When these two Kumalos are arrested on suspicion of the Arthur Jarvis burglary, John immediately hires a lawyer for his son and Johannes Pafuri. He encourages his son to lie about his involvement in the crime, and to turn on his cousin. John Kumalo is defensive about the whole thing and says that Absalom's fate is in no way his fault. But at the same time, the fact that John was willing to sell out Absalom to save Matthew—and the fact that John persists in making angry speeches, even though it's going to lead to violence—clearly ruins Stephen's opinion of his brother forever.
Johannes Pafuri, one of Absalom Kumalo's fellow thieves, knocks out the servant Richard Mpiring when they break into Arthur Jarvis's house. Richard Mpiring gives evidence that it was Johannes Pafuri who knocked him out, but the judge decides that his evidence is not believable. So Johannes Pafuri goes free. Before the judge for Absalom's case hands down his decision, he tells everyone it's not his fault. He has to follow the law. And according to the law, Absalom has not proved that he did not intend to murder Arthur Jarvis that night.
While Mr. Carmichael, the lawyer for the defense, has argued that Absalom is just a poor kid led astray by city life, the judge points out that Absalom did kill someone, and he can't prove that it was an accident. After all, why was he carrying a gun in the first place, if he never intended to use it? So while the judge shows some personal sympathy for Absalom, he has still has to condemn the poor kid to death according to the laws of the land.
As the judge says in his closing statement, it's the judge's job to carry out the laws on the books, not to make those laws. It's the responsibility of the larger society to decide what is right and wrong, and what the laws should say.
Barbara Smith is the niece of Margaret Jarvis. Since she lives in Johannesburg near the courthouse, the Jarvises spend the breaks in the trial during the day at her house. Kumalo meets Jarvis face-to-face for the first time when he comes to Barbara Smith's house to track down a girl from Ndotsheni who has disappeared.
To find out more about Barbara Smith as a tool to bring Kumalo and Jarvis together, see below for our analysis of Sibeko's daughter. Napoleon Letsitsi is the Xosa "agricultural demonstrator" 3. Letsitsi is an ambitious man who wants to build a dam and start a system of crop rotation against the protests of some of the more conservative farmers, who don't want to let their lands just sit there without crops for part of the year.
But it doesn't stop there: Mr. Letsitsi also represents a whole new generation of educated black professionals who want to work for the good of the entire nation. When Kumalo scolds Mr.
Letsitsi for saying that Jarvis is only paying back what he owes because "the white man […] took us away from the land to go to work" 3. Letsitsi apologizes. He doesn't want Kumalo—who is absolutely loyal to Jarvis—to think that he is ungrateful. But Mr. Letsitsi has a larger loyalty to in mind: "we do not work for men [… but] we work for the land and the people. We do not even work for money" 3. Kumalo is impressed by Mr. Letsitsi's idealism, since Mr. Letsitsi wants to improve farming practices in Ndotsheni for the good of the land and the nation as a whole.
But Kumalo is more old-fashioned. He remains attached to individuals like Jarvis and his own son, Absalom. He can't think in terms of the bigger picture. The narrator concludes that, for Kumalo, the healing of the Umzimkulu River valley is enough. He can't take these larger ideas of working for the good of Africa as a whole. But the novel introduces Mr. Letsitsi so that we know that it's not enough to focus on reforms in one place.
Even if you are working locally, you have to think about how your improvements can help to rebuild the whole nation. Letsitsi represents South Africa's hope for the future. Kumalo is married, but you would hardly know it based on the action of this book. Most of Kumalo's conversations are with other men, especially Msimangu and Jarvis.
While his wife does appear, primarily to mourn Absalom, she never says much—in fact, she never even gets a name. If you're interested in the topic of Cry, the Beloved Country and gender, we talk a little bit more about the book's somewhat, shall we say, limited portrayals of women in our analyses of Gertrude and Absalom's girl. This very minor character never appears directly in the book, but she does have an important role to play all the same.
She disappeared into Johannesburg some time before the action of the book and has stopped writing home. A friend of Sibeko's asks Kumalo to look into her disappearance when he is in the city, and Kumalo agrees. In search of Sibeko's daughter, Kumalo goes to her last known employer, a white woman named Barbara Smith. So when Kumalo goes to ask Barbara Smith about Sibeko's daughter, he actually meets Jarvis face-to-face for the first time.
Without this absent daughter of Sibeko, Kumalo and Jarvis would never have become allies. Sadly for Sibeko's daughter, it turns out that she got arrested for making illegal liquor and Barbara Smith fired her.
So Kumalo never finds out what has happened to her. But from the novel's point of view, he work is done once Jarvis opens Barbara Smith's door and finds Kumalo standing there. Lithebe is a member of Msimangu's church. She is also the widow of a builder, so she has a house to herself—a rare luxury for black women in Johannesburg. She is pleased and proud to have Kumalo stay with her, because she is a religious woman. She is a resident of Sophiatown with whom Absalom Kumalo once stayed. She gives Msimangu and Kumalo a forwarding address for Absalom Kumalo in Alexandra, and tells them that she disliked Absalom's friends but claims to know nothing about any crimes they may have committed.
