Alan Paton

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Paton, 1961 (credit: UPI)

(born Jan. 11, 1903, Pietermaritzburg, Natal, S.Af. — died April 12, 1988, near Durban) South African writer and political activist. While principal of a reformatory housing black youths, Paton introduced controversial progressive reforms and wrote his best-known work, the novel Cry, the Beloved Country (1948), focusing international attention on the issue of apartheid. To offer a nonracial alternative to apartheid, he helped found the Liberal Party of South Africa in 1953 and led the organization until it was banned in 1968. His other works include the novel Too Late the Phalarope (1953) and the biographies Hofmeyr (1964) and Apartheid and the Archbishop (1973).

For more information on Alan Stewart Paton, visit Britannica.com.

Alan Stewart Paton (1903-1988) was a South African writer and liberal leader. His novel "Cry, The Beloved Country" won him world acclaim for the insights it gave on South Africa's race problem.

Alan Stewart Paton was born in Pietermaritzburg in the Natal Province, a former British colony that is now part of the Republic of South Africa, on January 11, 1903. From 1919 to 1922 he attended the University of Natal, from which he graduated with degrees in science and education. At this time Paton began writing poetry and dramas. In 1925 he became the assistant master at the Ixopo High School and, in 1928, joined the staff of Pietermaritzburg College. He was appointed principal of the Diepkloof Reformatory in 1935 and retired from government service in 1948. Thereafter, Paton devoted his life to writing, lecturing on the race question, and organizing the Liberal Party of South Africa.

Paton the Activist

The Diepkloof Reformatory, just outside Johannesburg, had been administered as a prison for delinquent youths from the slums rather than an institution for their rehabilitation. Paton insisted that this defeated the purpose of the reformatory. He introduced reforms which enabled some of the young to regain their self-respect. His granting of weekend leave was considered revolutionary. To the surprise of some of his colleagues, most of the boys returned at the end of their leave.

Paton began writing Cry, The Beloved Country in 1947 while touring American and European prisons and reformatories. In 1948 Cry, The Beloved Country was published, becoming an immediate success. At the same time, the predominantly Afrikaner Nationalist party was returned to power on the apartheid slogan that white's must remain master of South Africa. To Paton and those who shared his views, it was not enough for white liberals to preach race conciliation; they had to involve themselves actively in opposition to apartheid. Early in the 1950s he took part in the formation of the Liberal Association, which later became the Liberal Party of South Africa (SALP). He was elected its president in 1953 and remained in this position until the government enacted a law making the party illegal.

The SALP welcomed South Africans of all races in its ranks and sought to establish an open society in which merit would fix the position of the individual in the life of the nation. It advocated nonviolence and set out to collaborate with the black Africans' political organizations. Like most leaders of the SALP, Paton was criticized bitterly in the Afrikaans press for identifying himself with black Africans. The underlying fear was that he and his colleagues were creating potentially dangerous polarizations in the white community.

The party, however, gained a substantial following among both blacks and whites. In 1960 the government decided to take action against it. Peter Brown and Elliot Mngadi, national chairman and Natal secretary respectively of the SALP, were banned. Some of the party's leaders fled the country, while others like Hyacinth Bhengu and Jordan K. Ngubane, were arrested and tried on conspiracy charges. Paton was spared the arrests and the bannings. The government did, however, seize his passport upon his return from New York after having accepted the Freedom House Award honoring his opposition to racism. After a little less than ten years the government returned Paton's passport. That made it possible for him to undertake a world tour (1971) during the course of which he was showered with honors in America and Europe.

Paton the Writer

As a writer, Paton was a subject of controversy in his country. Cry, The Beloved Country made a tremendous impression outside South Africa and among the English-speaking in the republic. The nationalist-minded Afrikaners dismissed it, as a piece of liberalistic sentimentality. It caused only a minor stir in the black African community, where Paton was criticized for using stereotypes in depicting his black African characters. He was accused of approaching the black Africans from white perspectives which projected them either as the victims of violent and uncontrolled passions or as simple, credulous people who bore themselves with the humility of tamed savages in the presence of the white man.

The years after 1948 were to see a long list of publications from Paton's pen. In 1953 he published Too Late, the Phalarope. This was followed by Land and the People of South Africa (1955), South Africa in Transition (1956), Hope for South Africa (1958), Tales from a Troubled Land (1960), Debbie Go Home (1961), Hofmeyr (1965), South African Tragedy (1965), Instrument of Thy Peace (1967), The Long View (1968), For You Departed (1969), Creative Suffering: The Ripple of Hope (1970), Knocking on the Door: Alan Paton/Shorter Writings (1975), and Towards the Mountain: An Autobiography (1988). In addition to these, Paton wrote a musical, Mkhumbane, for which Todd Matshikiza, the exiled African composer, wrote the music. Paton also wrote the play, Sponono, in 1965.

