Empowered to be People of Reconciliation

Voices. Speaking openly. Speaking honestly. 

Free to be used, heard, and known.

             In my study of the global work of Reconciliation over the course of the last year I have come to find that this is the most tangible, applicable definition of reconciliation I can easily communicate. Easy, but easier said that done seems like an understatement. What is Reconciliation? It seems like the answer is as multi-faceted as the ways in which it molds and moves and applies itself to instances of injustice, pain, trauma, healing, redemption, forgiveness, grace, and atonement. We see beautiful examples of this adaptability in Red Dust, through the implicit trauma and inevitable inconclusive completion of forgiveness. In a way, that is what reconciliation must be, a way to not set the past aside, but to freely acknowledge, and have the strength and trust to allow God’s love to be bigger than the depravity of our world. We are exceptionally good at hurting one another. We, as the people of God, have also historically been very good at doing the same to the unconditional love and grace offered to us. It is difficult, I by no means wish to diminish that, but even in the midst of perceiving with every fiber of our beings that we reside in a gray world of Ecclesiastes and not a black and white one of Proverbs we must seek resolution, peace, and justice. For it is fair to say that God is surely on the side of the poor, the oppressed, and the downtrodden. It is also fair to say that our example has already been set. We need not seek other sources than Jesus to understand what being a true reconciler looks like.

Again, easier said than done. 

            In the films we have examined, there are countless images of divide and reconciliation through embracing other, loving greater, and bridging the gaps. The development of relationship between Stephen and James in Cry, the Beloved Country and the visuals cast by it are beautiful examples of that. It is far too easy to succumb to fear instead of engaging in the hard work of understanding the pain to be found in those around us, much less in that of our ‘enemy’. The scene in which the two men meet at the top of the mountain to grieve the loss of the child that had killed the other to me exemplifies a mutual deep acknowledgement of pain void of fear. Though the two remain set apart, as James’ stance, elevated and seated upon the horse, may demonstrate, the simple words of, “Go well, umfundisi” with their respect and forgiveness, act as a verbal release. 

Reconciliation

Picture a small, dirty cell with a single barred window and two African men sitting at a small and plain-looking table.  One man is white and the other black.  One man holds a smoking cigarette in cuffed hands and the other holds nothing.  But he walks away with the one thing he ever asked for.

The roles here were switched years before.  Alex Mpondo had been a suspected black man under interrogation, and Dirk Hendricks had been his white interrogator.  In Tom Hooper’s, Red Dust (2004), two significant scenes play out in this dank cell.  The contrasting roles and conversations of Alex and Dirk in each scene represent a violent journey from an insidious pain into healing and reconciliation.

In the first scene, a flashback in Alex’s memory, Alex has been severely tortured to inches from death.  As has his friend, Steven.  In his state of incoherence, Alex is forced by Dirk to claim Steven as part of a rebel group.  Alex watches as Steven, a young man he considers a brother, is then dragged away to be buried.

This first scene haunts both men, especially Alex, and represents the tumultuous and trapped feeling of anti-reconciliation in one’s life.  When trauma occurs, everyone involved is affected and can be influenced by it for life.  Alex Mpondo has caged and buried his memories of this scene, but many other feelings followed it down.  As he recovers the memory throughout the trial, Mpondo experiences severe pain, guilt, and insecurity.  But it later becomes the key to reconciling with his trauma.

In the second scene, Alex and Dirk sit at a table in the same cell.  Nearing the end of a long and tedious trial before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, both men are weary, but Dirk is now the man being questioned about Steven.  Dirk, tortured by guilt, confesses the location of Steven’s bones.

This scene is the most significant scene in the reconciliation of Alex and Dirk.  The weight of the gruesome torture and accusations about sending Steven to his death has expanded from Alex to Dirk.  Dirk is not only tortured by guilt, but by the enormity of torment and misery that the event has caused so many people, which, as he realizes, includes him.  The audience watches as Dirk, on the verge of tears, finally admits to the murder of Steven.  While this was all that Alex wanted, Alex received more.  In a way, he is released from the violent grip of trauma through his remembering it.  Dirk, in recognizing and acknowledging what he did, is also freed.  There is no forgetting a traumatizing event in one’s life, but as Tom Hooper shows through Red Dust, reconciliation, even after years of pushing it away and dealing with the pain, is healing from re-experiencing and reliving that trauma.  Reconciliation is a story that must be told.

