Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
"There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it."That is the opening line of Alan Paton's powerful novel about race relations in South Africa - Cry, The Beloved Country. I'll post the rest of that paragraph a little later on, because it's certainly worth reading, filled with lyrical--poetic beauty.
Cry, The Beloved Country is one of my favorite books, which means it is rarely in my possession, because I am constantly loaning it out to anyone and everyone I can convince to read it. There is a girl in our youth group who plans one day to be a missionary in South Africa, so I want her to read it. Only...I couldn't remember who I had last loaned it to.
Then a week ago I got a call from a friend I hadn't talked to in about a year, and he said, "I have some stuff that belongs to you..."
Ah ha! "Do you have Cry, The Beloved Country, by any chance?" I asked.
He admitted that he did. So last week I got it back, and (of course) decided I needed to re-read it before loaning it out to yet another person.
It is a book that moves me, no matter how many times I read it. It is the story of an elderly Zulu priest named Stephen Kumalo who leaves his small village of Ndotsheni to go to the big (and terrifying) city of Johannesburg in search of his sister, his brother, and his son, all of whom have left their little village for the big city.
Kumalo comes too late for his son, who has committed a terrible crime - he has murdered a white man in his own home. Even worse, the man murdered is the son of the man who lives just above Kumalo's village; a man who Kumalo sees from time to time, riding past the village.
One of the saddest scenes in the book is when Kumalo comes face to face unexpectedly with Jarvis (the murdered man's father) and has to explain to him that it is his son Absolom who has killed Jarvis' son Arthur. In Kumalo's words, "this thing that is the heaviest thing of all my years, is the heaviest thing of all your years."
The book goes on to explore the possibility of a friendship of sorts developing between these two very different men - even though such a friendship would not be "according to the custom".
Alan Paton wrote this novel in the years just before Apartheid became law in South Africa. Thus, although the story is tragic and sad, there is still an undercurrent of hope throughout. It is a stark contrast to Too Late The Phalarope, written a few years later, with less hope and more grief.
The novel is filled with some wonderful quotations; quotations about faith, about life, and about racial discrimination. I will post just a few of my favorites here.
"We do what is in us, and why it is in us, that is also a secret. It is Christ in us, crying that men may be succoured and forgiven, even when He Himself is forsaken."
"It is not permissible to add to one's possesions if these things can only be done at the cost of other men. Such development has only one true name, and that is exploitation."
"I am a weak and sinful man, but God put His hands on me, that is all."
"I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they have turned to loving, they will find we are turned to hating."
"Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply...For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much."
And now, the opening paragraphs of the Cry, The Beloved Country...with its "hills lovely beyond any singing of it..." - Makes me want to visit this land and see these lovely hills for myself.
"There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it. The road climbs seven miles into them, to Carisbrooke; and from there, if there is no mist, you look down on one of the fairest valleys of Africa. About you there is grass and bracken and you may hear the forlorn crying of the titihoya, one of the birds of the veld. Below you is the valley of the Umzimkulu, on its journey from the Drakensberg to the sea; and beyond and behind the river, great hill after great hill; and beyond and behind them, the mountains of Ingeli and East Griqualand.
The grass is rich and matted, you cannot see the soil. It holds the rain and the mist, and they seep into the ground, feeding the streams in every kloof. It is well-tended, and not too many cattle feed upon it; not too many fires burn it, laying bare the soil. Stand unshod upon it, for the ground is holy, being even as it came from the Creator. Keep it, guard it, care for it, for it keeps men, guards men, cares for men. Destroy it and man is destroyed."
In reading this, you begin to realize, much as Alan Paton decried the racial injustices of his land, how deeply he loved that land.
Anyone who has not read this book, I highly recommend it to you. And once you have read the book, it would also be worthwhile to watch the movie, starring James Earl Jones as Stephen Kumalo (I cannot see James Earl Jones now without thinking of Stephen Kumalo) and Richard Harris as James Jarvis. The movie does a pretty good job of following the plot of the book, with a few changes here and there--especially toward the end. But still it is well done.
I still have not read Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful or Tales From A Troubled Land, but intend to read both of those; Alan Paton is definitely an author worth reading.
Posted On Jun 24, 2005 at 4:59 AM
On Jun 25, 2005 Beth wrote: *phew* I'm glad you were finally able to track it down
Doug Replied: yep. I was really mystified by where that book had gone.
On a related note, yesterday I watched "Patriot Games" (Harrison Ford movie based on Tom Clancy's novel). I had forgotten that both James Earl Jones AND Richard Harris were in it. (Jones is Admiral Greer, and Harris is the IRA guy). Harris didn't have a big part, but every time I saw him, I thouht of Jarvis from "Cry, The Beloved Country".Now I shall have to rewatch the Harry Potter movies and see if Dumbledore makes me think of Jarvis.
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