Part 1 starts with the arrival of a Dutch sailing vessel that would change the future of the African continent: Jan von Riebeeck is supposed to establish a supply station for European ships sailing the long ocean routes, gathering riches from all over the world. Contact between the earliest settlers and the natives was initially peaceful: copper and tobacco were traded for cattle and sheep. But the influx of settlers from Europe into the “Promised Land” kept growing, and so did the demand for land and cattle, which started to worry the natives. The first conflicts arose. The White intruders did not care much for the people who had been living here for thousands of years, but fascinating rock paintings of the San provide impressive insights into their civilization. With the help of renowned archaeologist Ben Smith, the documentary will elucidate the mysterious symbolism behind these splendid works of art. The once insignificant supply station at the Cape began to flourish. Labour was in short supply, and so the first slaves were bought. Expeditions into the hinterland secured more and more land for the “free burghers,” but resistance by the natives kept mounting. Hard times lay ahead, for both Blacks and Whites.
Part 2 of the feature documents the struggle for land and power in South Africa. The two competing parties in these wars were the Brits and the Boers. The Black population was not even asked about their stance. The British brought missionaries into the country, while the earlier settlers at the Cape had, in the meantime, developed their own identity. They called themselves Boers and had no intention of leaving the country again. Initially, the Brits showed their liberal side by abolishing slavery. This led the Boers, who disapproved of this move, to embark on their legendary “Great Trek” into the interior, far away from the despised Brits, always in search of more freedom and independence. The situation took a dramatic turn when the first diamond was found in Kimberley. From that point on, at the latest, the Britons, too, started to view the land with a different eye. But the discovery of the diamond was only a prelude of things to come, namely the discovery of the world’s largest gold field near Johannesburg, which triggered a gold rush. In no time at all, the country was catapulted into the Industrial Age. It beckoned with enormous profits to be made and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of cheap labour – the Black native population. What followed were protracted wars, scorched earth, concentration camps, and tens of thousands of casualties. The Boers were defeated by the superior British military force, but the true losers in these wars were the Blacks.
Who owns the land? This question is dealt with in Part 3 of this documentary. In the early 20th century, the Union of South Africa was still young. But it was the disenfranchised Blacks who had ended up with the short end of the stick in the struggle for land and power. The Whites – Boers and Britons – had simply divided up the land among themselves. The ANC started their – initially non-violent – resistance. Their idol and model was Mahatma Gandhi. When World War II broke out in Europe, many of the Boers sympathized with the German National Socialists. Tensions grew. In the 1948 general elections, the National Party won the race by a razor-thin margin. Apartheid became the law of the land. Witnesses, including the daughter of a famous White resistance fighter, recount their lives under the new regime and key steps in the struggle against apartheid. A former colleague of singer Miriam Makeba recalls Sophiatown, a lively, culturally diverse quarter with legendary jazz and dance pubs, a vibrant Johannesburg neighbourhood that was brutally razed to the ground. Five elderly women revisit the Cape Town neighbourhood from which they had been expelled – an area in the middle of the city that had been declared “White”, and yet has not been settled to this very day. The women, however, now have to live in a township fifteen kilometres outside of Cape Town. They show us the deplorable living conditions in these artificial Black settlements, and they frankly tell us moving stories out of their lives. A fellow inmate of Nelson Mandela’s and Walter Sisulu’s explains the painful routine of prison life on Robben Island. Today, Professor Neville Alexander, Ph.D., teaches at the University of Cape Town. The documentary contains file footage, some of which has never been shown before. Dedicated individuals have generously shared their private films and photos with us. And after many years, we were the first camera crew permitted to film on Robben Island, whi