Author and activist Alan Paton wrote about life in South Africa during apartheid, and fearlessly spoke out against racial segregation, in person and through his books.
On January 11, he would have been 115 years old. In his honour, Google changed its logo to a doodle portraying the novelist.
This is his story:
South African novelist
Born in the Natal province, Paton suffered violence inside his house from an early age. His father used corporal punishment to control his sons, which lead the author to oppose any form of authoritarianism and physical punishment at an early age .
His father also introduced Paton to literature. He enjoyed Charles Dickens and Rupert Brooke, as well as the Bible. His family's religious convictions influenced his work, and the way he looked at society.
Paton studied at the University of Natal, and, in 1928, married Doris Francis Lusted. Later they moved to Pietermaritzburg, where he continued teaching.
In 1935, after travelling to Sweden, Norway and North America to study prisons, he was appointed at the Diepkloof Reformatory for young, black deliquents.
As administrator of the Diepkloof Reformatory for young, black, African offenders, he developed a different reform system that included open dormitories, work outside prison walls and home visitations.
During his term, the reformatory became a model of penal reform.
To give up the task of reforming society is to give up one's responsibility as a free man. Alan Paton
Cry, The Beloved Country
Paton volunteered for service during World War II , but was refused. He toured Scandinavia, England, Canada, and the US.
During his tours in the correctional reform facilities across the world, he started to write Cry, the Beloved Country.
The book was published in 1948, the same year apartheid was institutionalised.
The book sold more than 15 million copies in 20 languages. It is a tale of racial injustice and a social protest against the structures of the society that would later give rise to apartheid.
In an interview with the New York Times, Paton said: "I had an eye on my fellow white South Africans and white Americans when I wrote the book. It wasn't a book written for the right or the middle or the left. I hoped to influence my fellow whites.''
Paton was considered the enemy of the ruling party. His passport was withdrawn in 1960 , with no reason given.
In 1970 his passport was restored, and he continued speaking through his books, essays and publications.
Paton retired to Botha's Hill, where he lived until his death. He is honoured at the Hall of Freedom of the Liberal International Organisation.
Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply ... For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much. Alan Paton
ALAN Paton was a South African author and anti-apartheid activist who fearlessly opposed the racial segregation rife in his homeland throughout his career.
The trailblazing writer is being commemorated by a Google Doodle on what would have been his 115th birthday – here is what you need to know about him.
Getty - Contributor Author Alan Paton was a fearless anti-apartheid campaigner
Who was Alan Paton?
Alan Paton was born in Natal on January 11, 1903 and earned a science degree before gaining a diploma in education and working as a teacher.
In 1935 he became principal of the Diepkloof Reformatory for young black African offenders, and spent his 14-year stint pursuing a series of compassionate, and consequently controversial, policies.
These included open dormitories, work permits and home visitation, with offenders rewarded for good, trustworthy behaviour by being allowed to work and even reside outside the prison.
After World War Two he toured correctional facilities around the world, visiting the likes of Scandinavia, England and the US.
During the trip he began work on his seminal first novel Cry, The Beloved Country, which was published in 1948 and laid bare the racial tensions in South Africa which would eventually become the apartheid system.
The moving book was critically acclaimed and spawned two movie adaptations, released in 1951 and 1995, and a musical version called Lost in the Stars.
Credit: Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo Paton is best known for his seminal 1948 work Cry, The Beloved Country
Paton released several other books on race and politics in South Africa in the 1950s and 1960s, achieving great success.
He also fought against apartheid politically, co-founding the Liberal Party of South Africa in 1953, which railed against separatist legislation introduced by the ruling National Party.
The party was forced to disband in 1968 due to its members being both black and white.
While Paton advocated peaceful protest against apartheid, his opposition incurred the wrath of the ruling regime.
In 1960, the author had his passport confiscated for 10 years without explanation upon returning from a trip to New York.
He met his first wife, Dorrie Francis Lusted, when he was still at school – they were married in 1928 and had two sons before her death in 1967.
Paton married his second wife, Anne Hopkins, two years later, and they stayed together until he died from cancer in Durban in 1988, three years before the end of apartheid.
