CRY FREEDOM
by John Briley
AUTHOR
The author of the book ist John Briley. He is an American journalist and writer. At present he lives
in Spain.
CONTENT
The story plays in November 1975 in the south-east of South Africa in the city East London. In this
city Donald Woods is an editor of the Daily Dispatch. One morning he gets news of a police raid in
the black township Crossroads which lies in Cape Town in the south-west of South Africa. To this
news he also gets photos of the raid and he desides to print them although the government doesn`t
allow to print such photos.
Woods doesn`t believe the demand of the black people but he is trained as a lawyer and doesn`t
like police brutality against black people.
So he also writes an editorial about a black, young man who is shown on a picture on a photo and
underneath the picture stands the name Biko. Some days later Woods meets Stephan Biko in an old
church were he wants to make a centre for black people. He listens to Biko`s opinion and Biko also
shows Woods a clinic for black people. In the clinic is Doctor Mamphela Ramphele working. She
is a black young woman who told Woods the address of Biko. Biko invites Woods to come and see
how black people in South Africa live. They go there in an old black taxi which is only for black
people. In the black township they eat with a black family and Biko tells Woods about the history
how the white came to South Africa and how the black people got their bad situation which they
have now.
Six weeks later Woods gives two friends of Biko a job in his newspaper. The one is Tenjy Mtintso
and the other is Mapetla Mohapi. Mapetla takes Woods to a footballmatch of the black. Instead of
the match Biko helds a speach. After the match Biko is caught by the police because an informer of
the government had told the police about the speach. In the police office Biko gets hit by Captain
De Wet. After the fight between Biko and De Wet two policemen throw Biko out of the office.
Two weeks later Biko is a main witness for the defence of two student organizations who arranged
two years before a large meeting in support of the new government in Mozambique. Woods prints
the words of Biko although it is against the law.
In this night Captain De Wet and two other policemen smash all things of value in the church
where Biko wants to make a centre for black people. Donald Woods cannot print this in his
newspaper because the witness is a black man called Dilima and if Woods prints his name, Dilima
would not survive until the end of the week. So Woods flies to the Minister of Police and speaks
with him about the incident. The minister declares him that he will pursues that matter because he
doesn`t want that such sort of things happen.
Sunday afternoon two policemen come and want to know the name of the witness from Woods.
Woods explains them that he was by the Minister and he cannot say the name but the two answer
that they have order from the top. Woods is not impressed by these and sends them away without
saying the name. It does not happen anything for weeks and Woods thinks that it is alright; but it is
not. One night the two policemen check the passport of Woods black housekeeper Evalina. Woods
throws them out of his property. On the next day three men jump out of a car and take Mapetla in
it. Donald Woods thinks that Mapetla gets beaten by them and that they make an example so that
no other black person will dare him. Two days later Tenjy gets arrested without any charges. The
police don`t want to give information about the two and after a week Mapetla is dead. The official
explanation of the death from Mapetla is, that he hanged himself. But Biko and Woods cannot
believe that. Biko demands a inquest and Wilfred Cooper represents Mapetla`s family and Biko.
Tenjy is the main witness at the inquest but the judge closes the inquest without fix the death of
Mapetla on anybody.
Biko drives to Cape Town although he knows that it is very dangerous for him. On the way to Cape
Town the car was stopped by the police and they want to see the papers from Biko. As they
recognize the person in the car, they arrest him promptly.
Six days later the police call a doctor to look at Biko. The body is covered with bruises, the
forehead and eyes seriously injured. On the chest and lips are cuts. The doctor orders to bring Biko
in a hospital. Although the doctor tells them that Biko is unconscious they want to bring him to the
police hospital in Pretoria which is thousand kilometres away and not to Port Elizabeth wich is only
four kilometres away. The doctor cannot do anything against the police and so they put Biko naked
on a blank which lies on the floor of the Land Rover. Then they drive with Biko on the back on
thousand kilometres rough country roads and during the journey Biko`s head is bumping on the
floor.
Biko dies and Woods prints a article about him with the headline "BIKO DIES IN CUSTODY".
The Minister of Police denies police responsibility and he says that Biko has been arrested outside
his banning area. The Minister also means, that Biko refused to eat and so they brought him to
hospital and there he died. One day after Bikos death Ntsiki Woods, who is the wife of Biko, and
Ken go to the mortuary. As the official leaves the room Ken puts out a small camera and makes
photos of Biko`s body.
The funeral is in the stadium and when Woods and his wife arrive thousands of black people with
pictures of Biko are there. There would come more black people but the police sent them back.
After a speach the crowd begin to sing the African Song which Steven Biko loved. Some white
students see how Woods sings and they come to him and ask him if he understands these African
words and he starts to sing in English.
Woods wants that other newspapers write about Biko`s death but they are afraid because it is very
dangerous. So Woods decides to emigrate to New York. On the airport two soldiers stopp Woods
and bring him in an office. There Lieutnant Beukes reads from a warrent to Woods that he becomes
a banning person.
Now he starts to write a book about Biko`s life and after speaking with some friends he comes to
the decision, if he publishes the book he and his family has to escape if they don`t want to get
killed. But also the escape is very dangerous. Woods flight is successful and so his family follows.
The family gets passports from the United Nations and flies away. In the plain Woods looks out of
the window and in his mind he hears the crowd of thousands singing at Biko`s funeral.
CHARACTERS
Donald Woods is one of the important persons in the story. He is married with Wendy and has five
children. Woods is forty-two years old but because of his thick grey hair he looks older. He wears
glasses.He is the editor of the Daily Dispatch. In the beginnig of the book he doesn`t believe that
black people should be allowed to vote. He also accepts the laws that forced blacks and whites to
live in separate areas. There is one thing he cannot like and that is police brutality against the black.
Later in the book he becomes a good friend of Biko and he helps him to fight for more rights for
the black. So he gets troubles with the government and in the end he has to escape of the country
where he has born.
Stephan Biko is the second important person in the book. He is a serious and handsome young
black man. Stephan is married with Ntsiki and has two children. He is also a banned person which
means that he can only be in his banning area and he is able to speak only with one person except
his family. Biko gets in this situation because he fights for more rights for the black. His fight is
without weapons. Stephan always goes out of his banning area and so once he gets caught and
brutaly murdered by the police.
WHAT DOES THE AUTHOR WANT TO SAY WITH THE BOOK?
I think he wants to show us the bad situation of the black in South Africa. In some parts of the book
he did it really well. The sentence "In your world everything white is normal - the way the world
should be - and everything black is wrong, or some kind of mistake" which I took from the book, is
not out of place in our society. If you watch TV you can see that all bad persons wear dark clothes
or drive black cars and the good persons wear bright clothes and drive white cars. Also the Austrian
word "Schwarzfahrer" has a negative meaning and there are many other things. So I think the
author would say in this book that not all black things are bad or mistakes and really not black
people.