Semiotic Analysis of the Racial Discrimination Against Blacks on Film “Escape from

Pretoria”

Azmi Julian Mawardi and Ferry Setiawan

English Literature Department, Faculty of Adab and Humanities, Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif
Hidayatullah Jakarta, Indonesia.
mawarr.azmi18@mhs.uinjkt.ac.id, ferry.setiawan18@mhs.uinjkt.ac.id

Abstract
This article discusses about semiotic terms in the racial discrimination against blacks on film
“Escape from Pretoria”. Escape from Pretoria is a documentary-thriller film adapted from
the true story of the escape attempt of prisoners from a Pretoria prison during the Apartheid
era in South Africa. The script was adapted from the book Inside Out: Escape from Pretoria
which was written by the main actor himself, Tim Jenkin. This film was produced by Francis
Annan, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Daniel Webber. Tim Jenkin (Daniel Radcliffe) and
Stephen Lee (Daniel Webber) are two white men who are in the struggle against the rising
apartheid regime in South Africa. They devised a plan to make an act of provocation by
distributing leaflets aimed at informing and inviting the public to take part in the struggle.
Unfortunately, their action was captured by the government. As a result, Tim and Stephen
were then sentenced to prison and had to languish in Pretoria Central Prison. Semiotics is
trying to find signs that have meaning and know sign systems such as language, motion,
music, pictures, and so on. Movies are live pictures also often called movies. Films
collectively are often called cinemas. Cinema itself comes from the word kinematic or
motion. The method used in this article is qualitative research method. Where research will
explain the semiotic analysis by using the theory of Alex Preminger and analyze data based
Ideology, Frame Work Culture, and Interpretant Group.

Keywords: Disrcimination
Against Blacks
Semiotic Analysis
Introduction
In its development, the African National Party officially introduced Apartheid politics
in 1948. Members of this party come from white ethnic Dutch descent who control politics
and government in South Africa. The African National Party won the elections in 1948 and
established the Apartheid regime. The regime declared South Africa a white country, and
other racial groups besides white did not have full political and civil rights. In the book
History of Africa (2016) by Darsiti Soeratman, the Apartheid regime discriminated against
black South Africans through state law. In this law, there is a division of living space between
the races in South Africa. Whites got 87 percent of South Africa, while blacks only got 13
percent. Policy discrimination also occurs in the educational, social and, cultural fields. Even
the Prime Minister of South Africa, Hendrik F Verwoerd said that it would be a big mistake if
the people of South Africa lived inequality and equal rights.
Demands for the elimination of Apartheid in South Africa have emerged from within
the country and the international community. Demands for the elimination of apartheid from
the international community lasted around the 1980s. In the book Nelson Mandela: The
Authorized Biography (2016) by Anthony Sampson, the elimination of Apartheid from
within the country arises through black groups and some white groups who care about the
fate of African people. The movement to eliminate apartheid began to be echoed by South
African national figures in the 1960s. Here are some South African figures who fought for the
elimination of Apartheid: Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Frederick W de Klerk, and Chris
Hani. The elimination of Apartheid politics in South Africa had a profound impact on all
aspects of life. Some of the effects of the elimination of the Apartheid system in South
Africa, namely: Black and white people in South Africa can coexist without racial conditions
The spread of anti-racism in the international world The emergence of equality against blacks
throughout the world South Africa can implement policies-reform based on diversity.
Semiotics is trying to find signs that have meaning and alert systems of signs such as
language, motion, music, pictures, and so on. Every movement and language in the film
Escape from Pretoria is packaged attractively by scriptwriter L.H. Adams and also director
Francis Annan. The basic story of the book entitled 'Inside Out: Escape from Pretoria Prison'
by Tim Jenkin which was later formed into a script by LH Adams and also director Francis
Annan, 'Escape from Pretoria' can be categorized as a complete package for a film that carries
a self-escape plan. as the main focus of the story. It seems that Francis Annan doesn't want to
go too far in exploring the political and human rights issues that are stored in the story.
Escape from Pretoria 'was formed so that his own experience wanted to show one of the
previous struggles in the resistance to the apartheid system. The results of the motives for the
two issues were vague, it was enough to be aired because a little spice on the issue might
create a more interesting storyline in the history of the story.

Method
The method used in this research is qualitative. This qualitative research use
descriptive approach by applying the principles of semiotic theory. According to Preminger
(1974: 980) semiotics is the science of signs and studying socio-cultural phenomena,
including literature as a sign system. This study uses the scenes in the film Escape From
Pretoria as a data source. There are several ways to complete this research, which are by
collecting data from the film, classifying and analyzing the data regarding the issue, and then
conclude the research. The research examine :
1. How does the film Escape from Pretoria represent racism?
2. What scenes that represent racism in the film?
3. How the signs of racism in the film represent the Apartheid politics in Africa?