The Google Doodle celebrating Paton on his 115th birthday
What is a Google Doodle?
In 1998, the search engine founders Larry and Sergey drew a stick figure behind the second 'o' of Google as a message to that they were out of office at the Burning Man festival and with that, Google Doodles were born.
The company decided that they should decorate the logo to mark cultural moments and it soon became clear that users really enjoyed the change to the Google homepage.
Google Google celebrated the Autumn Equinox with a themed doodle
In that same year, a turkey was added to Thanksgiving and two pumpkins appeared as the 'o's for Halloween the following year.
Now, there is a full team of doodlers, illustrators, graphic designers, animators and classically trained artists who help create what you see on those days.
Among recent Doodles were ones commemorating German scientist Robert Koch, Jan Ingenhousz (who discovered photosynthesis) and the 50th anniversary of kids coding languages being introduced.
Earlier in the year, the search giant celebrated the 2017 Autumn Equinox , which marked the official ending of summer and the coming of autumn.
A pensive Alan Paton is the inspiration for today’s Google doodle. The search engine honored the South African author and activist on the 115th anniversary of his birth.
In the doodle Paton looks out the rolling hills of the South African landscape he captured so beautifully, while also recording the ugly justices of apartheid from KwaZulu-Natals endless valleys to Johannesburg’s cramped slums. As head of the Diepkloof Reformatory for Young Offenders in Soweto in 1935, Paton faced the effects of the segregated system and spent the rest of his life opposing it.
Paton in 1962. (AP Photo)
Paton, born in 1903 in Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal, is best known to the internet generation for his book Cry, The Beloved Country, selling more than 15 million copies by the time of his death in 1988. It was turned into the 1995 film starring James Earl Jones (an earlier 1952 version of the film starred Canada Lee and Sidney Poitier and reportedly required the black actors to pretend to be director Zoltan Korda’s servants in order to film in apartheid South Africa).
Paton’s books record the height of apartheid, publishing 19 books between 1948 and 1989 including titles like Ah, But Your Land is Beautiful and Apartheid and the Archbishop. Paton’s writing was able to articulate the physical and emotional toll of keeping black and white South Africans apart at a time when few white authors dared to, while black authors were banned for doing so.
Paton was always torn between his work as an author and an activist. He was a founding member of the Liberal Party of South Africa, and was often stalked and harassed by apartheid security. The apartheid government confiscated his passport in 1960 after he traveled to the US to receive the American Freedom Award.
Paton died in 1988, without seeing the end of apartheid.
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If you went past Google today you will have noticed a caricature of a grey-haired man in deep thought, with a notepad in front of him.
That is of course celebrated late author and anti-apartheid activist Alan Paton who the search engine pay homage to on the 115th anniversary of his birth by featuring him as Thursday’s “Google Doodle”.
Paton dedicated much of his life’s work to fighting an unjust regime through active involvement and through literature as his best-selling novel Cry, the Beloved Country spurred two film, most notably one of the same title starring Denzel Washington.
He passed away in 1988, six years before the downfall of apartheid South Africa and we have compiled a list of some interesting facts about this great writer and freedom fighter.
He was a founding member of the Liberal Party, formed in 1953, which he was elected its leader two years later as he succeeded Margaret Ballinger. He remained the party’s leader until apartheid laws lead to its undoing in 1968 as new legislation meant that multi-racial political parties were banned.
2. Cry, the Beloved Country was his first novel, inspired by social injustice in the country, it was published in 1948, which is coincidentally the year in which apartheid laws were placed in full effect. The book sold millions of copies across the world.
3. He taught at Ixopo High School for White Students, after which he was appointed principal at Diepkloof Reformatory for Young Offenders. His 13 years there influenced his social activism and political involvement.
4. Paton volunteered service during World War II but was denied and on the very same year the war ended, he travelled across Europe visiting correctional facilities.
5. After his first wife Dorrie Francis Lusted died in 1969, he published a book Kontakion for You Departed based on their relationship.
6. He has been immortalised in South Africa through a literary award named in his honour, the Alan Paton Award, given to outstanding works of non-fiction.
Also read: The top 10 Alan Paton quotes we can all learn from
