Cry Freedom

Last night we rented the movie Cry Freedom, based on the story of Steve Biko, founder of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa during apartheid and who died a suspicious death in the hands of the Afrikaan police. I found the dialogue in this film provocative as it concentrated on language to convey the struggle of the black people in South Africa (or anywhere colonialism existed) against their foreign oppressors. During the film Steve Biko asks the white reporter Donald Wood, who becomes his comrade in the struggle, whether or not he has black domestic workers. This question comes moments after we have given our Rwandan house guard a cup of coffee and a monthly salary that is the equivalent of four meals, six taxi rides to work, or one of the “antique” masks I bought in the market.

We were yet again reminded of the privilege our birthplace has provided when going to the bank this morning. Each time we enter the bank we pass a guard with a scanner (for weapons)….we pass the guard….all of the local people, men, women, and children are stopped and their bodies scanned. This morning I wanted to stop directly in front of the guard and force him conduct the same service me…but of course I didn’t…how far have we really come?


"Apartheid — both petty and grand — is obviously evil. Nothing can justify the arrogant assumption that a clique of foreigners has the right to decide on the lives of a majority" — Woods.