How is the land symbolic in relation to the story and to Paton's overall message?

Paton often goes into great detail to describe the land in South Africa. How is the land symbolic in relation to the story and to Paton's overall message?

  In the Cry The Beloved Country writing by Alan Paton. Paton goes into great detail explaining the lands of south Africa. As he traveled to Johannesburg he began to go into great details and describes the land as "rich, pure, sacred,something to live upon also as, holy ground, and religious."
        
       Paton implies that "the grass is rich and matted, you can not see the soil. It holds the rain and the mist, and they seep into the ground, feeding the streams in every kloof. It is well tended and not too many cattle feed upon it; not too many fires burn it, laying bare the soil. Stand unshod upon it, for the ground is holy, being even as it came from the Creator. Keep it, guard it, care for it, for it keeps men, guards men, cares for men. Destroy it and man is destroyed."  Paton believes that by destroying the land you also can destroy man sense of belonging disappears and he is forced to learn for himself and learning requires time and experience. There is more use of energy for better and newly introduced things when traditional ideas and sediments do not pose boundaries for the innovate, but innovation is more difficult because there is nothing to look back upon. With nothing to refer to,starting new things is very hard. Without new beginnings, society remains static and does not develop. Tradition is the development of society.
    He refers South Africa to" holy ground" that the land was created to be good land. This passage from the text is explaining that when South Africa was taken over by England or Great Britain. when the British men came to South Africa they wanted to take over the land and steal away all he gold from the Africans.With this happening the land was destroy which means that man was also destroyed.
      He also says that the "great red hills stand desolate, and the earth has torn away like flesh. The lightning flashes over them, the clouds pour down upon them, the dead streams come to life, full of the red blood of the earth. Down in the valleys women scratch the soul that is left, and the maize hardly reaches the height of a man. There are valleys of old men and old women, of mothers and children. The men are away, the young men and the girls are away." He is saying that because the people of this land are losing their tradition, their society is falling into disrepair. Young people are moving out of the town to look for opportunities in other places.Without tradition to feed or keep alive the people, they suffer. Their crops are withering because they are suffering from a drought of rain, but, more symbolically, a drought of tradition. As their tradition disappears, their society lost there value and people no longer wanted to stay in the village due to the drought.
  
   Paton does a good job at explaining how the land and the main point of this book connects. He uses words like  "rich, pure, sacred,something to live upon also as, holy ground, and religious" to give an good example of how the land was in south Africa.