Results and Discussion

Based on the analysis of the film Escape From Pretoria, it was found that the results
showed signs that represented the occurrence of acts of racism committed by white people
against black people. According to Stuart Hall (1997: 11), representation is one of the
important practices in producing a culture. Then regard to racism, according to Marger
explain that thought based on racism, affects the basics naturally about thoughts and actions
to give different treatment to each member of a race that is different from other races. A tribe
classified according to their membership in a group or tribe, which creates an imbalance
between one term and another. (Marger, 1994:26). The representation of racism in the film
Escape From Pretoria is shown in the form of actions, verbal words (such as dialogue
between characters), and signs that represent racism.
This representation can be seen from the six scenes that have been taken from the film Escape
From Pretoria. The first scene shows the documentary footage of the clash between the white
government and the blacks in '73. This scene depicts the social inequality between white
people who can have fun with their lives compared to black people who have to fight for their
rights as humans. The second scene shows the separation of seats in the trial between white
people and black people. In this scene there is also a conversation or dialogue from the Judge
who put Tim Jenkins and Stephen Lee into a white male prison. In the third scene, in this
white prison or what is called the Pretoria Prison, it is seen that there is violence committed
by the white warden against black workers or janitors just because of trivial carelessness.
Then in scene four, when one of the white prisoners spills food on the floor and is about to
clean it he is stopped by the chief warden and states that it is not his job to do the potluck job
of the black janitor. Furthermore, in the fifth scene, you can see the head warden insulting
and demeaning the potluck as a black mouse and mocking the death process of Potluck who
was executed three days earlier and demeaning the black race. At last in scene six, there are
different taxi services for white people and black people. In this scene there is also an
inscription on the taxi's body that says "Non White" or which indicates that the taxi is only
intended for black people.
This film is set in South Africa at the time of the implementation of Apartheid politics so that
represent many events at that time such as racism, rebellion against the government, and
racist rule of law. As stated by Budiman (2013), Apartheid is a racial segregation policy
followed previously in South Africa. The word Apartheid means "separation" in African and
it describes the racial rigidity that governs the division between the white minority population
and the majority black population. The law stipulated where members of each group could
live, what jobs they could maintain, and what kinds of education they could receive. The law
prohibited social contact between races, authorized segregated public facilities, and denied
non-white representation in the national government. People who openly opposed Apartheid
were considered communists and the government passed strict security laws that turned South
Africa into a police state (Budiman, 2013). From all these scenes it indicates that racism at
that time was not only a problem in socio-cultural life but had become an official rule in the
government of the South African country at that time.

Conclusion
Escape from Pretoria is a documentary-thriller film adapted from the true story of the
escape attempt of prisoners from a Pretoria prison during the Apartheid era in South Africa.
This film was produced by Francis Annan, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Daniel Webber. Tim
Jenkin (Daniel Radcliffe) and Stephen Lee (Daniel Webber) are two white men who are in
the struggle against the rising apartheid regime in South Africa. In this film, it was found that
the results showed signs that represented the occurrence of acts of racism committed by white
people against black people. The representation of racism in the film Escape From Pretoria
is shown in the form of actions, verbal words (such as dialogue between characters), and
signs that represent racism. The most prominent example of racism in this film is there are
different taxi services for white people and black people. In this scene there is also an
inscription on the taxi's body that says "Non White" or which indicates that the taxi is only
intended for black people. The ending of this film is the escapes of Tim Jenkin, Stephen Lee,
and Leonard then their struggle against Apartheid politics continues. Until finally after
Nelson Mandela's liberation, it had a positive impact on the struggle of the South African
people in fighting for Apertheid politics. On February 21, 1991, the Law on Apertheid was
passed and in 1994 the first election was held which resulted in Nelson Mandela coming out
as the winner which continued until May 10, 1994.
References
Budiman, Agus.(2013). Politik Apartheid di Afrika Selatan. Jurnal Artefak. 1.18.
Marger, Martin N.1994. Race and ethnic relations: 3rd ed. California: Wadsworth Publishing
Company
Preminger, Alex, (ed), et al. 1974. Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. New
Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Stuart Hall. 1997. “The Work of Representation.” Representation: Cultural Representation
and Signifying Practices. Ed. Stuart Hall. London: Sage Publication.