Changing World; South African Essay, Part 1: Fruit of Fear. Reel 2

Item Information

Title:
Changing World; South African Essay, Part 1: Fruit of Fear. Reel 2
Description:
The first of the two hour-long programs in 'South African Essay' reports on the situation in South Africa today- the dual standards of living, from the affluent world of the whites ... to the ghettos where the majority lives a segregated life."--1965 Peabody Digest. This program describes relations between blacks, Afrikaaners and other whites, and those of mixed race in South Africa. It includes interviews with blacks, with liberal whites who oppose apartheid, and with white government and business leaders who support the status quo. Footage of blacks and whites together depicts servant-master or worker-employee relations. It also includes footage of whites at parties, at the beach, and in the stock exchange; footage of blacks at a wedding, a funeral, at parties, at the beach, in cities, and in the segregated townships where they live. Also includes footage of blacks singing as they move in unison to repair city streets; at a riverside baptism; and being strip-searched, fingerprinted and tested for suitability for mine work and working in diamond and gold mines. South Africa today is a nation caught in the undercurrent of a smoldering segregational conflict called Apartheid - the political, social, and economic doctrine of separation of the races. Apartheid is forced on a black majority by a white minority which is outnumbered four to one. The first of the two programs in South African Essay reports on the situation in South African today: the dual standards of living, from the affluent world of the whites where lavish living is accepts as a right and not a privilege, to the ghettos where the black majority lives a segregated life. The contrast of life in South Africa is documented as cameras go to the Cape Town resort and the Johannesburg stock exchange, and to a black ghetto where health standards are poor and concrete bunk houses where black miners are forced to live away from their families. In a series of interviews, the program captures the conflict facing South Africa: Noble Peace Prize winner Chief Albert Luthuli, the patriarch of South African nationalists, who is forced to live in a remote rural area, discusses the frustrations of the black people and the tendency towards hatred of the whites because of what he calls the denial of certain fundamental rights. Frank Waring, the government's Minister of Information, attempts to explain and justify the policy of separate development for the two races. He contends the "Bantu," as the white population refers to the natives, is better off in South Africa than in other African countries. Nat Nakasa, a journalist and South African who was forced to leave his country, says the black people are being forced to feel inferior to the whites. Another exiled leader, Can Themba, says conditions have caused two communities to grow up in South Africa - a white democratic community and a non-white community he says is fascist-ruled. Professor Nicholas Olivier of Stellenbosch University and Scott Pienaar, assistant editor of the newspaper Die Burger, contend relationships between whites and non-whites are far better than presumed and that the rest of the world refuses to accept the colonization of Africa as a reality. Award-winning novelist Alan Paton, head of the liberal party, disagrees with the Apartheid doctrine of the Afrikaner but admits there is much reluctant support of the policy of separate development of the two races. Another liberal, Doris Hill, a member of the women's protest organization called Black Sash, says South African segregation is a moral issue being overlooked because of white economic dependence on the black labor force. The Rt. Rev. Joost de Blank, formerly of South Africa, says the Dutch Reformed Church believes in the Apartheid and preaches that non-whites must be evangelized and born again to know their place in society as natives or colored. This religious domination, the program points out, has caused sub-Christian sects to spring up in South Africa, and one of these, the Church of Zion, preaches freedom from white paternalism. The program also explores South Africa's agricultural and industrial development. Harold Fridjohn, editor of the Rand Daily Mail, reports that the white man's contributions to the nation have been a secondary cause of the country's economic advances. He points out the primary contribution to South African development is diamond and gold mining. Fridjohn says many business people think that the nations' surging economy will make social and political integration inevitable. But Morley Nkosi, a former representative of the outlawed Pan Africanist Congress who is now in the United States, says it's deceptive to believe that South Africa's economic boom is going to solve the country's problems. 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
Interviewee:
Paton, Alan
Interviewee:
Luthuli, Albert
Interviewee:
Pienarr, Scott
Editor:
Bywaters, Tom
Interviewee:
Olivier, Nicholas
Interviewee:
Hill, Doris
Interviewee:
Themba, Can
Creator:
Filgate, Terence
Interviewee:
de Blank, Joost
Interviewee:
Waring, Frank
Interviewee:
Nkosi, Morley
Reporter:
Fridjohn, Harold
Interviewee:
Nakasa, Nat
Date:
June 23, 1965
Format:
Film/Video
Genre:
Documentary
Location:
WGBH
Collection (local):
American Archive of Public Broadcasting Collection
Series:
WGBH > Changing World
Subjects:
Economics
Social Issues
Global Affairs
Race and Ethnicity
Public Affairs
Extent:
00:26:48
Link to Item:
https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-86nzsq00
Terms of Use:
Rights status not evaluated.
Contact host institution for more information.
Notes:
Episode Number: 7