Sarafina!

The 1992 film Sarafina!, directed by Darrell Roodt, stars Terius Meintjies, John Kani, Miriam Makeba, Whoopi Goldberg, and leleti Khumalo. It was filmed in South Africa. It is based on a riot by students in Soweto who fought for the use of indigenous language for instruction in classrooms. Sarafina, the protagonist, has a mother who works as a domestic helper for the colonizers in apartheid-era South Africa. She is propelled to stand up in protest by Nelson Mandela, who is currently in prison, and her instructor Mary Masombuka. The movie ends with Sarafina criticizing Nelson Mandela for staying too long and not responding to nation’s cry due to the horrific situation experienced by the black nation in South Africa (CIEUTAT, 1992). The film was shot in Soweto in Soweto and Johannesburg from a script by William Nicholson and Mbongeni Ngema. It represents various sociological theories related to social coexistence among different race.

Reflection on social context

The movie represents the colonial South African nation which was under the rule of the white masters and Apartheid was a major vice. The black population did not have equal rights as was the white population which enjoyed higher privileges. The movie depicts the inequality in the apartheid society of South Africa especially in Soweto where there were major uprising and revolt against white supremacy. The movie shows Sarafina mother who works in a white homestead, and she is not treated equally as others. It is a shame to work for the white and Sarafina is profoundly disturbed by this. In school, the administration is overpowered by the colonial government where African language and practices are disregarded. Those who revolt against it such as teacher Mary Masombuka are imprisoned or killed. There is social mistrust and when riots erupt in school the South African soldiers who are black and white can be seen shooting children. Additionally, when a black police officer who is instrumental in Apartheid is caught by black school children, he is burnt alive using gasoline (CIEUTAT, 1992).

The movie constructs and represents the aspect of reality in what happened in South Africa in terms of colonialism, racism, and poverty. Regarding colonialism, it shows how the Europeans powers had economic, military and cultural domination on Africans. The effects of colonialism can be seen from the experiences South Africans went through between 1970 and 1980s as students struggled against apartheid. Colonialism introduced discrimination of the black race even when they were the majority. The colonial masters controlled all social and cultural practices

Culture domination by the white man is evident. Students can be seen engaging in formal education which was not part of African. The black way of life is also an imitation of the white man’s way of life as can be seen in the movie by the kind of clothes they wear, types of houses they live in and the area where the movie is set. All these are not African style, but rather European. There is less of African people culture in the film which depicts the dominance of European culture in social events and places such as bars, and materials used in daily life, further affirming the definition colonialism as a social vice.

Distortion of social reality

The movie Sarafina mirrors the South African society during the colonial and apartheid time. Whereas it is difficult to show the sociological perspective of society through other means, the movie brings out this aspect in a detailed way. The film depicts the separation of blacks and white by the apartheid rule with blacks subjected deplorable lifestyle and the white enjoying the better side of life. Sarafina movies show how there were separated places for whites and blacks such as bridges to mark the demarcation for each group (CIEUTAT, 1992). The colonialists had better services compared to the black, and this led to students’ demonstrations on the street. Additionally, hate can be seen between the two races by the protagonist, Sarafina when she was in white man’s house she left the taps running out of resentment towards the white man.

There are events of violence against the black by the whites who showed little regards by shooting, arresting, torturing and killing them due to racism. The mob justice represents racism at the highest level as the cop who supported whiter race is killed. The protagonist is also tortured in an inhumane way after being arrested for demanding equal rights as white. The teacher, Ms. Goldberg is also taken to prison for being an inspirational against racism to the students since she taught them details that their textbooks did not cover. The police attack the students and shoot them violently showing the cruelty of the colonizers. Violent activities are found in all the scenes in the movie which emphasizes on how hard the African found to fight against the Apartheid rules.