Among the more significant awards Paton received were doctorates in literature from Kenyon College (1962), Natal University (1968), and Harvard University (1971); the London Sunday Times Special Award for Literature (1949); a doctorate in literature and the humanities from Yale University (1954); the Freedom House Award (1960); and an award from the Free Academy of Art, Hamburg, Germany (1961).

Paton died of throat cancer on April 12, 1988 at his home outside Durban shortly after completing Journey Continued: An Autobiography. He was mourned as one of South Africa's leading figures in the anti-apartheid movement. Shortly after his death, his widow, Anne (Hopkins) Paton released a large portion of the contents of Paton's study for the establishment of The Alan Paton Centre on the Pietermaritzburg campus of the University of Natal. The university set aside space for this permanent memorial to Paton for future generations of writers and activists.

In 1996 American actor James Earl Jones and Irish actor Richard Harris starred in a film version of Cry, The Beloved Country and received critical acclaim for their portrayal of Paton's characters.

Further Reading

A perceptive study of Paton is Edward Callan Alan Paton (1968). Some biographical information on Paton can also be found in the Washington Post (June 6, 1991) and the San Francisco Chronicle (March 19, 1989). Information on Cry, The Beloved Country as a film can be found in the New York Times (December 19, 1994). A brief biography of Paton appears in the A&E Television Network's on-line biography Website located at www.biography.com.

• Occupation: Writer
• Active: '50s, '70s, '90s
• Major Genres: Drama
• Career Highlights: Lost in the Stars, Cry, the Beloved Country, Cry the Beloved Country
• First Major Screen Credit: Cry the Beloved Country (1951)

Biography

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Alan Stewart Paton (11 January 1903 – 12 April 1988) was a South African author and liberal political activist.

Contents 1 Family 2 Early career 3 Opposition to apartheid 4 Other works 5 Selected Works 6 See also 7 Notes 8 External links

Family

Paton was born in Pietermaritzburg, Natal Province (now KwaZulu-Natal), the son of a minor civil servant.^[1] After attending Maritzburg College, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Natal^[1] in his hometown, followed by a diploma in education. After graduation, Paton worked as a teacher, first at the Ixopo High School, and subsequently at a Pietermaritzburg high school^[1] While at Ixopo he met Dorrie Francis Lusted.^[1] They were married in 1928 and remained together until her death from emphysema in 1967.^[1] Their life together is documented in Paton's book Kontakion for You Departed, published in 1969. Paton and his secretary, Anne Hopkins, were married the same year.^[1]

Early career

He served as the principal of the Diepkloof Reformatory for young (African) offenders from 1935 to 1948, where he introduced controversial reforms of a progressive slant.^[1] Most notable among these were the open dormitory policy, the work permit policy, and the home visitation policy. Boys were initially housed in closed dorms. Once they had proven themselves trustworthy, they would be transferred to open dorms within the compound. Boys who showed high levels of trustworthiness would be permitted to work outside the compound. In some cases, boys were even permitted to reside outside the compound under the supervision of a care family. Interesting to note is that fewer than 1% of ten thousand boys given home leave during Paton's years at Diepkloof ever broke their trust by failing to return.

Paton volunteered for service during World War II, but was refused. After the war he took a trip, at his own expense, to tour correctional facilities across the world. He toured Scandinavia, England, continental Europe, and the United States of America. During his time in Norway, he began work on his seminal novel Cry, The Beloved Country, which he would complete over the course of his journey, finishing it on Christmas Eve in San Francisco in 1946.^[1] There, he met Aubrey and Marigold Burns, who read his manuscript and found a publisher to publish it. The editor Maxwell Perkins, noted for editing novels of Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, would guide Paton's first novel through publication with Scribner's.

Opposition to apartheid

In 1948, four months after the publication of Cry, The Beloved Country, the separatist National Party came to power in South Africa. In 1953 Paton founded the South African Liberal Party, which fought against the apartheid legislation introduced by the National Party. He remained the president of the SALP until its forced dissolution by the apartheid regime in the late 1960s, officially because its membership comprised both blacks and whites. Paton was a friend of Bernard Friedman, founder of the Progressive Party (South Africa) ^[2]. Paton's writer colleague Laurens van der Post, who had moved to England in the 1930s, helped the party in many ways. Van der Post knew that the South African Secret Police was aware that he was paying money to Paton, but could not stop it by legal procedures. Paton himself was noted for his peaceful opposition to the apartheid system, as were many others in the party, though some did take a more direct, violent route. Consequently, the party did have some stigma attached to it as a result of these actions. Paton's passport was confiscated on his return from New York in 1960, where he had been presented with the annual Freedom Award. It was not returned for another ten years.

