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April 02, 2006
Tsotsi and Thandis
Tonight, I finally had a chance to see Tsotsi. Based on Athol Fugard's novel of the same name, it is a gripping, disturbing, challenging but finally, uplifting, even beautiful film.
A few weeks ago, while in Cape Town, I also had a chance to tour three of the townships in the Cape Flats. Both the movie, which is set in the Soweto township--Soweto itself being an acronym for South West Township--and the experience of the Flats are overwhelming. Both leave one astonished at the great economic chasm between the abject poverty of the Flats and the relative prosperity afforded by even modest means.
Tsotsi translates to "thug," but Fugard's novel is a novel of redemption which I won't spoil for you except to say that the redemption is made all the more remarkable by the bleak backdrop it is set against. But as moving as the movie was, I found something missing. Surprising as it may sound, what I missed was the optimism and purpose I saw in the townships I visited.
Our driver, Thandis, grew up in the township of Langa (Xhosa for sun). Yes, the townships were bleak places. No, I wouldn't want to live there. And yes, I have tremendous sympathy for the decent, dignified people I met there. But one must be cautious of sympathy, that it not simply mask the self-conscious discomfort of opportunity taken for granted as a birthright.
As I pointed out a few days ago, there is tremendous progress being made in moving South Africa in the right direction--the direction of peace and prosperity for all. But it is easy to overlook. South Africa is an entreprenurial, tough country.
What's different about Thandis' and Tsotsi's portrait of the townships? The difference between the old South Africa and the new. What's that difference? The difference between an orientation to a dismal future, or a better one.
For Tsotsi, there are three possible paths: death, jail, or redemption. For Thandis, there is a fourth path: progress and prosperity. That fourth path is no easier than the other three--Thandis described working all day then studying most of the night by candle light in an abandoned car chassis to pass his matrics--but it is a new direction that wasn't available when Fugard wrote Tsotsi. To Thandis, now a successful entrepreneur, the availability of this fourth path made all the difference in the world.
Posted by davidkippen at April 2, 2006 02:35 AM