1979) has analysed South African poetry.

Class and Ideology:
Reflections in South African Cinema
Keyan G Tomaselli
Until rece~tly, c~iticism of South African cinema has been couched predominantly
1~ aesthetlc or llterary terms.
Local offerings are generally compared with
Consequ~
f11m ema~ating from the commercial circuits of Europe and Hollywood.
ently, l~ttle attem~t has been made to study it in terms of indigenous images,
1ts own lnner dynamlcs or as an expression of South African social history.
More typically, it continues to be regarded as disreputable rubbish being put
out by con-men who OWe little allegiance to aesthetics or other generally
accepted cinematic criteria.
A study of South African cinema in terms of the tenets of popular history has
not occurred other than the Broederbond inspired propositions of Hans Rompel
(1942) and the rather diluted and vague non-sociological concepts of "social
significance" offered in Thelma Gutsche's (1972) vast historical chronology
of the local industry from 1895-1940.
The present author's study of The South
African Film Industry (1979a) offers some insights into how the industry works
in a capitalist economy and how this mode of production affects what is offered
in aesthetic and thematic terms.
Little, however, has been written dealing
with the structural bases of the images and recurring motifs reflected in
This paper represents an attempt to rectify this lack and
local cinema (1).
should be seen to fill the area of film in much the same way as David Coplan
(1979) has investigated Black music, Tim Couzens (see, eg., Couzens, 1977)
and Kelwyn Sole (1979) have studied popular Black literature and Peter Horn
(1978;
The methodology utilized in this paper assumes a social structure/culture
distinction between the media and society •• Cu1ture" refers to patterns of
belief, values and ideas, as well as the artifacts in which they are imbedded.
According to Williams (1977. pp.128-129), culture and history coexist in a
symbiotic relationship where .Culture is simultaneously the fruits of a
people's history and a determinant of history".
Such an abstraction singles
social situation making them available
out relevant factors from a concrete
for analysis.
Similarly an abstraction, .social structure" refers to estab-
lished patterns of social relations:
class determination, role structures,
organizational
patterns etc.
This approach employs structuralism, the identification of opposites (eg.
good versus bad), as a meeting point.
This paradigm also seeks to separate
out the superficial surface meaning from the deeper hidden messages embodied
It is a catch-all which invokes historical materialism, anthro-
in the text.
pology, semiotics and and sociology, in an attempt to grasp the intrinsic
complexity of the relations between society and the media.
Such a methodology
demands that movies are understood within a social context, but without their
being reduced to that context.
Above all, it looks for patterns and recurring
motifs.
is not concerned with film as art, or good movies or
bad movies, but treats film as an index of social data and as a reflection
.
of society.
Analysis ventures beyond the simple investigation of the indi-
vidual characters or superficia1storylines
or plots •..The characters are
defined rather in terms of-the-socia1 roles they play,,'their social relations
with other participating or non-partiCipating characters and their position
within the class structure of society.
An individual's role in society is'governed by his class determinations, that
is. his position in the economic. social and political structures of that
society.
Each class may be identified by a ,specific ideo10gy~ which, according

Structuralism

<

Critic.' AI'fs
Volume One:
No 1: South African Cinema

to Althusser (1970) is:

•.. the lived relation between men and their world, or a
reflected form of this unconscious relation .•• It is
distinguished from a science not by its falsity, for it
can be coherent and logical (for instance, theolo9Y) but
by the fact that the practico-social predominates in it
over the theoretical.

project possible future states whic

Although Althusser states that "ideology is determinant in the last instance"
position that all individuals are the product 01
thi~ paper assumes .the.basic
t~elr class determlnatlons.
Ideology functions to reinforce a given relation
wlthin a society's conditions of existence and adapts individuals to the tasks
It permeates all aspects of life and represents
that society sets for them.
an objective reality (eg. the apartheid slogan:
"the right of all population
groups to.self-de~ermination").
This reality is nourished and reinforced by
popular Clnema whIch takes the view that society "causes the movies" (Tudor,
1974, p.I52).
Whereas film genres (Westerns, love stories, thrillers etc.)
are conceived to reflect and reaffirm existing relations within the dominant
society, revolutionary or breakaway Mvies
work out the existing ideology to its logical ~onc1usion.
In a class society such as found in South Africa, genre films function to re- '
inforce social roles according to the division of labour.
In other words, the'
characters must not see themselves in roles other than those allocated by the '
Social relations of production.
suggested and propelled by the economy and vested interests.
South Africa
claims to adhere to a free enterprise, capitalist economy, and if this mode
of production is to survive, then individuals within society have to be re-
conciled to both the established class structure and the class positions Viey
"Give the public what it wants" is the marketing cry of film execu-
occupy.
tives and producers.
What the public gets, however, is largely a consequence
of those in control of the means of production.
of the attitudes and ideo1o~
Films, whether good or bad, artistic or conventional emanate from the same
social structure of production.
They are viewed by the same audience and the
images society sees reflected are an index of the national consciousness:
its
fears, values, beliefs, ~ths,
In
other words, film seen as a system of cultural indicators provides a symbolical
insight into the ideological structures of society.
The state is able to harness cinema as part of-lits ideological apparatus througt
three interlinking ~chanisms
I.

