Hacker Cinema
Cry Freedom
1987 · Film · 157 min
Directed by Richard Attenborough
A dramatic story, based on actual events, about the friendship between two men struggling against apartheid in South Africa in the 1970s. Donald Woods is a white liberal journalist in South Africa who begins to follow the activities of Stephen Biko, a courageous and outspoken black anti-apartheid activist.
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I remember the activist campaigns and the movie Cry Freedom about Steve Biko, another SA activist, had a significant impact on my worldview growing up. As revolutions and coups go it was clearly a success. I'd wonder how much of a role their electronic opsec played in it.
I think it was the ANC and its activists organizing the coalition of other countries to sanction and isolate the government that ultimately caused it to yield power, which is the necessary condition for any revolution- it requires allies to be in place to support it for when it succeeds. On the ground, you only really need a few dozen people to seize some buildings and bank accounts, it's coordinating the external trade links to keep everyone paid and in their jobs while the top of the regime changes to new hands that's difficult. The opsec for that ground force just has to get most of them to their X day, where they're going to take casulties anyway.
In the case of SA, it seemed like a matter of convincing other countries to do nothing, by persuading the world the govt were just racist villains, and convincing the National Party in government that nobody would intervene to save them if there were a civil revolt. That part was organized in plain view. Opsec is interesting and mysterious, but often less important than the stories we tell about it afterwards.
A few years ago there was a program[1] on ABC (Australia) about South Africa detailing some of the mismanagement of public funds. Mid way through the story they introduced a young woman from Tembisa who had finished school and had the marks to go to university, but not the money.
A group of about 10-12 of us contacted ABC and asked how we could help. The journalist connected us together and we self organized to fund her university and accommodation.
The university was very helpful, setting up a bursary for us to pay into and helping to get her settled into her residence and course (Teaching).
I had to buy her a computer, and that was a frustrating process. I couldn't ship one from here mainly due to shipping batteries being problematic. I ended up enlisting the help of a computer shop and having them verify that I wasn't using a stolen credit card.
That was 4 years ago. She's very close to graduating, she struggled with English subjects early on, but now it's just practicals and she can go out into the workforce.
Moral of the story, you can help, and you can make a difference if you put your mind to it, even when no easy path exists.
[1]: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/cry-freedom-promo/4881242 (The relevant section is 28:43 into the episode)
Edit: Grammar
Edit 2: Link to program