After completing the Oresteia, with its open questions regarding the possibility and limitation of getting justice, the case of the Cradock Four offers some parallels with the attempts to right the wrongs of the past as seen in the Iliad, Antigone, Electra, and the Oresteia. The “Cradock Four” were four men, Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkhonto, and Sicelo Mhlauli, who served as educators and activists in the township of Cradock in South Africa, located in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, about 145 miles from Port Alfred on the East coast. The work of the four men involved appealing for access to better education and an improvement in basic living conditions for those in the township. Their appeals to the South African government swiftly brought them to the attention of the secret police who alerted the Transkei’s Minister of Defence, and then, Transkei’s Director of Military Intelligence.

The link to this abbreviated version of a documentary on the Cradock Four can be accessed here, https://youtu.be/Azz-F0mbWP8. The documentary questions what forms of justice can be attained by those denied justice for so long.

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