The content of film, as with other media, is

guilt, contradictions and motivations.

of control:

Z.

able to raise finance for breakaway movies (eg. How long, ~

The first and most important of these concerns the availability of sources
of finance.
State controlled or state affiliated monies are the most
common supple of funds available to the feature film industry in South
Africa.
Under these circumstances it is clear that the filmmaker would
bave the greatest difficulty tn promulgating anything but the dominant
ideology as tt ts articulated by the ruling regime.
Despite the constraints of this ideological capital, some producers have
~en
Kandida~t, Jannie Totsiens, land ADart, Boesman and lena, The Guest,
Some of these productions had to raise finance f~
Mariqo1ds in August).
foreign sources since local investment capital was not forthcoming.
On
completion of the movie producers have to face the problem of distribution
Distribution camoanies are unlikely to act as crusaders
and exhibition.
while they are earning sufficient returns through the release of safe
genre pictures.
A further complication is that independent producers are
denied direct access to the ~jority
of the

of exhibitors because ~st

of locally r.-.Jcefeature films.

ideology assumes the function of ensuring class domination.

first run urban cinemas belong t~ tr.esame rnonc~olistic holding company,
Satbel, which also produces the buH
In the last instance, those films which escape both the constraints of
finance and distribution (and exhibition) are still subject to the ultimate
constraint of state censorship.
This affects both breakaway movie as well
as the conventional genre film for the constant fear of restriction in-
evitably leads to the deformation and warping of depictions of reality.
Bearing these points in mind, this paper should be seen as a development of
earlier tentative analyses of South African cinema as it is directed to both
As in previous papers by the
the Black and White sectors of our Society.
present author, this study will utilize a structural analysis drawing on the
concepts of class, ideology and state control as they have become manifest
in the South African film industry.
Film made for Black Audiences
Previous work in this area has argued that "In films made for Black audiences
'"
It forces
the exploited to accept their conditions of exploitation as natural. moral
and inevitable" (Tomaselli. I979b. p.36).
What follows in this section is
a further development of this postulate.
In contrast to media directed at Whites in this country. the messages aimed
at Black South Africans have much in common with the imperialist media beamed
to other developing countries in the Third World.
At best. when the content
of this media is of a 'benevolent' humanistic flavour it is very often trans-
ported directly from the sponsoring country without thought for local needs.
inappropriate in the new
social conditions or aspirations and is generally
situation in terms of both technology and content.
Wilber Schramm (1967. p.6)
for example. states that the demands of communication are proportionately
greater in such developing countries than at any other stage of their social
growth.
to help survey a new environment. raise
peoples aspirations. guide and control a dynamic process •.teach new skills
and socialize citizens to a new and different society that is still only in
the process of becoming.
What Schramm neglects to mention is the ideological
orientation of such communication.
In South Africa this is best exemplified
in the policy of Homeland development.
arrangement is propogated by the media which aims to incalculate the values,
beliefs and ideology of the dominant group into the mainstream of the dominated
society.
The diffusion of this ideology is facilitated primarily through t~e
government monopoly in radio and television broadcasting.
particuluarly Radlo
Bantu.
Most of the content of this station is aimed at the maintenance and.
in fact. the rennaissance of traditional tribal values and social institutions
and their implementation in the Homelands.
The ~ase o{ So~th"African" fil~ as it has been prepared for Black viewership
is analagous. and bears many of the marks of imperialist media.
like radio.
and television. its efforts may be equated with the formal or informal exerClse
of political control over subordinate Black communities.
Media imperialism in cinema performs a triple function:
recorded history in terms of the perspectives of the dominant group. i.e.
the Whites.
The dominated culture is over-ruled and cinema transmits back
to them the ruling class' own image of that group.
vent the development of a cohesive class identity or ideology which is at
variance with the dominant ideology. for example, Black consciousness;
(2) cinema distorts the image of the dominating group to justify to llIerilers
of the dominated that their rulers are protecting them from their own ignorance

The objective is to pre-
(2)

Communication is exhorted

This geo-political

and economic

(I) to distort

3

social positions.

