Corrupted South Africa

Corrupted South Africa

According to Dictionary.com prominent means “standing out as so to be seen easily”. Alan Paton’s Cry, The Beloved Country is full of themes however the most prominent theme is how inequality and injustice brings about an even bigger problem.

            Stephen Kumalo is a priest that lives in Ndotsheni of South Africa. One day Kumalo recieves letter from someone named Msimangu. The letter says Kumalo’s sister is sick. Right away Kumalo prepares to leave Ndotsheni and travel to Johannesburg where his sister currently lives. While there, kumalo also seeks to find out why his John Kumalo, his brother, does not send letters to him anymore and the where his son, Absolam Kumal, is. Kumalo finds that his sister has become a prostitute and his son has murdered a white man. Kumalo’s brother has also lost faith in the church. In Cry, The Beloved Country, John supports his claim by saying, “A man must be faithful and meek and obedient, and he must obey the laws, whatever the laws may be”…But this they have been doing for fifty years, and things get worst, not better.”

In Cry, The Beloved Country John argues, “Go to our hospital, he said, and see our people lying on the floors…But it is they who dig the gold. For three shillings a day.” John also describes, “‘when new gold is found, it is not we who will get more for our labour.’” This addresses inequality and injustice since the land in South Africa is mostly own by whites and the gold found in the mines is given to the whites, the blacks are forced to steal and terrorize natives to survive. This destroys any sympathy that the whites may have felt and adds more to the reason to why the government should not end the apartheid.

Stephen Kumalo’s own brother also becomes corrupt when he tries to hire a lawyer to prove the other two men were not with Absolam when he fired the shot at the white man. John deviously says, “‘You see, my brother, there is no proof that my son or this other young man was there at all…Who will believe your son?’” John clearly knows that his son and the other young man were with Absolam. For that reason Stephen Kumalo also hires a lawyer. He does not feel like he can trust John anymore.

In conclusion, the most prominent theme in Cry, The Beloved Country is native crimes. The whites want more separation from the blacks after native crimes erupts like an active volcano. The whites and the blacks have to settle their differences to bring about equality and equal prosperity.