Cry Freedom Exemplifies Change for Law and Rights

In Cry Freedom, Donald Woods, a white man, tries to save a black man that is already dead as a result of the very cause he is fighting, by contradicting and exposing the immoral rights movements taking place within the African partite. Going into the start of the film, Woods’ character had a somewhat-established notion of what he believed humans in Africa had the rights of, obviously whites having more rights, privilege, name, and superiority than the blacks; but he was not one of those people who generally determined that black had aero rights or inherent human/connectable notion whatsoever to the white man. He was more acquainted with the cruelties and injustices that occurred in South Africa, in his backyard essentially because of his job position as an editor and journalist for a major media source in the area which he lived and worked. He understood that the actions being taken against the bantus and blacks within such a segregated, yet shared geographical area (and the fact that they are all human!), it is undoubtable that someone, at least one individual, would diffuse into the other culture opposite their own, and through this new perception and understanding of life, would determine the need for change of the wretchedness and cruelty of society. This is exactly what happened in the case of Donald Woods and Steve Biko, as Biko merely served as the prompt to have Woods enter the realm of black life in South Africa and realize that there needed to be a change--and it was his responsibility to make the change. One of the most amazing lines in the movie, I thought, was when he was convincing his wife to let him escape in order to publish his book: he said something across the lines of that it is his responsibility to make the change which others do not make, because everyone has their meaning in the world to do something significant--and publishing his book which would be his act of valor. He was planning to publish a book in attempt to publicize the atrocities which the government imposed on all the non-white members of their society. Steve Biko claimed to die of hunger strike, whereas he really died as a result of being beaten, persecuted, and basically destroyed by the government which he was subjected to; Woods had proof that he died because of the discriminatory principles of the governing bodies, and wanted to share that to the world in hopes that it would spark more diffusion between cultures and societies and make an overall change in the structures and functions of South Africa’s society and government. Through cultural diffusion, Woods and Biko worked together directly and indirectly in order to provoke the sense that the laws and human rights being practiced at the time in South Africa we not what they themselves (and many others) believed should be and acted upon that change for the world. This is only one example of how that overarching notion of laws and human rights initiating change for the better and drastic historical events and periods which would go on to define societies, cultures, and ultimately, history as a whole.