Currently Reading: Cry, the Beloved Country

When I was in high school Ms. Nancy Colton, my math teacher, gave me a copy of this book with the thought that I might enjoy it. It was the 1980s and South Africa, Mandela, apartheid and divestment were in the news every day and I think she thought it was a good introduction to the history of the problem. I never read it. The issue was illuminated for me when I reached college and several of my classmates occupied the college development office in protest of the school’s investments connected to South Africa.

Cry, the Beloved Country was first published in the 1940s, then released again in the 1950s as the Civil Rights movement was gaining steam, then again in the 1980s as international pressure began to build on South Africa to abandon apartheid. It got another boost when it was chosen as part of the now defunct Oprah’s Book club.