‘VOICES’, MEANING AND ‘HETEROGLOSSIA’ IN PRISONERS OF HOPE (1995)

Authors

  • Khatija Bibi Khan Department of Communication Science University of South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/1727-7140/1393

Keywords:

Prisoners of hope, documentary film, South Africa, Robben Island prison, apartheid system

Abstract

The documentary film Prisoners of Hope (1995) is a heart-rending account of 1 250 former political prisoners in the notorious Robben Island prison in South Africa. The aim of this article is to explore the narratives of Prisoners of Hope and in the process capture its celebratory mood and reveal the contribution that the prisoners made towards the realisation of a free South Africa. The documentary features interviews with Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, Ahmed Kathrada and other former inmates as they recall and recount the atrocities perpetrated by defenders of the apartheid system and debate the future of South Africa with its ‘new’ political dispensation led by blacks. A textual analysis of Prisoners of Hope will enable one to explore the human capacity to resist, commit oneself to a single goal and live beyond the horrors and traumas of an oppressive and dehumanising system.

References

Kopple, B. and D. Schechter, dirs. 1995. Prisoners of Hope. DVD Johannesburg: Videovision Entertainment.

Bakhtin, M. 1981. The dialogic imagination: Four essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Botha, M. and A. van Aswegen. 1992. Images of South Africa: The rise of the alternative film. Pretoria: HSRC Press.

Chennells, A. J. 2009. The authority of presence: Reading Judith Todd’s Through the darkness as diary. Journal of Literary Studies 25(1): 78–92. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02564710802261840

Chiwengo, N. 2008. When wounds and corpses fail to speak: Narratives of violence and rape in Congo (DRC). Journal of Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and Middle East 28(1): 78–92. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/1089201x-2007-057

Depelchin, J. 2005. Silences in African history: Between the syndromes of discovery and abolition. Dar Es Salaam: Mkuki Na Nyota.

Fuery, P., and K. Fuery. 2005. Visual cultures and critical theory. London: Arnold.

Kerner, A. 2011. Film and the Holocaust: New perspectives on dramas, documentaries, and experimental films. New York: Continuum International. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781628928716

Magubane, B. M. 2007. Race and the construction of the dispensable other. Pretoria: Unisa Press.

Shohat, E. and R. Stam. 1994. Unthinking Eurocentrism. New York: Routledge.

Tadjo, V. 2002. The shadow of Imana. Trans. V. Wakerley. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Published

2017-03-07

How to Cite

Khan, Khatija Bibi. 2016. “‘VOICES’, MEANING AND ‘HETEROGLOSSIA’ IN PRISONERS OF HOPE (1995)”. Commonwealth Youth and Development 14 (1):88-96. https://doi.org/10.25159/1727-7140/1393.

Issue

Section

Articles
Received 2016-08-15
Accepted 2016-12-08
Published 2017-03-07