The Voice of Reconciliation

Truth.

Reconciliation is not about people joining together to hold hands forget what has happened and move on in ignorance. Reconciliation is about truth and the chance for people’s voices to be heard. Red Dust tells a fictitious story following Alex Mpondo, a victim of torture at the hands of police officer, Dirk Hendrix. Although Alex is only a character, his experience of torture and reconciliation is one that many people in South Africa can relate to.

South Africa did not have one clean divide between the whites or the blacks, or even the torturer and the tortured, South Africa was shattered. There was the division of families and friends, communities, and even the division of people within themselves. Mpondo and Hendrix were not only reconciling with each other, but with the community and themselves as well.

Through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission people were able to apply for amnesty and as long as the panel believed that the applicant had told the whole truth the applicant could not be charged for that crime. In Red Dust Dirk Hendrix applied for amnesty concerning the torture of Alex Mpondo. The amnesty hearings do not make Alex feel better about what happened, that was not their goal, but rather the goal of reconciliation is truth and letting people’s truths be heard. The props that the film uses to symbolize reconciliation are the microphones in the hearings. Through the microphones Alex has a voice and his truths will be heard, even Dirk Hendrix is given a microphone and a voice to share his truths. The microphones are only the starting point, in the film the true moment of reconciliation happens in a small room when they are alone and able to communicate and take a huge step towards reconciling.

That is how reconciliation begins, by allowing everyone to have a voice. All across South Africa people had stories, some that they were ashamed of, and some that they harbored anger in. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission gave the country a choir of voices that led the way to reconciliation and truth.

Reconciliation in Red Dust

For South Africa, reconciliation appears in the form of narrative. It is the act of remembering the trauma and injustices one has suffered. Reconciling faces the past instead of forgetting it and allowing the pains to rot within. The flashbacks of Mpondo’s torture in the film Red Dust illuminates the theme of remembrance in the acts of reconciliation in South Africa.

The beginning of the film starts with a close up of the bloody face of Steven Sizela tinted in red light while fire crackling and heavy breathing play throughout the scene. It crosscuts to a wider angle where the audience can see the body of a man being dragged away, and the camera focusing in on the blood in the dirt. The title appears next to the puddle of blood. This beginning scene is a set up for the rest of the flashbacks in the film and the themes of reconciliation.

Most of the flashbacks occur at the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, as the characters try to remember the torture events. The scene of Mpondo being drowned in a brown satchel is a close-up shot, sometimes focusing on his face, and other times the clock and the torturer. It is a close-up so that the pain of the victim becomes more personal to the audience, and as the scene cross-cuts between past and present, the camera moves closer to the present day Mpondo as he remembers. The ticking of the clock and the heavy breathing and choking intrude on the present characters.

Mpondo flashes back to when he watched his friend Steven get dragged away as a moment of trying to identify the truth of the scene: whether or not Mpondo outed Stevens as a comrade in the fight against apartheid. The flashbacks become choppier as he begins to identify the truth of the past, what really happened, all the while the camera moves closer and closer to his face.

Mpondo revisits the site of his torture. As he retraces his steps, the scene crosscuts back and forth between the past and present. Set at nighttime, the only light comes from the moon and his flashlight, in which specific objects are highlighted (such as the chair, the bloody walls, and the faucet). When he comes to the room of torture there are no more crosscuts. The entire event is lain out for the audience and the truth is realized. There are close-ups and wide angles, there is red lighting, and the whole scene is remembered by Mpondo.

Reconciliation is about remembering that which has been forgotten or repressed. It is about remembering so that hidden truths can come out. The crosscutting between the past and present illustrates the process of remembering, and the close-ups draw the audience into this act of reconciliation as they become engaged with the story and reminded not to forget.

