Cry the Beloved Country is a sad and sentimental story about the pre-apartheid racial divisions in South Africa, but it is also about how political differences and racial discrimination divide families and communities. Stephen Kumalo, a black umfundisi (parson) with Zulu ancestry, is summoned to Johannesburg by Theophilus Msimangu, his religious counterpart there, with word that his sister is ill. It turns out that Gertrude, his sister, has been in prison, is now a prostitute, and has a son. Her illness is not physical but one of the social ills prevalent among blacks in the city. During his difficult and complicated travels, he visits his brother, John Kumalo, who seems somewhat corrupted by his possessions and has become an outspoken orator who speaks out for fair labor practices for the native black people of South Africa. John is threatening to lead the black miners to strike so that the whites will realize how dependent they are on black labor.
John is instrumental in helping Stephen find his son, Absalom, who had evidently been traveling in Johannesburg with his cousin, John’s son, and another man. Stephen finds that Absalom has impregnated a young Zulu girl and hasn’t been seen for a while. In addition to wanting to see his son after a lengthy estrangement, Stephen becomes determined to ensure that his son marries his child’s mother and adheres to basic moral precepts that are important to his family’s honor. Soon after meeting the young girl, Stephen hears that his son Absalom has been accused of killing Arthur Jarvis, a white man who fights for racial equality. When Stephen visits him in jail, his son freely admits to the killing but says that he didn’t expect the man to be home when he and his two companions broke into the home with a loaded pistol. Absalom shot Arthur because he feared him and his whiteness. This excuse for murder sets up an important theme of the story: fear of other people, xenophobia. This theme plays out along with regret and remorse themes among the characters, who represent the greater sadness, desolation, and tears of the country and its divisions. Absalom continually cries about his criminal activity, and his tears are symbolic of the crying for the country to which the book’s title refers.
It is no surprise that Absalom is convicted of murder. Yet, unexpected relationships form as a white priest finds him a lawyer and helps him get married while in jail, allowing Stephen access to the unborn grandchild. Although Stephen is overcome with shame for his son and his actions, Jarvis’s father experiences similar angst when he recognizes that his son understood the injustices of racial inequity and he did not. There are also some pleasant outcomes after Stephen returns to his home in Ndotsheni. The book ends on a hopeful note that leaves the reader believing that the South Africans can develop understandings across racial barriers.