The production

whi<;h is their essential state of mind; and (3) to convince members of the
rullng class to accept as "natural" their God given superiority and to create
c~ltural m~ths which relate ~o and reinforce a perceived ideologically deter-
or working class must be induced to 'live'
mln:d reall~Y •. The proletanat
thelr exploltatlon and oppression in such a way that they do not experience
or re~resent to themselves ~heir position as, in fact, one in which they are
exp~olted or,oppressed.
ThlS coercion functions by ideology where the be-
havlou~, bellefs and attitudes produced are of an imaginary or false perception
of thelr actual conditions of existence.
In this way, ideology functions to
reco~cil: individuals to their given
The cultural meanings
ca~rled ln the texts of South African films in general operate primarily to
brlng that false reality into line with the social experiences and aspirations
of the dominant culture, that is, White South Africa.
The maintenance of a capitalist economy in South Africa depends on the availa-
This has been achieved
bility and control of a large force of cheap labour.
and perpetuated through the sustained depression of the living standards of
Black labourers.
Wolpe (1970), legassick (1974) and others have illustrated
how this objective was brought about initially through the eCOnomic depression
of the reserve areas, and more latterly, through the control mechanisms of
ideology and brute force.
Cinema offers one of a number of important channels
(eg. schools, radio etc.) utilized by National capital in the spread of the
dominant ideology.
Three typologies of cinema aimed specifical'y at Black South African audiences
may be identified - the 'back to the Homelands' movie, the coopted movie and
the conditional urban movie.
In all cases these films are made by White film-
owned companies and financed with White capital aided by a government subsidy,
Development Corporation funds and Information Department grants.
crews, while not always totally White, nevertheless remain under the control
of Whites. The three types of film do not necessarily occur in a temporal
sequence or identifiable clusters. but tend to overlap, a function of the
different stages of ideological manifestation
In
general. it would appear that the earlier images offered in film directed at
Black audiences correspond to the concept of Grand Apartheid while later re-
flections acknowledge the accomodation of sufficient numbers of urban Blacks
to cover the functional necessities of urban industry.
At the most extreme end are to be found the 'back to the Homelands' movie~
which are an explicit evocation of apartheid poiicy.
These are exemplified
primarily in the renditions of Bayeta Fi lms where the imagery is deeply rooted
in the traditional concept of the Black man as ~n unsophisticated and raw
rural dweller.
Mol~Yi (1978), for example, relates the story of a sophisticated
urbanite woman who 1S bewitched by a tribal sorcerer and who discards her
Western ways for the mysticism of tribal life.
A musical, Yuma (1978) describes
the courtship and marriage of a pair of young Zulu lovers -depicted in an .
authentic way••
1901i Films'lsiviko (1979) shows II young migrant worker's
return to a Zulu village where life is controlled by
witchdoctors and water
(1974), Iziduphunga (1977)
spirits.
Other offerings in this yein are N9~~
and~~ge~
(1977).
eti Matsetela function "to
Such movies. according to
.isgu
e
eir viewers in what they are aspiring for (Tomaselli, 1980). The
'back to the Homeland'lIOvie worked to reinforce the then official govemnent
rationale that urban life constitutes an alien existence for the Black person
and thet Homeland policy was indeed designed to assist Black people to outgrow
This observation pre-
thefr ignorance in their own time, place and IIlInner.
sup~o$es that densely populated housing settlements found in the Homeland
border areas somehow qualify as an expression of their 'traditional way of life'.

of the apartheid policy.

