A FIlm Study on Cry Freedom
Question 1.
The film ‘Cry Freedom’ is set in the late 1970s, during the apartheid era. At this time, Mandela and the other leaders of the ANC and PAC had been arrested and imprisoned. Steve Biko was moving forward with Black Consciousness, and had already been banned by the government in 1973. This prevented him from being in the same room with more than one other person among other things like prohibiting teaching and making public addresses. Other things that were happening were that blacks were making illegal townships near cities so that they could be closer to the city, and therefore get more job opportunities and work. A significant movement was the Black Consciousness movement. This movement was all about being proud of your heritage and not thinking that you are inferior to the white man. During this time, police brutality towards blacks was quite common. In the first scene, we can see the police storming the illegal township and hitting unarmed people, storming houses and then beating those blacks, as well as raping women in the town. Then the government covered up the story by saying that the blacks were not harmed and some even handed themselves in.
One other significant movement in the 1970s was the Durban movement. This movement also included a critique of structural Marxism. Marxism had to be reformed to accommodate human agency. These developments were connected with the working class. Another significant characteristic that defined the Durban movement was their policy of non-violence, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. Examples of such non-violence were workers simply folding their arms and refusing to work. January 1973 marked the beginning of such strikes, when 1200 night watchmen refused to work and demanded a pay raise. On January 10, another group of workers from A.J. Keeler Transport Company started a strike and demanded better pay. Such strike were very effective as the companies needed the blacks because if they hired white workers, they would
The film ‘Cry Freedom’ is set in the late 1970s, during the apartheid era. At this time, Mandela and the other leaders of the ANC and PAC had been arrested and imprisoned. Steve Biko was moving forward with Black Consciousness, and had already been banned by the government in 1973. This prevented him from being in the same room with more than one other person among other things like prohibiting teaching and making public addresses. Other things that were happening were that blacks were making illegal townships near cities so that they could be closer to the city, and therefore get more job opportunities and work. A significant movement was the Black Consciousness movement. This movement was all about being proud of your heritage and not thinking that you are inferior to the white man. During this time, police brutality towards blacks was quite common. In the first scene, we can see the police storming the illegal township and hitting unarmed people, storming houses and then beating those blacks, as well as raping women in the town. Then the government covered up the story by saying that the blacks were not harmed and some even handed themselves in.
One other significant movement in the 1970s was the Durban movement. This movement also included a critique of structural Marxism. Marxism had to be reformed to accommodate human agency. These developments were connected with the working class. Another significant characteristic that defined the Durban movement was their policy of non-violence, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. Examples of such non-violence were workers simply folding their arms and refusing to work. January 1973 marked the beginning of such strikes, when 1200 night watchmen refused to work and demanded a pay raise. On January 10, another group of workers from A.J. Keeler Transport Company started a strike and demanded better pay. Such strike were very effective as the companies needed the blacks because if they hired white workers, they would