The third defendant in the trial of Absalom Kumalo, he conspired with Absalom and John Kumalo and was responsible for hitting the servant Richard Mpiring with an iron bar during the robbery. He pleads not guilty to the murder, and like John Kumalo receives a verdict of not guilty, thus helping to place the entirety of the blame on Absalom.
He is a friend of Kumalo's friend who requests that Kumalo give a letter to his daughter, who is presumably working for the Smith family in Johannesburg. Kumalo learns that Sibeko's daughter was fired for brewing liquor in her room, and that the Smith family neither knows nor cares where she is now.
It is at her house that James Jarvis meets Stephen Kumalo when Kumalo delivers the letter from Sibeko for his daughter, a former servant at the Smith household. He is the white priest at the Mission House who tells Stephen Kumalo that the sorrow that he feels over his son is an improvement over fear, for the sorrow can enrich him. He introduces Kumalo to Mr. Carmichael, the lawyer who will defend Absalom. He visits Stephen Kumalo in Ixopo in order to relieve him of his post and send him to Pietermaritzburg to assist his friend Ntombela at his church.
He does this because he presumes that there will be tension because James Jarvis lives nearby, but decides to let Kumalo remain in Ixopo when he reads a letter written by Jarvis thanking Kumalo for his letter of condolence regarding the death of Margaret Jarvis.
The political leader of the blacks in Ixopo and a great stout man, Stephen Kumalo visits him in order to request help in restoring life in the Ndotsheni region. The chief essentially dismisses Kumalo's claims, but later works with James Jarvis when he devotes himself to helping the blacks in Ndotsheni. One of the several major characters in the novel not given a name, he takes Kumalo to the train station when he journeys to Johannesburg, and later is responsible for delivering the milk from the Jarvis estate to the villagers at Ixopo.
When Kumalo begins to doubt that he is appropriate for his post, he suggests that his friend take his place as pastor at Ixopo. The unnamed son of Gertrude Kumalo, he returns to Ixopo with Stephen Kumalo when his mother decides to leave her family to join a convent.
Gertrude arranges for the pregnant girl to take care of her son before they leave Johannesburg. This little white boy from the Jarvis estate visits Stephen Kumalo in Ixopo and asks to learn a few words of Zulu from him. When the little white boy learns about the drought in Ndotsheni and the devastation that it causes, James Jarvis sends milk for Kumalo to distribute among the children of the village.
A major character in the novel even though she is never given a name, she is pregnant with Absalom Kumalo's child. Msimangu and Kumalo find the pregnant girl in Pimville, and despite Msimangu's skepticism Kumalo decides that he is responsible for her.
Kumalo eventually accepts the girl into his family, and she marries Absalom before he is executed and returns to Ixopo with Kumalo. He is a worker at the reformatory where Absalom was sentenced who helps Msimangu and Kumalo search for Absalom.
After they discover that Absalom is a suspect in the murder of Arthur Jarvis, the white man continues to help Kumalo, and even, in a show of solidarity with their plight, exits the courtroom with the blacks, an action that is not taken lightly in South Africa. The Question and Answer section for Cry, the Beloved Country is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.
Kumalo learns not to trust people in the big city. The two men at the train station steal his money. What can stephen kumalo learn from his treatment by two men at bus station. The two men at the train station steal his his money. His voice is like a great bull or a lion roaring in an empty chasm. Dubula and Tomlinson are envious of the power of the voice, but they realize that Kumalo has no brains and no courage. Earlier John had ridiculed the people who stayed with the tribe and lived under the control of the chief who did nothing for the people.
But now, with his voice, John is trying to emulate the role of the chief. As the police know, John will go only so far with his voice; he will retract rather than be arrested. Thus, he betrays the people who need him because he is unwilling to sacrifice himself in any way and desires only the power and notoriety caused by his speeches.
Msimangu feels that it is perhaps good that John is corrupt because with his voice, he could cause South Africa to erupt into a bloodbath. The news of the new crime — the new robbery and murder — is disastrous because the city and the nation are already so obsessed with fear.
And since Absalom is on trial for a similar crime, there is a real possibility that he will be made to suffer for this crime, as well as the one he actually committed. Absalom is likely to be a scapegoat for all the fear, all the guilt, and all the crimes of the city. This desire for revenge has led the whites to demand more police protection rather than demanding more schools that could educate the masses who are performing the crimes.
In the trial scene, the reader should be aware of how carefully the judge evaluates his material — that any way one may look at the case, one must conclude that Absalom is guilty and must be judged accordingly. There is no indication that Absalom did not receive a fair trial. The chapter then presents the final recording of the preceding of the court: the conclusion is that according to the laws of South Africa, Absalom must be found guilty and must be hanged.
At the end of the chapter, the young white man who had been concerned with Absalom at the reformatory breaks the long-established tradition that the blacks remain on one side and the whites on the other.
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