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Where is the film set? in Cape Town Province (South Africa)

When does the action take place? in the nineteen seventies (between 1975
and 1977)
3Who is the director? Who are the main actors?
Richard Attenborough
Denzel Washington plays Steve Biko
Kevin Kline plays Donald Woods
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Give details about the two main characters:

Steve Biko
o His father died when he was 17
o a leader of the anti-Apartheid activists
o his movement: black consciousness
o married with two kids (boys)
o he was banned
o non-violent if not attacked
o excellent public speaker, very articulate, clever/smart/witty
o courageous/brave: he took huge risks
o he was arrested on his way to a black studentsgathering. He
died in police custody in September 1977 after being tortured for
a month. The official explanation was that he had died of a hunger
strike.
Donald Woods
o editor of a South African newspaper, The Daily Dispatch
o a white liberal
o proved that Biko died because of police violence by taking photos
of his dead body. Woods sent those photos to newspapers abroad
which published them. This media attention created a world
campaign against the Apartheid.
o married with 5 kids
o became Steve Bikos friend/befriended Biko
o He was banned
o He had to escape, go into exile and ask for political asylum to
Great Britain

5-

Who are the secondary characters?

Doctor Ramphele: a doctor and an anti-Apartheid activist

Wendy Woods: Donald Woods wife

Mapetla: anti-Apartheid activist and journalist

Tenjy: anti-Apartheid activist and journalist

Captain De Wet (police officer)

6-

Kruger: minister of police

Father Kani

Bruce: an Australia journalist

What was the apartheid? Take examples from the film to illustrate how the
apartheid affected peoples lives.

It was a political system based on racial segregation and the superiority of white
people.

Black people lived in townships, while white people lived in white areas.
Black people could work in white areas if they had a work permit or a
pass until 6:00 pm (then, they had to go back to the townships)
Education was separated and black people did not have the same
opportunities as white people.
Police violence: murders, rapes, torture /White oppression to maintainthis
system/ violent repression of protests
7What is a township?
a ghetto, a slum, a shanty town in South Africa ( like Soweto)
8What did being banned mean?
Banned people couldnt be with more than one person at a time
They had to stay in a restricted area, your banning area
They were constantly watched by the police
9What was Black consciousness?
Steve Bikos movement
The goal of the movement: to develop black pride
o the slogan: Black is beautiful (the word black is often used
negatively)
- Being taught black history, black culture
learn about black heroes
being taught in their own language (not in Afrikaans, the language of the
oppressor): schoolkids tragic demonstration in Soweto (many killed by
the police)

Why did Biko think it was im portant to be proud of being black? to fight
against black peoples inferiority complex
thats why Biko and Doctor Ramphele had set up a clinic run by black
doctors: to prove that they could do it, to develop pride in the black
community.Biko had also set up a community centre where he lived.

Cry Freedom Summary and

Characterization

Chapter 1: Donald Woods is an editor of the Daily Dispatch, a journal

in East London, South Africa. One morning he gets news of a police
raid in the black township Crossroads which lies in Cape Town. He
also gets photos of the raid and he decides to print them although the
government doesnt allow printing such photos. Woods doesnt
believe the demand of the black people but he is trained as a lawyer
and doesnt like police brutality against black people.
So he also writes an editorial about a Biko, the leadership of The
BC. The next day Dr. Mamphela who works for Biko in his clinic,
comes to Woods office to speak to him, about this article. She is very
angry, because she thinks, that Woods has printed rubbish about Biko
and that he is uninformed about the ideas that Biko has. So she
invents him to meet Biko in his banning area.
Chapter 2 and 3: Some days later Woods meets Steven Biko in an
old church where he wants to make a center for black people. First he
is critical against Biko, but then he listens to Bikos opinion and they
mentally changed the roles. Biko also goes with Woods to the clinic,
which Biko has built. The clinic is only for black people, with black
workers and a black doctor. But Woods already think that black and
whits should work together, but he also understands, that the blacks
want something that they put up themselves. At the end Biko invites
Woods to come and see how black people in South Africa really live.
chapter 4 and 5: In the black township, they eat with a black family.
Biko, the family and are discussing about the system, the history how
the white came to South Africa and how the black people got their
bad situation which they have now. After this visit Woods change his
mind, because he sees for the first time how worse the black has to
live, how big their despair is but also how strong their togetherness
stay. At the end of this day Biko and Woods become friends.
Chapter 6: Six weeks later Woods gives Tenjy and Mapetla, two
friends of Biko, a job in his newspaper. Mapetla takes Woods and Ken
to a footballmatch of the black. Instead of the match Biko helds a
speech. Ken and Woods were convinced by this speech and the ideas
Biko represent.
Chapter 7: After the match Biko is caught by the police because an
informer of the government had told the police about the speech. 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 defense 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.

