Does anyone know anything about how true this movie is to what really happened? I want to know how much Disney changed it to make it a "family film". I really liked this movie and want to know more about the true story.
The decent are so easy to manipulate.
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because I liked the movie so much I did a search on Ron Dellums. He is a fascinating and inspiring person. During the corse of an interview with him at UCAL Berkley in 2000 there was no mention of ever hosting a foreign exchange student neither was there any mention of the movie. Roscoe Dellums' web site has a link to info about the movie but there is no mention there of the Dellums family ever hosting an exchange student. The "true" in based on a true story appears to be limited to the Dellums family names and the involvement of Ron Dellums as an anti apartheid voice in congress. What are the chances that in 1970 South Africa, a nation that limited access to books and media, would allow a minor child to be placed as a foreign exchange student in the USA let alone with a black host family? It was an effective plot for a Disney movie and a great way to begin educating a child about the evils of racism and apartheid but not very realistic but it made me cry.
You probably know this, but that South African flag really was banned, the language was real(bantu and the unmetionable one), and Steven Beacon being murdered by the white police was true.
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It's all true;
my parents are white South Africans, don't let this movie paint a negative picture of all white South Africans. Just like there are recist Americans out there, there are white South Africans who deeply disagreed with Aparthied and the terrible treatments that black South Africans recieved. My parents liked the movie, but hated how it made all white South Africans (the the exception of Mahree who was "enlightened" by Americans) look "evil"
Truth is, the whole racial system in South Africa was made to look more simple that it actually is. In South Africa there are two groups of white South Africans, English South Africans and Afrikkaners. English South Africans are GENERALY (although not always) your non-racist, anti-apartied South Africans. The Afrikkaners were the ruling government white South Africans of Dutch heritage.
Then black South Africans are divided into two tribes Zulus and Coozas. Presidents Mandella and Mbeki are both Coozas. The Zulus are a much smaller tribe that live in Kwazulu-Natal. You have clashes amongst all four of the groups.
Another thing Americans tend to forget is that Apartheid only ended 10 years ago, and just like the removal of the "Jim Crowe Laws" in the 1960's, racism is not going to automatically disappear. It takes time, unfourtunately for people to become more tolerant of others.
I wish that we could just get some official word from Disney or the Dellums family on how much truth there is in the movie. It says "based on true events," so there must be some actual events in the movie that were true, as opposed to just the names and whatnot. Then again, the extent of those events could be the death of Stephen Biko. Still, you can't really say that a story is based on true events unless at least a fair amount of the events really were true. But then it doesn't make any sense that Ron and Roscoe wouldn't really mention it, since it would have been a big deal. It is, indeed, a mystery. I'm doing a project on Ron Dellums right now and wish that I knew how much of the movie was true, for research purposes. I for one think that it's rather ridiculous to create a fictional story like this about real people like the Dellums family, but who knows, maybe Disney is crazy enough to do such a thing. I need to do more research.
It's monkies, by the way.
Quik87, for a child of two South Africans, you seem to have made a lot of technical errors. The words are "apartheid", "Afrikaner" and "Xhosa", not "aparthied", "Afrikkaner", and "Cooza" (the "Xh" in "Xhosa" is a "clicking" sound that most non-Africans modify to a "Kh" or hard "C").
Also, I think there are more tribes that you're leading us to believe--what about the Sotho, Tswana, Bapedi, Indaba, and Ndbele?
Lastly, the Zulu tribe is hardly small--Shaka created an entire Zulu nation that just happened to be living in what is now kwaZulu-Natal (the name was changed from "Natal" as an acknowledgement of the large Zulu population).
"Mahree Bok was taken home from the South African police, interrogated about the Dellums family and tortured and beaten to death. She was only 16 years old. "
OMG is this really true? Was she beaten to death?
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I just read a short story written by Piper Dellums that was published a few months ago in the teen literary magazine, Cicada. According to the story most of the story of the Color of Friendship is true. The girl's name was really Carrie and after she went back to South Africa the Dellums family was never able to find her again. Piper speculates that she may have been killed, but they have no proof.
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Piper didn't give her last name in the story. I bet they just made that up for the movie, the way they also changed her first name.
shareWhat.
...You know that Ron Dellums is a real person, right?
Her first name is Piper (Facebook it), and since her father's last name is Dellums, she's Piper Dellums.
SIND SIE DAS ESSEN NEIN WIR SIND DER JÄGER
Yes, the Dellums family is real. I meant that the filmmakers changed the name of the South African girl who came to stay with them.
shareI read the short story written by Piper Dellums in "Cicada" too, like Orca10 did. =) The story is called "Simunye", Zulu for "we are one". I read it last yr and saw "The Color of Friendship" when it played on Disney last month, not expecting to see Piper Dellums's story. =)
I reread "Simunye" yesterday.
Here are some differences:
1) The characters at Carrie/Mauree's home in South Africa were created for the film. (Her father may/may not have been a policeman.)
