Goodbye Bafana (AKA The Color of Freedom)

Dir: Bille August

2007

***

Bille August’s 2007 drama is based on the autobiography Goodbye Bafana: Nelson Mandela, My Prisoner, My Friend, by James Gregory. Gregory was the censor officer and prison guard of Nelson Mandela for many years of his captivity, from Robben Island to the day he was released. The book was based on the idea that Gregory and Mandela had developed a friendship despite being prison guard and prisoner, respectively, although many have discredited this. It was certainly derided by Mandela's longtime friend, the late Anthony Sampson. In Sampson's book Mandela: the Authorised Biography he accused James Gregory, who died of cancer in 2003, of lying and violating Mandela's privacy in his work Goodbye Bafana. Sampson said that , the close relationship depicted in Gregory's book, Goodbye Bafana, was a fabrication, and in reality Gregory rarely spoke to Mandela, but censored the letters sent to the prisoner and used this information to fabricate a close relationship with him. Sampson also claimed that other warders suspected Gregory of spying for the government, and that Mandela considered suing him. In his own autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela mentions James Gregory in two occasions. The first was during his imprisonment in Pollsmoor: "Often, Winnie's visits were overseen by Warrant Officer James Gregory, who had been a censor on Robben Island. I had not known him terribly well there, but he knew us, because he had been responsible for reviewing our incoming and outgoing mail. At Pollsmoor I got to know Gregory better and found him a welcome contrast to the typical warder. He was polished and soft-spoken, and treated Winnie with courtesy and deference". The second occasion that Mandela mentions Gregory in his autobiography is on the day of his release in 1990 from prison: "Warrant Officer James Gregory was also there at the house, and I embraced him warmly. In the years that he had looked after me from Pollsmoor through Victor Verster, we had never discussed politics, but our bond was an unspoken one and I would miss his soothing presence". However, critic and historian Alex von Tunzelmann, stated that the film was a "dubious tale" of Nelson Mandela's imprisonment, based on his prison guard's memoirs and that it was a story that contradicted all other known accounts of his time in imprisonment. She went on to say that there was no excuse for the "historical negligence in this movie" – stating that its implicit dismissal of the contradictory accounts of Nelson Mandela and others could be seen as insulting. While I don’t disagree with Tunzelmann and acknowledge Mandela’s huge ability to forgive, he did also describe Gregory as "..one of the most refined warders. Well-informed and courteous with everybody. Soft spoken. Very good observations. I developed a lot of respect for him". Mandela later invited Gregory to his inauguration as President, apparently having forgiven him as he had the former president P.W. Botha, and the prosecutor Dr. Percy Yutar who had tried to get him executed in the Rivonia Trial. Bafana is Xhosa for ‘boys’ and is part a reflection on Gregory’s childhood friend who was a black boy. Gregory, played by Joseph Fiennes, is painted as ever so slightly less racist then everyone else at the beginning of the film but soon grows to understand the injustice of apartheid. Over the years he clashes with the politics and racist culture of his countrymen and the whites he lives and works with. Gregory begins to express hatred for South African apartheid. In time, he challenges his superiors, and seeks to improve Mandela's life until he is released from prison after twenty-seven years of imprisonment, and is elected president of South Africa. He also convinces his wife, played by Diane Kruger, who starts the film as an outwardly racist woman who only cares about her husbands status. Dennis Haysbert’s performance as Nelson Mandela is good but not the best representation of him that I’ve seen. Two of the most heartfelt scenes in the film show the two men taking it in turn (years apart) in consoling the other when each man’s son dies in separate car accidents. These are two important scenes that really bring the film together, unfortunately, we just don’t know how true it really is. That is the big problem with the film. It is a great story and it doesn’t shy away from the bad that some of Gregory’s actions caused but what isn’t clear is how opportunist Gregory may have been and if his redemption was in fact authentic. What it is however is a faithful adaptation of a compelling book, beautifully filmed with some passionate performances. Whether the book itself is faithful is an entirely different matter.