Reconciliation–A rough road to peace

When I hear the term “reconciliation” I think of happiness, renewed relationships, and peace. While that may be an end result of reconciliation, the process is far from easy. To reconcile with someone requires an acknowledgment of the injustice or conflict, and a negotiation that makes things right. In order to acknowledge the wrongs, people need to retell their stories. In Red Dust Alex Mpondo and Dirk Hendricks both share their stories, eventually coming to the truth as Stephen’s body was found, and Muller’s involvement was brought to light. Reliving this event was difficult for both Mpondo and Hendricks, since they had been plagued by memories of being tortured and inflicting torture, respectively. But in the end, both seemed more at peace, Alex because he knew what happened to Stephen, and Dirk because he was granted amnesty.

The process of acknowledging injustice can be itself traumatic, as seen in the flashbacks Alex experienced , causing him to leave the TRC. Once Stephen’s body was discovered, and Mpondo learned that Hendricks had made it possible to prosecute the real perpetrator (Piet Muller), Mpondo repealed his objections to Hendricks’ amnesty. In the final scene of the TRC, Hendricks is formally granted amnesty. On hearing the news, Hendricks is overcome by emotion, then his face become peaceful, then joyful, and he thanks Mpondo for allowing him to be freed from guilt. Mpondo, on the other hand, gives Hendricks a cold stare. I think this scene shows how difficult reconciliation can be, and that the goal is not to forget but to remember. Mpondo will never forget his trauma, and cannot be expected to befriend Hendricks, but by finding truth Mpondo can be free from the blame of Stephen’s death, and Hendricks can be free from the guilt that has haunted him. Stephen’s parents can mourn their son’s death and know that his pain and theirs have been acknowledged.

Tsotsi

How does a young thug in an African township get what he wants?  With a gun.  In Gavin Hood’s film, Tsotsi, meaning ‘thug,’ a young African carries around this weapon.  The gun is presented in several scenes in which it appears Tsotsi fears for his reputation, but subconsciously, Tsotsi fears friendship and in turn, love.  His insecurities become obvious during his transformation between two scenes in which he waves the gun around as a threat, and one scene in which he decides to put the weapon down.

In the first scene, Tsotsi wants to know why a homeless, crippled man would go on living and begging.  Tsotsi points the gun at him and asks.  This gun becomes a barrier between them, providing a false sense of security for Tsotsi.  Somehow, his intense anxiety about relationship with another person is calmed.  Having this power over another person, Tsotsi cannot be in relationship with him or her and can therefore demand anything.  Tsotsi does not realize that the gun is unnecessary; Most people would answer him honestly if he simply asked.

The second scene Tsotsi points his gun without shooting is when he demands a woman of his township to feed a stolen baby.  In this scene the woman is afraid for her life and her own baby’s life.  She is confused as to why Tsotsi has the baby and the gun, but she does what he asks.  Again in this scene Tsotsi uses the dynamic of unequal power to get what he wants.  And again he uses the gun unnecessarily, blocking any potential for friendship.

Finally, in his small shack where his friend, whom he had previously severely beaten-up, is resting and healing, Tsotsi shows progress.  With gun in hand, Tsotsi awakens his friend, and the audience holds its breath.  Tsotsi sets the gun down.  Exhale.  Tsotsi apologizes for the pain he has caused.  And a glimpse of reconciliation, friendship, and love is seen.

By watching the appearance and reappearance of Tsotsi’s gun, the audience can watch Tsotsi’s transformation from fear into understanding and guilt into reconciliation.  The gun represents not only the dissipation of Tsotsi’s insecurities with relationship, but a grander journey into reconciliation from the inside out of a young tsotsi.

Reconciliation: digging up the truth

People can be buried for years but the grief doesn’t stay down. Memories are buried in the mind and continue to stay alive. The truth is silenced under years of secrets and people continue to wonder. The past never leaves, alive under the earth, it is unhealed and unheard.  

“Red Dust” shows us a story of what happens when memories buried in our minds are brought to the surface and when truths of the past are brought up from the earth. To reconcile what was buried with what is dug up many years later allows a final connection between past and present and a healing recognition of grief as well as strength.

What happened to Steven Sezela? Where is his body? The plot is driven by this question and the search for answers bring up more than a simple answer. Mr. and Mrs. Sezela’s long-suffering grief seeks to be heard and throughout the film, they seek retribution and justice for the death of their son. Finally, digging up the dry bones, Mrs. Sezela is allowed to grieve long and loud for the death of her son. With the physical manifestation of his body, their pain is validated and recognized. The suffering of unknowing and confusion finds some closure in reconciliation of past and present. Miraculously, the closure with the past allows for reconciliation through forgiveness. They forgive Mpondo for his weakness, validating and respecting his suffering as well.

