Understand Cry The Beloved Country Quotation?

Question

I read Cry, The Beloved Country and at the end, this is the quotation.
“But when that dawn will come, of our emancipation, from the fear of bondage and the bondage of fear, why, that is a secret?”
I still don't quite understand it. Can anybody help me on this?

Answer 1

It means that even though Apartheid was abolished, and black South Africans have their freedom and equality, the remembrance of their hardship, and the fear of its return, remain with them. And that no one knows when when they will be able to live without them.

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Actually, anobium625 is absolutely right about the when it was written. For some reason, I was thinking of when the movie came out, not when the book was written. My mistake.

But the meaning of the quote is largely unchanged. It means, "No one can know when when we will finally be free."

Answer 2

This was written well before apartheid ended. The "why" isn't an interrogative, it's verbal punctuation, sort of "Why ask?" Paton is only saying that it is a secret when the dawn, the emancipation, the fear, and the bondage will end.