Analysis Of Cry The Beloved Country By Absalom

Cry the beloved Country, is a deep and gripping piece of work that cries out on how the many ills of social injustices influence the fears of the South African society that eventually escalates up to the institution of apartheid – the national policy of segregation and discrimination based on race. It vividly describes how the cruel influences have a three prong attack on the less fortunate, namely, the fear for three critical components of their lives, first, the fear for the crippling survival of the land itself, second, the angst-ridden fear for the very survival of the local inhabitants who struggles in a world that is slowly ceasing to be made for them and finally, the perpetual fear of the white laws that provides negligible justice to …show more content…
When Absalom was sentenced in Chapter 28, this emphasizes on how the white laws provide no justice at all to the blacks. Even though the judge explicitly recognizes that it was the social injustices that results in Absalom’s crimes, “He has dealt profoundly with the disaster that has overwhelmed our native tribal society, and has argued cogently the case of our own complicity in this disaster” (233), he still shows no leniency. The judge continues to, without a conscience, conform to the unfair racial justice system that was implemented by the Western powers, even “if the law is the law of a society that some feel to be unjust, it is the law and the society that must be changed… a Judge cannot, must not, dare not allow the existing defects of society to influence him to do anything but administer the law.” (234) Hence, even though the judge acknowledges the social injustices, the fear of the greater Western powers supporting social injustices prohibits him from exercising his judgement fairly, despite his knowledge that this is gravely influenced by a “defective society”