            And it is not just the stories of suffering that are important, but the recognition of heroism. Mpondo digs up a list. This list tells the names of those who fought alongside one another for freedom from apartheid. It’s a list of those Mpondo remained loyal to, fighting together against an unjust government. Many of these people on the list are alive and identify themselves, telling another truth that has remained buried for years. The truth of their heroism brings the group together once again, shown unified and recognized for their strengths. It is important for people to not only be known for their defeats but also their victories. This speaks completes the full story of who they are. Those who fought and were tortured, like Mpono, are more than victims; they are strong fighters. This is just as much a buried story as any other detail of the past, and just as important. 

            People and things of the past may be buried for a long time, but never the memories. They are alive and active in the minds of all people involved in the past. Unhealed memories are those that are not given recognition as things of reality. To place a memory on to its source in an important part of healing, it’s connecting the words with the objects; it’s bringing the unseen together with the physical acts and places. To reconcile these things is necessary for peace within the characters. And that is why Mpondo demands to be shown methods of torture, why Steven’s mother want to touch her son’s bones, why finding the farm was so critical. In doing this, someone’s restless memories can finally be named and proven real.

            In digging up the things of the past, in finding the places of truth, memories can finally be connected to real places and real things, given a name and a voice. Ultimately forgiveness brings everything together. People on opposite sides with opposite identities no longer see themselves separate but rather cross barriers and unify as humanity. Forgiveness crosses lines of separation between people and redefines relationships. People originally on two sides of the courtroom come together with forgiveness outside the courtroom. Closure of the past allows for a completely redefined future. 

Reconciliation: breaking down barriers

Fences. Walls. Barred windows. Sunglasses. These are the physical barriers that separated Sarah from her country. After a certain point, these barriers seem impossible to break down. Reconciliation itself seems impossible. How does one forgive being thrown in jail for having a black friend? How does one forgive losing her mother to society’s judgment? How?

These props were all used in Red Dust to represent Sarah’s physical need to be apart from South Africa. She got away when she moved to New York and became an American. She came back for Mpono’s trial, however, and still felt the hurt of the past.

In the beginning, she hops a Whites Only wall to get to the pool to meet Mpono for the first time. Sarah is white, yet the door was locked and she had to hop a barrier to get inside. This is intensely representative of Sarah’s life. She’s white, but she’s an outsider.

What’s intriguing about Sarah is that even when she does get inside the pool area and meets Mpono, she still keeps her distance. Mpono asks her, “why did you go to jail?” and her reply was to simply stare at him and pull down her sunglasses – yet another barrier between her and South Africa. She did not want to talk about her experience. She may not have been tortured in the same way that Mpono was, with sheer brutality and inhumanity, but she was still irrevocably scarred.

Reconciliation is not pretty. It’s not some fluffy “let’s hug and make up” sort of situation. It’s messy and painful and it forces victims to relive their torture experiences. At the trial, when Sarah hears that Johnny, her young love who was the cause of her jail stint, was killed, her face displays utter shock and sickness. He’s dead. And for what?

This is what the beginning of the process of reconciliation looks like; it’s a naming of the problems of the past in order to negotiate the past with the present. Sarah repressed her past, and that’s why she had her walls up (represented by the physical props in the film). It was not until the past came up, the truth about Johnny was revealed, that she was able to begin her own process. For the duration of the film she was working on helping Mpono, but not as much herself. Not until that moment.

At the end of the film, after Mpono’s case is finished, Sarah has to decide if she’s going to stay in South Africa or fly back to the United States. The audience is unaware of her decision, but is left with her and Mpono embracing. She hugs him and there is no longer any sort of barrier, physical or mental, between them. This is what reconciliation looks like and Red Dust is the perfect display of the process that needs to happen in order to get to the embrace.

Reconciliation

Reconciliation- a painful process that is never quite finished-is a negotiation between your present moment and past feelings. It is a hope for change; by telling your story, you acknowledge injustice, detailing what has happened to you personally.