4

ihe second type of film is the coopted ~ovie where Black filmmakers are financed
and controlled by Nationalist capltal.
In addition, attempts were made to co-
opt 'opposition' filmmakers whose previous work and public statements have shown
them to be highly critical of the present structure of politico-social relations.
All of the films, however, in this category have been made by Heyns Films which
proved to be a front organization
for the now defunct Department of information.
It appears that these films were largely financed by the Department (Erasmus
Commission, 1979).
In addition, an amount of R33 316.80 was paid to Mrs. van
2y1 Alberts, anthropologist wife of the company chairman for .consultation"
fees (Erasmus Commission, 1979, Appendix 04).
According to the State Trust
Board (1980), the State holding in Heyns films at this time was 52% and financed
the company to the sum of RI.6 million.
A further RI.5 million was loaned for
the fi~ancin9 of TiQers don't Cry (1976) and Escape From A~ola
(1977) which were
were almed at White audiences as well.
There ;s no doubt
at this money was
put to an ideological purpose to regulate the reflections of social relations
and to control the consciousness of Black viewers, their attitudes and conduct
in pursuance of their designated duties and conditions of existence.
In terms of content, the coopted movie projects an indigenous identity of
sorts which has been ideologically filtered to approximate the norms and values
of the dominant group. Simon Sabela. who works for Heyns films, is not able
to choose the scripts he directs.
The Whites choose them, .Then I have to
revise them, and bring them into touch with reality" (Deane, 1978, p.162).
The plots and storylines are sealed within Black society with little or no
communication occurring between the races as happens in real life.
Closest
to the 'back to the Homelands' category is Sam Williams' Inkunzi (1976) which
was financed by the Transkei Development Corporation.
In this movie a Trans-
keian man returns to his Homeland and becomes a successful shopkeeper.
Most
of Simon Sabela's films, on the other hand, reflect the confusion of rural
Such films include U-De1iwe
and urban values found in Black urban societies.
(1975).
-Kati Elimn ana (1976), Inkedama (1975), Nowanaka (1976), Setipana
1979) and N~aka (1977.
the web of
outh African social relations, is invested in a degree of autono~
by his producers (Information funds notwithstanding), is significant in terms
His movies, although simple and perhaps naive,
of cinematic reflections.
nevertheless
incorporate his urban-rural ambivalences, a function of migrant
worker social experience.
Despite his ignorance of the effects of structural
violence, his films do, within the context of the unsophisticated ruralite or
urban dweller. reflect the confusion and disorientation experienced by town-
This is to be expected, for until late 1979, Black urban areas
ship dwellers.
were simply governed as labour reservoirs.
By 1979, a new trend of film theme became apparent as evidenced in the
This genre represents an attempt by Nationalist
conditional urban movie.
capital to harness the support of the growing Black middle class in terms of
the structural bases of apartheid.
In physical terms this is being done
through the granting of municiple status to satellite towns like Soweto.
in political status has been parallel led by the emergence
This modification
of movies which implicitly reflect an acceptance of Black urban living as a
permanent feature. the result of a manufacturing workforce which requires
•••• a more skilled, more contented worker. with lower job turnover and less
incentive to malinger or to sabatage the prOductive process. (Legassick, 1974,
On the one hand are the privately financed gangster movies. for example,
p.I4).
Cineworld's Utotsi (1978) and Phindesela (1979) and Intercity's Umzi0geli
(1919).
On the other are the oisco IlOvies. Stimulated by the townshlp
successes of Saturday Night Fever and other titles. Black audiences were pre-
pared for movies like Isoka (1979) and Botsotso (1979).
Such disco motifs.
:whether an accurate reflection of an aspect of Black city life. or simply a

The fact that Sabela, whatever hi~ location within the

5

convey an understanding

s conditlons
Rather,

of eXlstence.
of messages

bombardment
from the mainstram of urban White culture.

to Htutuzeli Hatshoba
represented in the theme, it will respond

Such movies, a though
Such offerings are not intended for a particular
•••• because that group
of this type of movie would
That is to say, authentic cinema would be
film.
Third World examples of the

of the White filmmaker's stereotype of Black people having an in-
of change in
No longer is he the recipient of
telling him that he is unsuitable
it is tacitly accepted that he is part of city life,

Only One film, Gibson Kente's black financed
Despite Gibson Kente's Black
in the context of cinematic reflections of South
Only examples
theatre such as ~90~i, Workinq Class Hero and The Last Man
In ee , in the context of Black theatre, How
in-
of the causes of township life, and must therefore be located
This, despite
causing harm

