Cry, the Beloved Country is full of symbols which enrich and reinforce the meaning of the text. These include water, drought, the church, and the tribe.

Water is a symbol of natural purity, regeneration, and life. In an idyllic landscape, the "water sings over the stones," but this idyll has been ruined by the colonists, who have laid claim to the water along with the land (which is why the people have to use James Jarvis's water supply from High Place). Since water has this meaning, drought conveys the opposite, a spiritual dryness and lifelessness that parallels the physical lack of water.

The words "Church" and "church" are used often throughout the text. The former refers to the institution, and the latter, without an initial capital, refers to the physical building. The building is a symbol of this institution and also of a simple, humble form of faith, without the pomp and grandeur that can often accompany religious worship. This is why the mission at Ndotsheni has only a "dirty old wood-and-iron church, patched and forlorn."

The tribe symbolizes the traditional society which has been destroyed by colonialism. The "broken tribe and the broken house" are continually linked with "the sickness of the land" and the proliferation of crime, particularly in the cities, where young people go when they desert the tribe.