Changing World; South African Essay, Part 2: One Nation, Two Nationalisms. Reel 1

Item Information

Title:
Changing World; South African Essay, Part 2: One Nation, Two Nationalisms. Reel 1
Description:
The second part of 'South African Essay' examines the political machinery which enforces Apartheid-- the South African government's policy of separate government."--1965 Peabody Digest. Includes interviews with blacks and whites who support separatism, and with blacks and whites who oppose it. Discusses the status of Asians and 'coloreds', South Africa's other racial groups, and compares the status of blacks in South African and the United States. Includes footage of Nationalist Party rally, with speech by Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd; a Transkei town meeting, with a speech by Chief Mantanzima; Transkei farm and village life; a meeting of the Transkei Parliament; city life in Umtata, Durban and Cape Town; Indians at a children's race; and a gold refinery. Includes footage of the Sharpeville Massacre and its aftermath, including Nelson Mandela's trial. Also includes footage of Achkar Marof of Guinea and Adlai Stevenson of the U.S. addressing the United Nations. At a time when white rule has ended on most of the African continent and African nationalism has emerged as the dominant force, the Republic of South Africa has become an isolated bastion of white nationalism. Within South Africa today the whites have a firm hold on the government, the country's enormous wealth and its armed might. "One Nation, Two Nationalisms," the second part of Changing World: South African Essay, examines the political machinery that enforces Apartheid - the South African government's policy of separate development - and considers the views of noted African spokesmen, whites and blacks alike, who support of oppose the policy. Through documentary film footage and a series of exclusive interviews, the program focuses on the power of the country's totally white Nationalist party, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd's "Bantustan" policy of strict separation of people according to racial and tribal origins, the further complication of the racial problem resulting from the government's creation of two other classifications of non-whites - the Coloreds and the Asians, prospects for total partition of blacks and whites, the government's repression of African political parties, and reaction in the world community to the South African government's Apartheid policy. Dr. Gwedolyn Carter, director of the African Studies Program of Northwestern University and an advisor to the U.S. State Department, describes the conflict between the two nationalisms - the Afrikaner nationalism, the dominant group among whites, and African nationalism, by far the largest numerical group in the country. Frank Waring, South African Minister of Information, relates his country's racial problem to those of the United States. Nat Nakasa, a South African journalist forced into exile, contends that self-rule in the Transkei - the only "Bantustan" set up to date - was imposed by the South African government and not requested by the people. He points out that the party supporting Apartheid was defeated in the first Transkei election, and yet, the South African government retains the power and authority to reject or nullify any legislation which the Transkei government produces. Knowledge Guzana, an elected member of the legislative assembly from the Transkei opposition party which favors a multi-racial state, disagrees with the fundamentals of the Transkei plan. He contends that the economy of the state is tied together with the economy of the republic and its development depends solely on a close association between the two. Among the many whites who agree with Mr. Guzana is author Alan Paton, head of the Liberal Party. He explains why he and his party identify with the majority black African view. A devoted Afrikaner, Scott Pinaar, editor of the newspaper, Die Burger, carries the "Bantustan" policy further. Comparing the South African racial issue to the problems of the Arabs and the Jews in Palestine and the Hindus and Mohammedans in India, he calls for the complete partition of the blacks and whites. Jean Sinclair, president of the Black Sash, a women's protest group, condemns the Pass Laws, a key weapon for white control, which requires that Africans carry a reference document or book known as "passes" in order to get work. This law was responsible for the Sharpeville massacre of 1960 in which seventy two Africans were killed and eighty six wounded during a protest demonstration against "passes." Speaking on behalf of the moderates - a once strong voice among whites, now for the most part grown silent - Colin Eglin points out that many white South Africans, though unhappy with Apartheid, see no alternative. He says that should political control ever slip into the hands of the black man, a period of oppression against the white man would follow and wipe him out economically and politically. Noble Peace Prize winner Chief Albert Luthuli, patriarch of the freedom movement and president of the outlawed African National Congress, has long been an exponent of non-violent protest. He explained why he has now aligned himself with the black African consensus in accepting the use of violence. Raymond Kunene, a leading member of the African National Congress in exile, and Z.B. Molete, London representative of another outlawed party, the Pan African Congress, both states it is inevitable that the black African use violent means to throw off his white oppressor. South African Essay is a 1965 National Educational Television production produced for NET by WGBH, Boston's educational station. This program was originally shot on film. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche) To give American television viewers a clearer understanding of how the rapid and radical changes now underway in other lands will influence their own lives, National Educational Television launched an incisive bi-monthly series of one-hour documentaries filmed around the globe. Entitled "Changing World," the series premiered in October 1964 on NET's nationwide network of 82 affiliated non-commercial stations. "We believe the scope and design of this series should place it among the season's most important ventures in public affairs television," said William Kobin, director of public affairs programs at NET. "Changing World" will look at the peaceful and not so peaceful revolutions of the mid-twentieth century from the vantage point of the people most deeply and painfully involved in transition. In a systematic way, it will attempt to relate the problems of the various nations and continents to one another, and to the lives of all of us in the United States. "In 'Changing World,'"says Mr. Kobin, "NET has deliberately turned away form a shotgun approach where we would examine only headline-making events. Instead, our producers and their units will be developing, in each instance an organized approach which will afford not only a solid introduction to other peoples and their problems, but a reliable basis on which viewers can judge United States policy, involvement and goals on other continents." (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
Production company:
WGBH Educational Foundation
Production company:
National Educational Television and Radio Center
Producer:
Morgenthau, Henry, 1917-
Author:
Morgenthau, Henry, 1917-
Producer:
Chutter, Cynthia
Producer:
Bywaters, Thomas
Producer:
Jeffries, Peter
Director:
Macartney-Filgate, Terence
Speaker:
Stevenson, Adlai
Interviewee:
Paton, Alan
Interviewee:
Luthuli, Albert
Editor:
Bywaters, Tom
Creator:
Filgate, Terence
Interviewee:
Waring, Frank
Interviewee:
Nakasa, Nat
Speaker:
Mathanzima, Kaiser
Interviewee:
Kuene, Raymond
Interviewee:
Sinclair, Jean
Author:
Eglin, Colin
Creator:
Eglin, Colin
Speaker:
Marof, Achkar
Interviewee:
Carter, Gwendolyn
Interviewee:
Pinaar, Scott
Interviewee:
Guzana, Knowledge
Interviewee:
Molete, Z. B.
Speaker:
Verwoerd, Hendrik
Date:
June 30, 1965
Format:
Film/Video
Genre:
Documentary
Location:
Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
Collection (local):
American Archive of Public Broadcasting Collection
Series:
Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive > Changing World
Subjects:
Social Issues
Global Affairs
Race and Ethnicity
Public Affairs
Politics and Government
Extent:
00:33:01
Link to Item:
https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-8279d3wg
Terms of Use:
Rights status not evaluated.
Contact host institution for more information.
Notes:
Episode Number: 8