Cry, the Beloved Country Characters

– Stephen Kumalo’s brother. Since coming to Johannesburg, he has become a powerful but slightly corrupt political leader and activist for the blacks of Johannesburg. He has also shunned his Christian faith and its moral trappings, distressing Stephen greatly.

– The minister who invited Stephen Kumalo to Mission House, and who aids Stephen at every turn.

Another minister at Mission House. Like Msimangu, Father Vincent helps Stephen greatly, encouraging him to pray and rest after the devastating news about Absalom’s crime.

– Stephen Kumalo’s sister. Gertrude is flighty, and like her nephew Absalom was easily corrupted by Johannesburg. She is only able to find peace once she runs away to become a nun.

– Absalom’s pregnant girlfriend. She eagerly comes and lives with Stephen and his wife after they leave Johannesburg, and is overjoyed to have a new family to call her “daughter.” She marries Absalom prior to his execution.

– A young boy with a “brightness” in him, Arthur Jarvis’s son (also the son of Mary Jarvis) visits Stephen Kumalo to learn Zulu. He is kind and passes along information about the community’s needs to his grandfather, James Jarvis.

– A member of Msimangu’s church, in whose home Stephen (and later Gertrude, her son, and Absalom’s girlfriend) stay during their time in Johannesburg. She is a stern, kind, and deeply proper woman.

Mary Jarvis’s father. He rails on and on about how the country’s ills are the fault of the “natives.”

– Mary Jarvis’s brother, James Jarvis’s son-in-law. More progressive than his father, John is a good friend to James.

A young man sent by James Jarvis to help Stephen’s community build a dam and improve their agriculture. He admires James, but also talks to Stephen about the unfairness of how South Africa’s land has been divided among whites and blacks.

James Jarvis’s wife. She is devastated by her son’s death. Already sickly, she dies after returning from Johannesburg.

Stephen Kumalo’s wife. She is a patient and loving woman who suffers greatly, but stoically.

The lawyer who takes on Absalom Kumalo’s case. He does so free of charge.

John Kumalo’s son and Absalom’s cousin. He is one the accomplices with Absalom when Arthur Jarvis is shot and killed. He lies about his presence at the murder scene and is acquitted.

The late Arthur Jarvis’s wife, and James Jarvis’s daughter-in-law. She takes in her father-in-law after her mother-in-law, Margaret Jarvis, passes away.

Gertrude’s young son, who listens to Stephen’s stories.