The film also presents another social stratification in South Africa. The blacks are portrayed as poor and suffering from various societal problems although there are many enlightened blacks. The whites, on the other hand, are depicted as affluent and educated and superior to blacks who live in better houses and good suburbs. Most of the blacks are shown to live in Soweto shanties characterized by dust, violence and poor houses. Such scenes depict racism through social stratification (Kerbo, 1996). The movie compares the western culture with the African culture where inequality is the daily perspective. In Soweto, the reality is depicted using real students and the school. The libraries are destroyed, there is dust all over and wall spray painting showing the exact happenings of people living in South Africa. The experience the school students went through during their studies and the physical locations of the movies casting were based on real events.

Social and human problems

Sarafina movie uses a student to show the white supremacy, racism, and domination in South Africa. The colonialist are depicted as brutal and ruthless especially where they are tortured to give information. The movie shows how the Apartheid rule brought suffering and torture to many people in South Africa and mostly the students some of who fought against it. It uses realistic scenes to trigger emotions for the audience to understand and sympathize with the students. On the other hand, the students are sympathetic to social problems introduced by colonialism and racism (CIEUTAT, 1992). They go through the major struggle and human issues to get freedom. The social problem is also shown to be caused by the people who are hosted by the same society such as the cop who supported apartheid and can be considered as a traitor. He has been shown as a traitor who betrays human life, those around him and the whole nation through oppression and discrimination.

Movies do not necessarily reflect on perfect conditions and sometimes the film director may distort social norms of the society. Additionally, they can educated the audience about the biases, principles, and misunderstandings of specific period and location. Although the film is an act, the audience can relate to it to understand various social injustices and human suffering Apartheid brought to the blacks in South Africa.

Evidence on sociological theory and research

Sarafina movie is a story about social conflict. Racial conflict is of the essence in the film where the blacks and the whites are depicted to coexist violently. It can be seen due to the various classification of people in the same society such as colored, Indian, white and black. Major division and differences were experiences between the blacks and the white who were the majority (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). In social conflict theory, the society has different groups that compete with each other and this conflict dwells on values and ideologies. When these groups compete there is an ever conflict which means that the society keeps conflicting. It shows how the construction of oppressed identities gave rise to a set of cognitive alternatives which enable social change through social movements (Oberschall, 1973). The movie shows the effect of identity category and the social change belief system that was formed to fight apartheid. Social mobilizations helped the student to fight for the oppressed identity as well as mobilize others towards social change. The movie introduced the concept of critical race theory which needs further research to understand approaches to race and racism with emphasis on race-neutrality, color-blind privileges and individual autonomy (Bohman, 2005). Additionally, the theory can be applied in legal perspective to study how race perpetuated injustice, oppression, and domination during apartheid.

Sarafina movie connection of biography, social structure, and history

The movie is based on real social events which occurred in South Africa during the Apartheid rule. Nelson Mandela as the leader of the fight against apartheid gave inspiration to people including school children who were part of the revolution. The treatment of different race as unequal was based on the assumptions that the white was superior and should enjoy better rights. The movie connect all this to make the audience the history of South Africa. The movie interweaves all the major happening during apartheid such as torture, killing, imprisonment, betrayal, and revolt by heroic students. Sarafina is depicted as one of the agents of change. Success and failure have been shown to be some of the major perspectives of the movie both for the white and the blacks.

Conclusion

Social conflict theory and social stratification can be seen to revolve around Sarafina Film. The Apartheid rule in South Africa and the major struggle by the students shows how societal problems can be addressed and challenges people face. Whereas the movie explains the history of South Africa and the social problems encountered, it also shows how sociology as a discipline can be used to study different phenomena in the society such as race, discrimination, and inequality among others. It also helps to introduce further studies on critical race theory to explain and address social problems presented by race and discrimination.

References

Bohman, J. (2005). Critical theory.

CIEUTAT, M. (1992). ’SARAFINA THE MOVIE’-ROODT, DJ.

Kerbo, H. R. (1996). Social stratification and inequality: Class conflict in historical and comparative perspective. McGraw-Hill College.

Oberschall, A. (1973). Social conflict and social movements. Prentice Hall.

Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. The social psychology of intergroup relations, 33(47), 74.