Trans-Generational Apartheid Pain in Zwelethu Radebe’s Film "The Hangman"

Abstract

The film makers’ contention is that “The Hangman’s” central theme is family, family secrets and the need for communication which is deeply imbedded in the storyline of the film, the sentiments of secrecy and a lack of dialogue in the South African society seem contradictory. This is because South Africa’s efforts for reconciliation after apartheid have been lauded world-wide. The establishment of a national platform where perpetrators and victims were able to tell of the horrors of apartheid regardless of political affiliation, class, race or tribe through South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission is celebrated as having helped the country to reconcile, heal and move forward. The South African model has inspired ‘other similar efforts around the world’ especially as a ‘gold standard for how a divided society with a violent past might work through that past and move forward’ has been set by this model (Mary Kay Magistad – 2017). It would therefore be expected that South Africa should have moved on from this dark past after such efforts which have been lauded as largely successful. Least of all, the horrors and pain of the system should not be haunting millennial South Africans. Of course, many scholars including Desmond Tutu, the chair of Truth and reconciliation Commission (TRC) have accepted that the effort was borne with ‘challenges and limitations’ which resulted in a failure to meet its overall objective of healing, reconciliation and restorative justice. Magistad (2017) points out that the country ‘has learned over time that working through a complicated past takes time, and is still taking time.’ This paper therefore reads this film as a continuation of the TRC’s efforts through dialogue and national testimony of the horrors of apartheid.