2) Mauree/Carrie comes from Swaziland, a country inside South Africa. (In the movie, she comes from Johannesburg.)
3) Piper's brothers, Eric and Brandy, seem to be younger in the movie, since Eric goes on a date while Mauree/Carrie is still in the US.
4) The Dellums live in a town in Maryland, and in the movie, they live in Washington DC, I think.
5) In "Simunye", the girls bond through a love of John Travolta. The gifts that Piper gives Carrie/Mauree are books (including "Cry, Beloved Country", which Carrie had never read before), Travolta poster, etc. =)
6) Roscoe takes Carrie/Mauree to different seminars, etc. and to see Ron Dellums speak in Congress. By the time of Steven Biko's death, Carrie/Mauree does not deny that he was killed by the South African police.
7) Carrie gives a speech at the foreign exchange student dance before going back to Africa. In the movie, Ron Dellums gives the speech at a Pan-African festival.
8) Carrie returns to Africa and writes to the Dellums about her work in a student organization against the apartheid. She spoke out and later disappeared along with hundreds of other activists.
Overall, the general story is the same, with some minor differences, some a bit larger...But, everything is based off of Piper's story, and certain details have been added, changed or moved around for the sake of the film. =)
I loved "The Color of Friendship" and "Simunye" both. =)
Where did you get that information??? I returned from S.A. at the end of summer. I want to know your source. I just dont beleive you.
shareI got this from an interview online. This quote is in reference to the "white south african exchange student".
"In the movie, she learned something. Her character arc was that she went back a changed person. In reality, she did go back a changed person but the Dellums family has lost contact with her. So we don't know what happened to her. It could've been a political thing."
I mean I live in South Africa and I am white, though I really liked this film it gave a really negative image of white South Aficans. Not all people mistreat people of Afrikaans, zulu and other colored people that's what this film gives off. It is still a good film but the image is very bad so yeah that's all I have to say. :)
And I hate the word Caffered!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Not all people mistreat people of Afrikaans, zulu and other colored people"
Are you sure you live in South Africa? Afrikaans people are white. Any South African who paid moderate attention would be able to tell you that.
...it's not "caffered," it's "kaffir." you should read kaffir boy by mark mathabane. it's a memoir about his coming-of-age in apartheid south africa (he himself is black), it's amazing.
shareIt is sad that we may never know what happened to Carrie.
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Everyone dies but not everyone gets to live.
Fact is, no white activists in RSA were "killed". This only happened in the good 'ole USA ("Mississippi Burning" etc)
Steve Biko was not murdered, but died of neglect and indifference. ( sad all the same).
Assassinations of political leaders, (Chris Hani and Hendrik Verwoerd are the only ones that come to mind) was much rarer in South Africa than in the USA.
Speak not of the mote in your neighbor's eye, lest we comment on the beam in yours.
Hey mepieke, are you sure about that?
There's a film called "A World Apart" in which American actress Barbara Hershey plays Diana Roth, a South African anti-apartheid activist during the 1960s, and I don't think she's playing someone fictitious. FYI, the film depicts the effect of her activities on her daughters, her eldest in particular. The movie's epilogue indicates that Diana Roth was killed in the 1980s and I believe the murder was politically motivated.
South Africa's a beautiful place--I was there last August--but it's not pristine and uncorrupt.
Diane Roth was the fictionalised version of Ruth First, the wife of Joe Slovo.
(Their daughter wrote the story, and he is the tall guy leaving in the beginning of the film)
The bomb was meant for him, but he had not the stature of the Kennedys or Lincoln or MLK. Slovo was merely the head of the SACP, a party with marginal support at best.
Afrikaans, is a language and a group of people, the same way you can be Spanish and speak Spanish
shareAfrikaans is a derivative of the Dutch language. It was brought to South Africa by the Dutch settelers, other wise known as the " Afrikaaner " So um... yeah! Afrikaaner's are white! So that person that said that the Afrikaans are of the coloured race, is obviously wack! But yeah the movie is rather giving the white South African a really bad reputation! I'm an English South African, but I love my country and I hate racism. So yeah this movie is rather good! I love the bond that girls create! And yeah the movie is based on true events!
~ Josh ~
I read that person's post, and I didn't see him say that Afrikaaners were black. He said he didn't hate them. There's a difference. I am a white American historian whose focus is how whites and blacks in America cooperated to end jim crow and both fought side-by-side for the end of segregation and still fight against racism. There are many white racists. I would lump white racists in a group of people different from myself. I took that person's statement to say that they didn't hate black people or white racists in his own country. Perhaps I'm wrong, but he said nothing about Afrikanners being black, just that he didn't hate them.
shareFact is many white activists in RSA were killed. In fact, some white activists were killed by black activists. Look it up.
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Yes, some did die, but each and every one of them is known to the public. If this Mahree/Carrie character did indeed exist, everyone would know of her (especially if a movie was made about "her").