perpetuation
nate "sense of r~ythm", d~ neverthe1ess
the Black worker
a con~tant cinematic
for Clty ~ffe.
though stlll separate
Ly~ng outside the above triple typology are two further categories of film
WhlCh may be identified
in terms of their projected audience and treatement
of theme.
The first of these might be labelled authentic cinema given by
such examples as Jim Comes to Joburq (1949), Maqic Garden (I96I), Dinqa~a (1964),
Boesman and Lena (1973) and Mariqolds in August (1980).
dealing with other than White characters are aesigned to appeal to a wider
than purely Black audience.
population group but according
itself authentically
recognizes
A more general classification
positively
to it".
involve an ethnographic
subsumed into the general category of ethnographic
The second category would most closely approximate
.cinema of popular culture ••
How Long (1976) would fall into this category.
middle class determination,
African society, this film would qualify in such a category.
of Black written
would be further to the left.
Long which is based in the play of the same name, avoids a structural
vestigation
cinematically
the fact that Kente was detained by the Security Police during production and
that the film was banned on four counts (obscenity, blasphemy,
to race relations
To conclude this sectfon of the argw.nent we have shown that the White man's
version of the Black man's cinema, thst 1s, the 'back to the Homelands' movie,
the coopted movie and the conditional urban movie is predicated upon the twin
premises of profit and ideology. In the case of the coopted movie, profit does
not appear to be of great importance, while in the 'back to the Homelands'
and
a strong correlation
conditional
exists between the profit motive
Whether the ideology implicit in such films is
and ideological
opaque or not, that is to say, whether the ideological
intensions of these
films are recognized
hidden messages function
The lOre educated.
of these fl1l1S and place thSll in a politico-economic
arEi thus rejected and the cultural I\Yths carried in the texts become impotent. _
Box office takings, however, suggest that a large, if uncritical
are owned by White capital
patronize such IIOvfes.
and since the supply of Black capital is scarce, it is unlikely that a Black
cinema within the context of a Third World paradigm will emerge.
This type of
illlageswith an ideology vested in the cinema
film seeks to counter iqM!rialist
of popular 1:Ultureand
working class struggle.- The development of variant ideologles w,ll be prevented
and Blacks will continue
by the dominant group.
.-
rul fng class to deceive, but rather from the objective character of the econOllnc
systen as such.

or not, is immaterial to the final result.

In fact, the
better when they are not identified for what they are.
purpose
context •. Such offerings

aware urban Black is able to isolate the underlying

to be fed a reality and condition existence
filtered
This perception does not come from the desire of the

The origins of the colour bar, for instance, were not an

to the right of the cinema of popular culture.

and preju~icing

the safety of the state).

urban ~vies
content.

definition.

Since the Eans

of production

audience,

to rediscover history fran the point. of v~ew of the

6

rra~jonal response to some deep-seated
ideological beliefs or prejudices,
as Johnstone (1976, p.74) expresses it, "... a response to a
"t rHher,
',;~cificclass pr9blem, produced by the system of production and the class
'.lructure from Wh1Ch the problem itself was derived".
The intervention of
and ideology was crucial for the reproduction of the relations of
~Iitic~
;roductlon, both as the division of labour and its expression as class re-
lations.
Racism was the most effective instrument of class rule utilized
ty capital.
Thus in the Black South African movie, we see both a reflection of Black
society, albeit a muddled one, and a clear desire to control that society
through an ideologically filtered indoctrination.
The popular response to
such movies would suggest that, like Radio Bantu (BMR, 1975;
that they have met with relative success, at least as far as the less ar-
, ticulate and politically naive viewer is concerned.
~~ite South African Cinema
This brings us to a discussion of how the dominant ideology permeates White
South African cinema and convinces its viewers of their class position. This
section will also identify specific cultural indicators and discuss their
significance in terms of the wider society.
Host South African films, particuluarly those made in the Afrikaans language,
the insider versus
have at the level of appearance, a key plot structure;
This concept has been dealt with elsewhere (see Tomaselli,
the outsider.
This theme is typically found
1979b;
1980) but deserves elucidation here.
in the conflict-love
type story where one of the lovers (usually the girl)
Al-
dies an unnatural death, usually at the hand
of the jilted party.
ternatively, she may be blind, pregnant out of wedlock, rejected because of
This cultural indicator, that of the maimed
her colour, or even a leper.
heroine, indicates some sort of trauma about the status of the boeredogter,
the pure arche~pal
The'outsider 1S generally
perceived to be a threat to Afrikanerdom, an urbanized Afrikaner or some other
form of uitlander or foreigner.
The origins of this clash can be traced to the genesis of diamond mining in
the 1880's and was consolidated by the gold mining industry on the Witwaters-
rand after 1886.
Prior to the expansion of mining, most of South Africa's
cities were located on the coast.
No cities existed in the interior and when
mining commenced few South Africans possessed the skills or capital to exploit
the new wealth.
Consequently, skilled miners were imported from overseas.
As a result of this immigration, during the 1870's and 1880's, Afrikaners
sold their land to mining speculators and trekked off to more distant pastures.
The mining cities of Kimberley and Johannesburg thus became predominantly
English speaking.
The year 1903 was pivotal to the urban-rural value clash.
The Anglo-Boer War
created a large number of penniless Afrikaner refugees pushed off the land and
forced into the towns to seek a livelihood.
the Rinderpest epidemic of 1902 which destroyed IIOSt of the herds left in tack
by the British.
the discriminatory
O'Meara (1977, pp.160-
161), for example, observes:

This exodus was exacerbated by
This state of affairs was even the IIOreunpalitable given

daughter of the Afrikaner nation.

