sending...
In June of 1966, just two years before he was shot and killed in Los Angeles, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy went to South Africa to speak out against apartheid. There, at the University of Cape Town, he gave a speech — known as the “Ripple of Hope” speech — that would be repeated over and over again and even etched onto his tombstone.
Kennedy opened his speech at the University of Cape Town with these words:
I came here because of my deep interest and affection for a land settled by the Dutch in the mid-17th century, then taken over by the British and at last independent; a land in which the native inhabitants were at first subdued, but relations with whom remain a problem to this day; a land which defined itself on a hostile frontier; a land which has tamed rich natural resources through the energetic application of modern technology; a land which once imported slaves, and now must struggle to wipe out the last traces of that former bondage. I refer, of course, to the United States of America.
Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope; and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
RFK IN THE LAND OF APARTHEID… follows Senator Kennedy to the site of his famous “Ripple of Hope” speech at the University of Cape Town and his encounter with Afrikaans students at Stellenbosch, the pro-Apartheid university.
A high point of the film is Kennedy’s meeting with one of the unknown giants of African history – the banned President of the African National Congress, and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Chief Albert Lutuli – living under house arrest in a remote rural area. The film travels with Robert Kennedy to Soweto, South Africa’s largest black township, where he meets thousands of people and gives voice to Chief Lutuli’s silenced call for a free South Africa.