Most South Africans enjoy the movie and its sentiments, but there is no way the character would have been killed by anyone for protesting the government and not make headline news.
The name of this girl would be a part of our history and streets and hospitals would be named after her.
So I'm sorry to burst people's bubble, but there it is.
(And another thing, very few white South Africans would have had a problem with living with African-Americans. They were seen (and indeed classified) by the SA government as "white". The reason being that they were educated, probably Christian and non-communist. The same is true for the Japanese and Koreans, while the Chinese were classified as "black". No, it doesn't make sense, but that is how it was. So to think he government would in any way freak out over this, is just silly.)
I feel you are propagandized and in denial. Americans are well aware of what went on and still goes on in other nations. There are Americans living all over the globe, who visit other nations, journalists who cover events in other nations, researchers who interview anyone and everyone they can, our military occupies over 100 other nations, our government spies on most other nations -- we're not unaware of true events going on all over the world. Few nations can hide what goes on inside their borders from America.
Apartheid was a cause celebre among many important black figures in America in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s - until Mandela was freed.
Btw, there were 5 South African security forces who admitted to killing Biko. They sought amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but were denied.
Also, assassinations of political leaders were rare? How about lesser-known leaders and freedom fighters? The Sharpeville massacre. The Shell House massacre. The Boipatong massacre.
In "the good ole USA" our racial violence didn't cause massacres. The number of victims of lynchings, or violence by the government against Civil Rights advocates, or random violence against black people, in total, couldn't equal the number of victims in most of the individual South African massacres.
Jim crow pales in comparison to South African Apartheid, and I'm a historian who never minimizes jim crow. Political violence in most of the rest of the world is much more rampant than in the US - In the 21st century, we might have a lot of random shootings among our population, and gang wars in major cities, but we have had a very stable government with the exception of the Civil War years, which is about 3 years of our history.
A LOT of people - including many anti-Apartheid leaders, and even Afrikanners - died as a result of anti-Apartheid fighting, including assassinations and massacres. To say that isn't true is sticking your head way deep in the sand. ESPECIALLY where BIKO is concerned! They admitted they killed him!
This is a SHORT history, compiled on the spot. It's in no way comprehensive research.
I watched this movie in my global honors class in Grand Island, New york. My father is a proud rhodesian born, moving to Canada from africa after the terrorist take over in rhodesia. Although never living in south africa, I recently vacationed to the country, and stayed with a girl very like Mahree Bok in the sense that she was 14 years of age. She was polite and respectful to her servents, as were her parents and siblings. I belive movie sorely misrepresents the general south african government, and her people, as neither would kick another man's servent, as it would be very rude. The movie was interesting to watch though even if it was a bet against the south african side of things.
shareLeaving aside the comments regarding Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia)--everyone should keep in mind this film is set in the 1970s when Apartheid was definitely the law of the land in South Africa and segregation was definitely codified. Also the South African govt was nearly at war with more than half of the population of South Africa--in its attempts to enforce Apartheid. At this time individual white South Africans, both English and Afrikaner, were on both sides of the struggle to varying degrees. Is it fair to say the South African govt was oppressive and repressive, yes; was it fair to say it was racist, yes; was it fair to say white South Africans were generally racist, yes; was it fair to say that all white South Africans were racist, no.
Additionally, there is strong documentation of the government's murder, kidnapping and torture of both black and white South Africans who were part of the anti-apartheid movement--one site that has probably the most thorough online documentation of this is the official site of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission http://www.doj.gov.za/trc/trccom.htm
it's all very touching!!! yes things diff in the movie than real life, happens all the time!!! I read "Kaffir Boy" and to me it is one of the greatest books ever written, it really touched my heart!!
Ashley Tisdale 4 ever
let's learn to love <3
Piper Dellums' short account of the events behind this includes the one thing that seems so unlikely -- both really were surprised at the race of the other. Similar cases of what assumptions and improper background checks will get you can be found, especially back then when things were more lax than today, but it's still pretty amazing -- you send your daughter overseas, you should get a full account of the background of the person she is staying with. Even a thumbnail sketch would have shown he was a public figure ... and black.
Even if it is assumed (quite possible) that a congressman would be white, you still would get background info on the guy. And, any half-way decent account would note his race. The movie has the black servant aware of the "joke" here but apparently the organization involved in matching them up doesn't? They surely wouldn't be naive enough to think it doesn't matter!!
It was handwaved away that the white girl had no good picture of herself, so she didn't include one, but again that is strange. You are going to stay for months. A picture should have been obligatory!
I am from Washington D.C. and that's where the film is based off. Now that high school does exist and doing that time it was one of the few high schools in d.c. that have white kids attending. D.C. was majority black for a long time. Her family must be extremely wealthy though. It's not many houses/neighborhoods like that in D.C.
How true is this?
There are gals like that in some parts of the states too. I'm in KY and the girls look down at me. Of course I am not black; however, I am a minority.
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