Chapter 8: In this night Captain De Wet and two other policemen

smash all things of value in the church. 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 kill by the police.
So Woods approach to Kruger, the Minister of Police, and speaks with
him about the incident. The minister declares him that he will pursues
that matter because he doesnt want that such sort of things happen.
Woods thinks that the police men aren't as worse as many blacks
think, Woods unfortunately trust him.
Chapter 9: But on Sunday afternoon two policemen come and want
to know the name of the witness from Woods. Woods explains them
that he was by Kruger and he cannot say the name but the two
answer that they have order from the top. Woods gets angry because
Kruger had betrayed him. Because the two haven't a warrant Woods
could send them away without saying the name. It does not happen
anything for weeks and Woods thinks that it is alright. But it is not.
chapter 10: One night the two policemen check the passport of
Woods black housekeeper Evalina. Woods throws them out of his
property. The next day, the police take revenge: 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. 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, so Biko demands a inquest. Tenjy is the
main witness at the inquest but the judge closes the inquest without
fix the death of Mapetla on anybody.
Chapter 11: Biko drives to Cape Town to speak in an important
meeting of black students although he knows that it's forbidden for
him. On the way back from 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 to the prison in Port
Elizabeth. 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 possible has a brain
damage they want to bring him to the police hospital in Pretoria a
1000 kilometers away and not to Port Elizabeth which is only 4
kilometres away because they would have the control about him. The
doctor cannot do anything against the police and so they put Biko on
a blanket at the floor in the back of a Land Rover. Then they drive
with Biko on thousand km rough country roads and during the
journey Bikos head is bumping on the floor.
Chaper 12: Biko dies and Woods prints an 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 and died because he starved himself to dead. One
day after Bikos dead Ntsiki, who is the wife of Biko, Woods and Ken
go to the mortuary to find out how Biko actually died. They were all
shocked by the appearance of Biko's body, the lips are swollen, a
huge lump on the forehead and many bruises around his eyes. Ken
suddenly puts out a small camera and makes photos of Bikos body.
Woods and his wife arrive at the funeral and they see thousands of
black people with pictures of Biko. There would come more black
people but there are road-blocks of the police. The mood of the crowd
is angry but also sorrowful. After a speech the crowd begin to sing
the African Song which Steven Biko loved.
Chapter 13: Woods wants that other newspapers write about Bikos
death, because if he does, the government would shut the Daily
Dispatch. But all the other newspapers are also afraid and wouldn't
fight the system this way. So Woods decides to fly to New York under
a false name. The day he leave he sends the photos to England an
America printed the pictures of Biko's body and demands on an
inquest. But on the airport two securities stop Woods and bring him in
an office. There Lieutnant Beukes reads from a warrant to Woods that
he becomes a banning person for five years.
Chapter 14: Although the police forbid Woods to write he starts to
write a book about Bikos life, because he thinks that Bikos ideas
have to live on. After speaking with some friends he realize that, if he
publishes the book he and his family has to escape from South Africa
if they dont want to get killed. Wendy first doesn't agree with this
idea and the two have a big conflict. A few days later, the children of
Woods reached a anonym parcel with poisoned Shirts. After this awful
experience Wendy also wants to publish the book.
Chapter 15: So Woody quickly begins to plan the escape with Father
Kani and Bruce McCullough. The 31st December in the night Woods
escape begins: He disguise himself in father Curren and Wendy drives
Woods to King Williams town, from where he hitch-hike to a place
beyond Queenstown. There he meet Father Kani, who drives him to
the edge of the river Telle. In the early morning of the 1st January
Woods should crossover the river but it doesn't work because the
river was too wide and deep. So he went back to the edge of the
river.
Chapter 16: Woods knows that Tami, a friend of Biko lives near, so
he walks to him. Tami brings him by car to the Telle Bridge, when
Woods wants to open the gate, a Land Rover stop in front of him.
Fortunately the man, called Moses, was from the postal service and
he even takes Woods to Maseru. At the passport station he has no
problems, so he gets to Lesotho without more problems. There he
quickly phones to his family, they also follow.
Chapter 17: Moses brings Woods to the point where he meets Bruce,

who brings him to Maseru, where he talks to the Brithis acting high
Commissioner to ask him to enter their country.
Chapter 18: The next morning Woods family also arrives in Lesotho.
The whole family gets passports from the United Nations and flies
with a private pilot, who wills to fly over South Africa without landing.
Woods felt a little sad when he sees his homeland because he might
never see it again. But he was also happy, because he will publish his
book and show Biko's ideas to the whole world. He hopes that men's
minds could be change, before the price become too high. In his mind
he hears the crowd of thousands singing at Bikos funeral.
CHARACTERS
Donald Woods is one of the important persons in the story. He is
married with Wendy and has five children. Woods is 42 and the editor
of the Daily Dispatch. In the beginning of the book he doesnt believe
that black people should be allowed to vote and he also accepts the
laws that forced blacks and whites to live in separate areas. He only
disagree the police brutality against the black. The meeting with Biko
in the church, when they change the roles mentals, the speech of
Biko at the stadium and his first view of the township, when he feels
the strong sense of togetherness Woods change his mind about his
political ideas. 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, because he wants to publish the book about Biko.
Stephan Biko is a serious, intelligent and handsome young black
man. He is a warm and gently person. Stevenn is married with Ntsiki
and has two children. He is a banned person who 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. He is one of the most important leaders
of the Black Consciousness. Steven often goes out of his banning
area and so once he gets caught and finally kills by the police. He
knows how to put the words together and represent his opinion. All
his life is dedicated to the struggle for black rights. For him South
Africa was for black and white, they only had to find a way to live
together without violence.
Biko is banned because of his leadership of a movement called The
Black Consciousness (equal rights for blacks and whites, live
together without violence, black should be proud of being black,
blacks should know their history, not anymore accept the hand ship
imposed by the system, confrontation without violence)