This discourse recognized and defined colonial domination and its instruments. Destabilization and the misappropriation of the past and of identity is only one of them. Recognition and definition has been followed by action. Postcolonial literatures for example have been supplying the people with decolonized images of themselves and their identities in the past. Memories have been reclaimed as represented in the story of Mapantsula.
Memory means identity, memory as in own, unedited memory.
The power of such memory becomes clear as Panic bases his refusal to be corrupted on his memory of the recent past. The images of everyday life under the apartheid regime are conjured up giving him the will power and us the understanding. These flashbacks also give strength to the structure and style of the film. They interrupt the scenes set in the prison adding to their interpretation by informing the audience about recent events in Panic's and the black community's life. The prison scenes are bleak and dreary.