Switzer, 1979),

behaviour of the British colonists.

Within the imperialist colonial states a clear
cultural oppression operated against Afrikaans
speakers. Long before the war ended the indep-

7

dence of the Republics, so generating a fierce cultural re-
sponse, the language movement of the Cape had inspired a
stro~g cultural nationalism.
More importantly, in an es-
~entl~lly.peripheral
dominated by the ideology of
econo~
lmperlal lnterest, for those Afrikaners unprepared to accept
cultural assimilation and who possessed a modicum of training
rendoring them unsiutable for manual labour, employment oppor-
tunities were limited.

English was the language of the Economy.

II •••

••.••

.From the bitterness of
W~l~ins and Strydom (1978, p.39) put it more bluntly:
~lll~ry
defeat, they were forced to the greater bitterness of economic sub-
This Afrikaner hostility was
~ugatl?n.by the same foe, British imperialism".
lntenslfled through the change from surface gold mining to deep level excavation.
Io'hereasin the former case, a single prospector aided only by a few "natives"
was able to pan for gold, deep level mining required large capital committments
and centralized mining rights in the hands of a few, usually British entrepeneurs.
Wassenaar (1977, p.II4) describes in vague and general terms how the power of
the forefathers of Afrikanerdom
money became a threat to Afrikanerdom:
sat.on the sidelines watching how excessive wealth was accumulating in the hands
of lndividuals who were to them, foreigners or ~itlanders"
Elsewhere
Wassenaar (1977, p.I22) states that gold and the wealthy individuals associated
with it were identified as the enemy which had to •••
herded Afrikanerdom ever
more closely into a condensed group with their back to the wall".
The newly urbanized Afrikaner .poor White" found himself in an invidious position.
Initially he has neither the skills for non-manual labour nor the right colour
skin for manual labour in the mines.
The imported skilled miner saw the Afrik-
aner as a threat to his position and sought to keep him out at all costs.
In
1907, however. large numbers of unskilled Afrikaans workers were invited by
mining capital to scab on th~ (skilled) strikers but were not paid at the
same rate.
This marked the ~frikaners entry into mining on a large scale.
later, united with imported labour against mining capital they were successful
in entrenching the colour bar which functioned to stop the erosion of White
wage levels.
Against
such a background, it is not surprising that Afrikaners preferred life on the
veld (See Re ort of Commission In Re Pretoria lndi ents
19 1 have dea t compre enslvely with the
Patterson (1957) and de Kiewiet
religious and cultural character of the bond between the Afrikaner and his
agrarian lifestyle.
of Afrikaans films where
.
This is reflected in a meer
the unspoiled II\Ythicalimage of the rural Afribner
fanni~g
remains paramount.
symbolizes the roots of the insider, the opposi1:eof the outcast urban IIental1ty.
Having been forced into the cities by the war. JIlOStintended to return to 'the
farm' once they had accumulated sufficient capital --an ambition realized by
only a few.-
The main thesis of Rompel's (I942b, p.60) plea was the genesis of an Afrikaans
cinema developed in narrow contact with the Afrikaans soil (bodem) from ~hence
will come their inspiration. The attainment of a pure idealistic Volks-fl1m
should be wary of the evils of the city, he warned.
Rompels two exigeses
were clearly intended to suggest how the deployment of film as an ideological
weapon could fend off yolksvreemde
(dangerous to
~~enation)
influences.
Afrikaner cultural integrity must be maintained at
all costs.
film was to be used as a bond to maintain social cohesion and to.
ensure that Afrikaners play their God given designated roles and act out the~r
inherent functions as lllembersof the same COllllllnfty.This could only be achl~ved
by keeping the group closed and subordinating the differing ideologies to deVlne
Hence the preoccupation with the outsider in
will and the Afrikaner ideology.

This process culminated in the notorious 1922 strikes.

(alien) and yolksqevaarlike

1905).

Walker (1960),

8

The first tier concerns the outsider in t~e widest sense.

