Truth vs Truthiness

Steve Biko

There were very few inaccuracies in the films portrayal of Steve Biko. One of the biggest discrepancies we could find is that although Biko was an influential hero, he had an affair with two women, and fathered multiple children. This fact seems trivial to Biko's cause, but it is important because it keeps the audience from understanding his true character. They framed him as a flawless, married, martyr, but in reality Biko was unfaithful and disloyal. Still, the way they presented Biko's dedication to the black consciousness movement, the timeline of events, and even the gap in Biko's teeth was surprisingly accurate.

Donald Woods

The portrayal of Donald Woods was unique in the fact that Woods himself was on set as a consultant, giving insight into his own thoughts and actions. Wood's book, BIKO, was used as the basis to the film Cry Freedom, giving his character first person account accuracy. All our research shows that the depiction of Donald Woods was satisfyingly factual.

History of Apartheid

The discrepancies we found between the movie compared to the historical facts of Apartheid were not very noticeable. We did notice that when Woods hired two black journalists the rest of the employees at his white newspaper agency were uneasy at his decision. Also the movie did not show the day to day segregation between whites, blacks, coloreds, and indians. As we did more research we found that the racial segregations were very strict including separation in bathrooms, beaches, parks, post offices, and other public buildings. We found that blacks had to carry "pass-books" which were briefly mentioned when Biko's book was requested by a police officer. These books seem to have a bigger part in the segregation than what the Hollywood film depicted. Victoria K. Carchidi, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, says this about Cry Freedom: "It provides no insight into the vexed political situation of South Africa, nor into the conditions under which most black people live." This is the major problem we as also found with this film. Apartheids' vicious discrimination and abuse was not portrayed well in this movie.

A testimony is provided by John Pilger, a journalist who was banned during apartheid for reporting the truth.

History of Black Consciousness


The Hollywood description of the Black Consciousness Movement is well explained because Stephen Biko was an avid leader of said organization. As part of his movements he gave speeches at sporting events, held political meetings, and may have had the biggest impact during the gathering at his death. His main goal was to promote equality without an outbreak of violence. As we did more research on Black Consciousness we learned of several other agencies like ANC, SASO, and PAC that promote black unity but did so with violence therefore were banned by the Apartheid government. These organizations were not mentioned in the movie. To an unlearned audience it would be hard to understand the differences of these organizations and the impact they had against to promote unity as a unified nation.


Soweto Riots


As a viewer, we were led to believe the Soweto Riot occurred after the death of Stephen Biko. In reality the director, Richard Attenborough, was trying to portray a flashback to a year before Biko's death; which was unclear to the audience. The depiction of the riot was accurately gruesome and disturbing.

Also, according to several first hand accounts of both whites and blacks (that agree with each other) not all protestors marched peacefully, and were throwing stones at the police. The film depicted the crowd as a peaceful crowd, that after a brief stint of unrest and yelling, were immediately shot on by the police who appeared to be standing at the head of the crowd. In reality, the police crowd was surrounded by protestors, and after attempts of tear gas and using police dogs to calm the crowd, a dog was set on fire - which caused Colonel Kleingeld to fire the first shot.


Steve's Death

When it comes to Steve's death there aren't as many inaccuracies as much as simply missing information. Steve's death in the movie is dramatically underplayed. The gruesome details of the interrogation and beating are completely left out of the film, even though this could be for rating purposes, it prevents the audience from understanding the disturbing details of Biko's death. Noted movie critic, Stanley Kauffman, complains "Biko dies too senselessly and too early." Dates and locations were accurate, but censoring lead to the omission of crucial details. Also, the depiction of the funeral had a few discrepancies as well. There were hidden police officers in the crowd, and officers waiting with weapons for the funeral to end to ensure there were no violent break outs that were not portrayed in the movie. In addition, the tone of the funeral was one of anger and violence rather than the somber one we see on screen.

S.M.E.L.L Scale 

SOURCE : The sources are pretty accurate and because the story of Steve Biko became an entire movement and helped shape a new South Africa, most events are depicted pretty well.

MOTIVATION : The director had motivation to tell the story of Steven Biko and Donald woods because it helped make a difference and it also did good things for him as a director. 

EVIDENCE: The evidence of the history that is portrayed through the film is recorded in various books including award winning "BIKO" by Donald Woods himself. It is easier to show the accuracy of the movie because most of the events are told by the witness himself Woods and there were many witnesses , some of which are still surviving and can give apt details of what happened to them or what they saw happen. 

LOGIC : The logic of the history is pretty consistent throughout the movie. Attenborough did a good job of portraying the events as they were and according to the true order in which they occurred.

LEFT OUT : The movie starts telling Biko’s story at about 1975, just after the opening of Biko’s model project, the Zanempilo Clinic. The clinic was supposed to be the manifestation of Biko’s “Black Consciousness Movement,” which advocated that the oppressed black people begin to look within their own culture for answers to their problems instead of trying to negotiate with racist whites who hadn’t listened to the past 75 years of non-violent protests by previous black leaders.
The movie is telling a story, so it makes sense to begin right in the thick of the action, when Biko’s years of work is starting to come to fruition. But the movie doesn’t tell much about Biko’s personal life, including the sad love affair between he and Dr. Mumphale Ramphele, the black doctor who worked at the non-profit clinic.
From an interview Ramphele did with the Dallas Morning News after Biko’s death:
“As she became more involved in the BCM, she also fell in love with Steve Biko. However, she married an old boyfriend on a holiday break from school. Her marriage was a mistake and ended barely a year later. It was too late for her and Biko though. In light of her own marriage, he, in turn, married another. Still their affair continued and in May of 1974, she bore his child, a girl named Lerato, which means “love.” Tragically the baby died at two months.”