Paton retired to Botha's Hill, where he resided until his death. He is honoured at the Hall of Freedom of the Liberal International organization.

Other works

Paton's second and third novels, Too Late the Phalarope (1953) and Ah, but Your Land is Beautiful (1981), and his short stories, Tales From a Troubled Land (1961), all deal with the same racial themes that concerned the author in his first novel. Ah, but Your Land is Beautiful was built on parallel life stories, letters, speeches, news and records in legal proceedings, and mixed fictional and real-life characters, such as Albert Lutuli and Hendrik Verwoerd. The novel was in essence historical fiction, giving an accurate account of the resistance movement in South Africa during the 1960s. "Paton attempts to imbue his characters with a humanity not expected of them. In this novel, for example, we meet the supposedly obdurate Afrikaner who contravenes the infamous Immorality Act. There are other Afrikaners, too, who are led by their consciences and not by rules, and regulations promulgated by a faceless, monolithic parliament." (from Post-Colonial African Writers, ed. by Pushipa Naidu Parekh and Siga Fatima Jagne, 1998)

Paton was a prolific essay writer, his theme once again being the race and politics of South Africa. In Save the Beloved Country Paton plays on the famous title of his first novel but keeps a serious tone throughout discussing many of the famous personalities and issues on various sides of the South Africa's apartheid struggle. His Anglican faith was another factor in his life and work, as may be gleaned from the title of Instrument of Thy Peace. Paton wrote two autobiographies: Towards the Mountain deals with Paton's life leading up to and including the publication of Cry, the Beloved Country (an event that changed the course of his life) while Journey Continued takes its departure from that time onwards. He wrote biographies of others as well. His friend Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr was honoured thus in Hofmeyr as was another friend, Geoffrey Clayton, in Apartheid and the Archbishop. Another form that interested him throughout his life was poetry; the biographer Peter Alexander includes many of these poems in his biography of Alan Paton.

Two recent publications of Paton's work include travel writing -- The Lost City of the Kalahari (2006); and a new complete selection of his shorter writings -- The Hero of Currie Road.

Selected Works

• Cry, The Beloved Country, 1948 - film 1951, dir. by Zoltan Korda
• Lost in the Stars 1950 (with Maxwell Anderson - set to music by Kurt Weill)
• Too Late the Phalarope, 1953
• The Land and People of South Africa, 1955
• South Africa in Transition, 1956
• Debbie Go Home, 1960
• Tales from a Troubled Land, 1961
• Hofmeyer, 1964
• Spono, 1965 (with Krishna Shah)
• The Long View, 1967
• Instrument of Thy Peace, 1968
• Kontakio For You Departed, 1969 (also: For You Departed)
• Case History of a Pinky, 1972
• Apartheid and the Archbishop: the Life and Times of Geoffrey Clayton, Archbishop of Cape Town, 1973
• Knocking on the Door, 1975
• Towards the Mountain, 1980
• Ah, but Your Land is Beautiful, 1981
• Journey Continued: An Autobiography, 1988
• Save the Beloved Country, 1989
• The Hero of Currie Road: the complete short pieces, 2008 [1]

Cry, The Beloved Country has been filmed twice (in 1951 and 1995) and was the basis for the Broadway musical Lost in the Stars (adaptation by Maxwell Anderson, music by Kurt Weill).

The Alan Paton Award for non-fiction is conferred annually in his honour.

See also

• Liberalism
• Contributions to liberal theory
• List of African writers
• List of South Africans — In 2004 Paton was voted 59th in the SABC3's Great South Africans

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Alan (Stewart) Paton (1903-1988)
2. ^ http://www.mg.co.za/article/2005-11-14-a-mixture-of-ice-and-fulfilled-desire

External links

• The Alan Paton Centre & Struggle Archives
• Alan Paton — A short biography and bibliography
• Cry the Beloved Country (1951) at the Internet Movie Database
• Cry the Beloved Country (1995) at the Internet Movie Database
• http://www.mg.co.za/article/2005-11-14-a-mixture-of-ice-and-fulfilled-desire

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