:.frl.aansfill:).The uitlander stands for a social role which is of a 0.0 tiered
:rdcr.
He is iden-
tIfIed wi~h British imperialism, and more latterly, with English speaking
Rarely seen in the film himself, he is , however, often referred
jouth Afrlca.
to 1~ conversatio~.
This may be partly due to the warping effect of the state
;ubSldy system WhlCh demands language purity within the cinema and which
rewards pure~y Afrikaans films with a higher payment than English versions.
The second tler refers to the urbanized Afrikaner who has cut his ties with
the "solid inherited Eloerekarakter". He is portrayed as a traitor to the
values and ideals of the Afrikaner nation and has become contaminated with
volksvreemde (alien) and volksqevaarlike influences. Rompel's (I942b, p.60)
statement that •••. at root of the matter the urban Afrikaner is not radically
dlfferent from -his rural fellow citizens" should be seen as an acknowledgement
of the possibility of these prodigal sons eventually returning to their soil.
~hese remarks should not imply that this genre is not unsympathetic to the
outsider.
Sometimes the director will use these myths to criticize the narrow-
ness of the the society he is portraying). This attitude is a consequence, not
of the fact that the Afrikaner is essentially rural in character, but because
the Afrikaner was historically thwarted in his attempts to wrest economic
power away from the English entrepeneur.
Ideological Adaptation, Social Breakdown and Economic Renewal
This returns the discussion to a consideration of the problems facing the
boeredogter and her consequent traumas and personal degredations.
Since
examples and descriptions are offered elsewhere (Tomaselli, 1979b;
1980),
the present discussion will elucidate
treatment of the boeredogter.
The first concerns the social effects of the Anglo-Boer War.
During this time
it was the Afrikaner women who had to tend to the soil, bring up the children
and run the household while the men were away fighting.
fonnation of a strongly matriachial society where the woman became the authority
figure.
30 000 women and children died in concentration camps administered by the
British. These women assumed the status of martyrs,
and symbolized a con-
tinuing flame of purity in the midst of a devestating assault by British im-
perialism against Afrikaner wealth, culture, identity and sanctity.
consequent hatred engendered in the Afrikaner of the British continues to the
present, a sentiment which is questioned in Elmo de Witt's film 'n Beeld vir
Jeannie (1976).
This film, which takes the side of the outsider, is critical
of the personal hatred still carried by the Afrikaner whose demand for things
pure has distorted and vitiated his perception of the world around him.
Second, during the rural-urban migration, very often it was the women who
remained behind on their impoverished farms while their husbands sought work
in the towns.
their men-folk were drawn to labour for the enemy which had defeated them,
both on the battlefield and economically.
The third element of the boeredogter personality concerns her.ability to adapt
to Changing circumstances.
'This relates inparticular to the economic ascendence
of the Afrikaner.
This new status must inevitably move him into the cities,
for it is in these areas that the seat of economic power lies. The solution to
the dilemma facing Afrikaners in respect to the discrimination against them
was,to quote Broederbonder LJ de Plessis (1934), •••• to.capture the foreign
(capitalist) system and transform and adapt it to our national character".

Later, due to unsanitory conditions and a lack of fresh food, nearly

They became the guardians of puri~

and cultural integrity while

the ideological implications of tht

The reult was the

The

.

.

