.”