Within the film, Red Dust, reconciliation, the overall theme to the story, focuses on Alex as he talks through his past memories or nightmares that have been haunting him. These memories take place within prison where he was tortured. By talking through these experiences, Alex is able to come to a better place in his life as well as his thoughts about the terrifying experience. The director, Tom Hooper, presented reconciliation for Alex through flashbacks. The flashbacks are used at various times when speaking to Sarah about the evidence he had against Hendricks or Mueller and at the Truth and Reconciliation hearing. These flashbacks-such as the body of Alex dragged along the dirt floor, oozing a trail of blood- left the audience full of silence and disgust.  These silent moments allow the audience to really feel what the characters were feeling in that moment. We are able to imagine and think of how we would be if placed in a similar situation and realize the tremendous horror that is taking place. These memories of being beaten and tormented don’t leave Alex after he speaks about them. The scars on his body will never be wiped away but will forever mark him and his life journey.

Another example of reconciliation is with Mrs. Sizela and her coming to terms with forgiveness. Once she learns the entire truth about her son’s death she has to forgive God. She had been so bitter and angry with God and consistently questioning why He would allow this to happen or why He would do this to her. The truth of reconciliation is we have to forgive but that doesn’t mean we have to forget. At the end of the film Mrs. Sizela forgives God, not because He had done anything wrong but because she had been so angry with Him for so long and had a hope for change. It is known that, “God so loved the world, that He became flesh”. God did this so that we could have a voice in society and tell the truth and forgive those who have sinned. Red Dust, in the case of Alex Mpondo and Nick Sizela portrays a sense of forgiveness and reconciliation.

To Be Seen: Theme of Visibility in Tsotsi

The film Tsotsi follows a main character whose identity is so concealed that even those closest to him do not know his real name. His past was so thickly hidden by a persona of violence, guns and money that he was simply referred to as “tsotsi”, or gangster.

 

The director, Gavin Hood, tracks his progression towards visibility by slowly exposing David, the man underneath the “tsotsi” persona. One scene in particular illustrates the initiation of David into a relationship of transparency. It is the scene in which David follows Miriam into her home, holds her at gunpoint, and demands her to feed the baby he has stolen from another family. This unexpected and violent plunge into relationship proves to be one that eventually yields to recognition and visibility.

 

At first he sneaks into her home and holds a gun up to her face. The fear incited by the gun serves to spread wide the gap between them. This is the way David has conducted relationships so many times before, through fear and violence. At this safe distance between him and another person, no requirement for vulnerability is needed.

 

He follows her around the room, he commands her look in the bag, see the hungry child, and to feed him. As these commands are made, the camera shows Miriam’s face troubled yet stoic. The camera slowly gets closer to the feeing baby, and then moves up to Miriam’s face. She shows mixed emotions of anger and anxiety. Likewise, the camera shows David’s face straight on as he slowly relaxes the gun down and smiles slightly, calmer now that the baby is being fed. It is at this point that David looks around the room and travels to where he sees two hanging mobiles. The camera shows Miriam’s face from the perspective of David’s view. Clearly she is uneasy, not knowing his next move. But here, he simply asks about the artistic hanging mobiles. Miriam responds that yes, she did make them, the rusted one when she was sad and the colorful one when she was happy.

 

This is where the scene ends, marking a small yet significant point in David’s journey towards visibility. In the start of this relationship, a gun kept one another distant. To him, Miriam was simply another person who had something that he wanted. Like anybody else, he could steal from her and he could get what he wanted from her. He objectified her in this way while keeping himself at a safe distance.

 

Eventually he starts to see her as more. He asks about her art, which by definition is a personal expression of someone and their experiences. It is not unlikely that her creative spirit fascinates him. In asking about her art, he requests to see her more deeply, even if in a small degree. He becomes curious in Miriam and chooses, even if subconsciously, to pay attention to her. Miriam could have chosen to withhold information, and rightly so, to maintain distance. And yet, she chooses to respond to his questions, which in a small way, allowed David to experience her humanity.

 

This connection leads David to the understanding that relationship cannot be stolen, bought or bargained for. Rather, relationship requires transparency and visibility, and the most vulnerable of them all, confession. To be seen by another human being allows for the experience of connection and understanding, without which, the continuation of violence indeed perpetuates itself.