9

has largely been successful, first by capturing political
In this aim Afrikanerdom
The resulting urbanization offers anomymity,
power and latterly, economic power.
a chance to cast off the close social restrictions of an agricultural community.
In short, the boeredogter has become an individual.
In some cases she has lost
her collective spirlt, the cement which binds Afrikanerdom.
ravages of capital have assigned new social roles, new patterns of social org-
anization, new far more liberal sexual mores and a wider set of social relations.
The new boeredogter has moved to the city, she has lost her rural heritage, she
epitomizes a materialist,
sometimes non-religious threat to the Rompel stereo-
type of Aryan purity.
Parallel with this move to the city has occurred a new
threat to Afrikanerdom - what is labelled as "the total world onslaught" against
This has caused a restructuring of the key plot which no longer
South Africa.
sees social relations in terms of rural versus urban lifestyles, but more dia-
lectically in Black versus White terms.
This modification operates at various
First, the idea of the urban Afrikaner has been accepted
levels of significance.
in cinematic myth, but achieving this, the sexual and cultural purity of the
boeredo~ter has been demolished.
The outsider or uitlander is still there, but
but he 1S no longer seen in rural-urban tenms. but in relation to a new psycho-
This
logical state which has superceded the purity symbols of 'the farm'.
in the key plot is the result of B new war, a new set of res-
modification
This mental
surrected traumas bent on the destruction of Afrikaner culture.
state is typified as 'the Border' - which stands for an imperialist world on-
slaught which, like the British war on the Boers, seeks to take away what
belongs to Afrikanerdom - its wealth, its culture. and its priveledged God
given position in life.
The concept or cultural indicator of the outsider becomes, consequently, more
complex.
It should now be analysed not as a two tiered, but as a three tiered
structure.
The first. though now less important, remains the image of the
English speaking South African.
The second is a new kind of Afrikaner villain,
who is not defined by his uQban geographical location, but by the fact that
he wants to flee the country (hy wil van die land vlug).
The third element
of the outsider is a new one.
The outsider is no longer seen in purely White
personified in tenms of his Blackness.
terms - he has become a mortal en~
He is seen in the war movie, he is a stupid communist dupe bent upon the aim-
less destruction of White civilization in the sub-continant.
is inevitable, a price to pay in the maintenance of Afrikanerdom - like the
endless wars of the Hebrews agiarist the Philistines.
Each of these elements
is identifiable in the portrayal of the outsider. though one may be more im-
portant than the other two.
Until the m:d-I970's. Blacks were simply not part
of South African cinematic ~yth.
Where he did appear. he fulfilled the tra-
ditional White stereotype of the 'witchdoctor' or the role of the trustworthy
servant.
In the war movie he has betrayed his masters. he has become 'cheeky'
and no longer knows his place in life.
has changed. a function of the war and a rapproachment with the Afrikaner.
Fighting for a common cause against Blacks. the English speaking South African
is united with the government
in its desire to entrench the dominant position
of White nationalism.
'This is partly exemplified in the merging of Afrikaner
and English capital into a single ideological entity - Nationalist capital •.
This unification is a result of increasing Afrikaner influence in the economlC
Bnd financial sectors of the political economy and attempts by the Prime Minister
PW Botha to buy off the English speaking business man.
has proved sutcessful (2) replacing Afrikaans capital and English capital
with National .capital.

The image of the English speaker too. has

This confrontation

In others, the

The latter stratagy

10

:r:clusion
An examination of
:~e study of a nation's cinema cannot be conducted in vacuo.
l~dges in relation to the society portrayed will offer insights into the
social structure and ideological orientations of a society.
This study has
looked at the ideology of South African cinema and related its images to the
social history of its people.
Through this correlation, recurring cultural
motifs and indicators were identified which provide a table of values with
Often the signs pro-
which to evaluate the semiotics of South African cinema.
duced suggest future social traumas and hint at ideological adjustments which
may be employed to meet them.
Already evident is a posturing amongst Whites
1n general to meet and contain a communist onslaught fed and sustained by
continuous media propaganda where the enemy of the present structure of South
African society is shown to be influences emanating from outside the country.
Few images are available from the perspectives of Black filmmakers for, apart
from Gibsen Kente, few Blacks are involved in the cinematic medium.
first, ideologically unpalitable films such as How Long are
is two-fold:
prevented from circulation thus preventing the witness of alternative inter-
pretations of South African society;
and second, the control by Whites of
Black cinema tells the viewer far more about the ideology, values and attitudes
of the White filmmaker than it does about the community he is portraying.
This paper has dealt with only a few of the many cultural indicators which
are to be seen in South African cinema and further research remains to be done
in the correlation of recurring images with social history.

The result

"The African Performer and the Johannesburg Entertainment

The Struggle for African Culture on the Witwatersrand" in B.Bozzoli:

Black South Africans.

Oxford University Press, Cape Town,

Research in South African

and Economic.

Reading Capital. NLB, London

A Study of the Attitudes of Blacks to

Balibar,-E. 1970:

"Sebokeng. Doories and Bre Jiggs:

(R. Deppe), No.48, UNISA, Pretoria

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. ' - -' .'.'

-

.

I

I.
2.

The only exceptions
Witness,
for example
winning
over the support
held at the Carlton Centre

(1979), and To~~selli

are Grei9
the Prime Minister's

(1979b;
public relations

197;c)
success

in

of English speaking businessmen

at his congress

in November,

1979.

Still Riding: TLALI, GORDIMER, MATSHOBA, ABRAHAMS, MUTLOATSE, GRAY,
KWANZA,

_ SILUMA. POLAND, MPHAHLELE, WILDMAN, BAYAJULA,

ZAMANI. MBAKASIMA,

SOARTA.
eYA, GUYO, ABANGANI.
MOROPA, GAR TASSO, MAD I, MPUMALANGA. MALOPOETS.
KHAULEZA and many others.

13