Progression One: Defining Black Consciousness
Cry Freedom
The Film Cry Freedom is highly problematic. I show it to you in this class just to provide a visual context of apartheid South Africa. I also have one of the only films written specifically about Steve Biko entitled, Biko: The Spirit Lives. If you would like to watch this, I can provide you with a private link.
A Review of Cry Freedom From Roger Ebert:
Cry Freedom" begins with the story of a friendship between a white liberal South African editor and an idealistic young black leader who later dies at the hands of the South African police. But the black leader is dead and buried by the movie's halfway point, and the rest of the story centers on the editor's desire to escape South Africa and publish a book. You know there is something wrong with the premise of this movie when you see that the actress who plays the editor's wife is billed above the actor who plays the black leader. This movie promises to be an honest account of the turmoil in South Africa but turns into a routine cliff-hanger about the editor's flight across the border. It's sort of a liberal yuppie version of that Disney movie where the brave East German family builds a hot-air balloon and floats to freedom. The problem with this movie is similar to the dilemma in South Africa: Whites occupy the foreground and establish the terms of the discussion, while the 80 percent non-white majority remains a shadowy, half-seen presence in the background.
Yet "Cry Freedom" is a sincere and valuable movie, and despite my fundamental reservations about it, I think it probably should be seen. Although everybody has heard about apartheid and South Africa remains a favorite subject of campus protest, few people have an accurate mental picture of what the country actually looks and feels like. It is an issue, not a place, and "Cry Freedom" helps to visualize it. The movie was mostly shot across the border in Zimbabwe, the former nation of Southern Rhodesia, which serves as an adequate stand-in. We see the manicured lawns of the whites, who seem to live in country club suburbs, and the jerry-built "townships" of the blacks, and we sense the institutional racism of a system where black maids call their employers "master" and even white liberals accept that without a blink.
The film begins with the stories of Donald Woods, editor of the East London (South Africa) Daily Dispatch, and Steve Biko, a young black leader who has founded a school and a clinic for his people and continues to hold out hope that blacks and whites can work together to change South Africa. In the more naive days of the 1960s and 1970s, his politics are seen as "black supremecy," and Woods writes sanctimonious editorials describing Biko as a black racist. Through an emissary, Biko arranges to meet Woods. Eventually the two men become friends, and Woods sees black life in South Africa at first hand, something few white South Africans have done. (Although how many white Chicagoans, for that matter, know their way around the South Side?)
Although Biko is played with quiet power by Denzel Washington, he is seen primarily through the eyes of Woods (Kevin Kline). There aren't many scenes in which we see Biko without Woods, and fewer still in which his friendship with Woods isn't the underlying subject of the scene. No real attempt is made to show daily life in Biko's world, although we move into the Woods home, meet his wife, children, maid and dog, and share his daily routine, there is no similar attempt to portray Biko's daily reality.
There is a reason for that. "Cry Freedom" is not about Biko. It is Woods' story from beginning to end, describing how he met Biko, how his thinking was changed by the man, how he witnessed black life at first hand (by patronizing a black speakeasy in a township and having a few drinks), and how, after he was placed under house arrest by the South Africa government, he engineered his escape from South Africa. The story has a happy ending: Woods and his family made it safely to England, where he was able to publish two books about his experience. (The bad news is that Biko was killed.)
For the first half of this movie, I was able to suspend judgment. Interesting things were happening, the performances were good and it is always absorbing to see how other people live. Most of the second half of the movie, alas, is taken up with routine clock-and-dagger stuff, including Woods' masquerade as a Catholic priest, his phony passport and his attempt to fool South African border officials. These scenes could have been recycled out of any thriller from any country in any time, right down to the ominous long shots of the men patroling the border bridge and the tense moment when the guard's eyes flick up and down from the passport photo. "Cry Freedom" is not really a story of today's South Africa, and it is not really the story of a black leader who tried to change it. Like "All the President's Men," it's essentially the story of heroic, glamorous journalism. Remember that Kirk Douglas movie, "The Big Carnival," where the man was trapped in the cave and Douglas played the ambitious reporter who prolonged the man's imprisonment so that he could make his reputation by covering the story? I'm not saying the Woods story is a parallel. But somehow the comparison did arise in my mind.
Cry Freedom Post-viewing questions
1. Who was Steve Biko?
2. Describe, in detail, some of the main ideas that Steve Biko put forward in his philosophy of Black Consciousness?
3. Why were these ideas so important to Black people in South Africa?
4. Why did the apartheid government prey on him and eventually kill him?
5. Why was Black Consciousness interpreted as hatred by the apartheid regime?
6. Why was Steve Biko willing to die for his ideas?
7. What were the forms of torture and terrrorism inflicted on African people by agents of the apartheid government?
8. How were South African Whites so ignorant to the suffering of Black people in South Africa?
9. Why were the sacrifices of Donald Woods highlighted in the film?
10. What value might the ideas of Black Consciousness have for Black people here in America?
"Bayi Yoon" by Daara J Family
The lyrics and the English translation are here. Please print them out and take notes on them.
Post-viewing Reflection
1. What stands out to you?
2. What questions do you have?
3. What do you think this song is about?
4. What is the context of this song?
5. Why do you think this group made this song?
6. Write one sentence that states the purpose of this song. include the title and the group name in the sentence.
Critical Reading & Summary Writing
Please see the example of an annotated text from Hunter College.
This is an annotated text from the translated lyrics of the song "Bayi Yoon" by Daara J Family.
As I read the text, I tried to connect the text to concepts and ideas, historical references, and also ask questions. Always ask yourself, what is the context for this text?
Here is a sample of a summary in APA format.
Required Readings: An Introduction to Black Consciousness
- What is Black Consciousness" in I Write What I Like (pp. 99-119) by Aeired Stubbs C. R. (Ed.) (2002). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- "I Write What I Like: Fear – An Important Determinant in South African Politics" by Steve Biko in Steve Biko: Black Consciousness in South Africa by Millard Arnold (Ed.). (pp. 331-338). New York: Vintage Books.
- "Problems, Issues, Terms," "Utaratibu wa Kutizama *African Philosophy and Worldview" & "Maafa * The Holocaust" In Let the Circle Be Unbroken (pp. 1-15) by Marimba Ani (1997). Atlanta: Afrikan Dieli.
Post-reading Reflection
1. What is Black Consciousness?
2. What is the value of Black Consciousness to Black people?
3. How can this renewed consciousness improve the lives of Black people?
Recommended Reading: Black Power and Self-Love
2. Africa' Scary Skin Bleaching Trend (VOA on Assignment)
Letter Writing
Letter Writing Assignment
Write a letter to one of the authors or artists listed on your course outline thus far. The letter will discuss how the author presents ideas and how the meaning is supported. You will not merely write an approval or disapproval letter. Rather, you will thoughtfully analyze the literature and respond to the ideas presented by the artist/author in a text that you will reference in the letter. You may also indicate your own thoughts about the author, the music, and his or her mission and life, but this should be at the very end of the letter and it should be minimal. Do not forget to sign the letter.
Required Reading: "To Be Afrikan"
"To Be Afrikan" by Marimba Ani. Published on the Web, February 26, 1999.
Post-reading Reflection
1. What is the value of being an Afrikan, according to Marimba Ani?
2. What has happened that has caused people of African descent to not feel pride in being African?
3. What does the knowledge of an African cultural legacy give to people of African descent?
The Language You Cry In
You can log in to the link with your CSUN credentials to watch the film again. It is incredibly useful to watch/read/experience texts several times before reflecting on them. Use your notes to reiterate the important points for your summary.
Post-viewing Reflection
1. Why is this documentary so important to people of African descent?
2. What is the most important part of this documentary? Why?
3. What is the value of knowing where you come from?
4. How does this film make you feel about a connection to a greater heritage?
5. What is the value in having an awareness of your cultural heritage?
6. Why isn't there more research like this completed?
7. In one sentence, write down the idea that the filmmaker was trying to communicate through this documentary.
Summary Assignment
Summary lengths varries from one paragraph - one page, depending upon the length and depth of the literature and your writing style. Summaries always begin with a thesis statement that indicates that main point of the article, book, or piece of literature. That first sentence always includes the title of the piece and the author's name(s). Summaries indicate the main points of the literature, but omit minor details, unless they are necessary to explain important concepts. Before writing a summary, it is important to analyze the literature. Read it at least twice before taking notes using paraphrase. Write the summary only from your notes about the literature to avoid plagiarism. Do not include your opinions or ideas in a summary. You are simply re-stating (using other words) the main points of the author. The goal in American academic writing is to be concise.
Writing as a Process
Outlining
Use this generic outline as a guide to complete an outline for your first essay. Your can have much more detail than this outline provides, but your outline should not be incomplete.
Topic Sentences
Introductions
Conclusions
You may find this list of list of transition words helpful for writing your essays.
Essay #1 Assignment
You have been introduced to the problems of Black inferiority and the importance of solidarity through Steve Biko's speeches. You have watched the The Language You Cry traces the heritage of people of African descent in the Americas to an exact village in Sierra Leone through cultural expression. You have read Marimba Ani's assessment of culture for people of African descent in Let the Circle Be Unbroken. You have experienced the necessity of African people on the continent reclaiming their histories and culture through "Bayi Yoon." Looking over your notes, respond in the form of an essay to the following question based on the texts on your course outline:
What is the importance of Black consciousness or African consciousness to people of African descent?
You should have 3 body paragraphs, an introduction and a conclusion. Your essay should have 1,000 words minimum and have a word count in the heading.
APA format style should be used. Be sure to include a References page and use proper quotations and citations. (Hint:AFRS 099 is a great opportunity to work on these points!)
Be sure to write in 3rd person and integrate your evidence. All paraphrase and direction quotations should be cited using APA citations.
Your audience is an academic one - me! The paper should carry a professional voice with academic language.
Use this peer review sheet to guide you in reviewing your classmate's work.
All essays will be submitted via Moodle as ONE Microsoft Word document. The order for the submitted document is as follows:
1. Your final draft (for me to grade)
2. References Page
3. Outline (typed)
Before you submit your essay, fill out the Self-Assessment Form. You will want to revise your work accordingly. This gives you an idea of what I am looking for when I grade your essays.
The first document that you upload will be graded - no exceptions. Please be careful to upload the correct version.
