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Mother to Mother
Sindiwe Magona's novel Mother to Mother explores the South African legacy of apartheid through the lens of a woman who remembers a life marked by oppression and injustice. Magona decided to write this novel when she discovered that Fulbright Scholar Amy Biehl, who had been killed while working to organize the nation's first ever democratic elections in 1993, died just a few yards away from her own permanent residence in Guguletu, Capetown. She then learned that one of the boys held responsible for the killing was in fact her neighbor's son. Magona began to imagine how easily it might have been her own son caught up in the wave of violence that day. The book is based on this real-life incident, and takes the form of an epistle to Amy Biehl's mother. The murderer's mother, Mandisi, writes about her life, the life of her child, and the colonized society that not only allowed, but perpetuated violence against women and impoverished black South Africans under the reign of apartheid. The result is not an apology for the murder, but a beautifully written exploration of the society that bred such violence.
212 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1998
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1512 people want to read
About the author
Sindiwe Magona
61 books88 followersSindiwe Magona is a South African writer.
Magona is a native of the former Transkei region. She grew up in Bouvlei near Cape Town, where she worked as a domestic and completed her secondary education by correspondence. Magona later graduated from the University of South Africa and earned her Masters of Science in Organisational Social Work from Columbia University.
She starred as Singisa in the isiXhosa classic drama Ityala Lamawele.
She worked in various capacities for the United Nations for over 20 years, retiring in 2003.
In the 2013 computer-animated adventure comedy film Khumba she was the voice actor for the character Gemsbok Healer.
She is Writer-in-Residence at the University of the Western Cape and has been a visiting Professor working at Georgia State University.
Magona is a native of the former Transkei region. She grew up in Bouvlei near Cape Town, where she worked as a domestic and completed her secondary education by correspondence. Magona later graduated from the University of South Africa and earned her Masters of Science in Organisational Social Work from Columbia University.
She starred as Singisa in the isiXhosa classic drama Ityala Lamawele.
She worked in various capacities for the United Nations for over 20 years, retiring in 2003.
In the 2013 computer-animated adventure comedy film Khumba she was the voice actor for the character Gemsbok Healer.
She is Writer-in-Residence at the University of the Western Cape and has been a visiting Professor working at Georgia State University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 152 reviews
April 26, 2021
This novel focuses on an event in South Africa in August 1993. An American Fulbright scholar Amy Biehl, was killed by a group of black youth in Guguletu. She was in the country to help prepare for democratic elections. Her death took place close to Siniwe Magona’s house and one of the boys responsible for the killing was the son of her neighbour. Magona has also adapted this into a play.
The novel is a letter from the mother of the boy mentioned above to the mother of the girl who was murdered. It is a passionate and heartfelt description of life under apartheid and its trials and horrors; not an apology for murder but a laying out of a map of how things got to where they did. The mother, Mandisa, tells of her own life and the history of her son Mxolisi and touches on the history of the colonisation, including the Xhosa cattle-killing of 1856-7 (also significant in Zakes Mda’s Heart of Redness). There is a great strength and descriptive power, and no glossing over the situation:
"For that is what he had become at the time when he killed your daughter. My son was only an agent, executing the long-simmering dark desires of his race. Burned hatred for the oppressor possessed his being. It saw through his eyes; walked with his feet and wielded the knife that tore mercilessly into her flesh. The resentment of three hundred years plugged his ears; deaf to her pitiful entreaties"
And there is a sense of generational conflict;
"These tyrants our children have become, power crazed, at the drop of a hat, they make these often absurd demands on us, their parents."
Magona charts the tensions between generations and differing opinions about the struggle against oppression and puts it this way:
“In writing Mother to Mother I needed to explain the problems that confronted this boy and our history as a people. It is not just the boy, it is the society. It goes much farther back; it is the stories with which we grow up. It is the hatred that we are taught when we are children. It is the suspicion with which we regarded white people. It is all these things and the irresponsibility of learned grown people who teach children slogans like “One settler, one bullet!” that they themselves know they will never translate to reality - but the children, being children perhaps do. Some psychologists believe that when someone cracks in a family, the schism is not necessarily the problem, This is the manifestation of what is not right in the family, and the child who has a breakdown may just happen to be the most sensitive, not necessarily the most troubled. People like these four boys who killed Amy Biehl may have been the most sensitive and susceptible among us, not necessarily the most cruel or the most evil.”
At its heart though, this is a biography of a people and their struggle told though Mandisa and her son Mxolisi and very powerful it is.
The novel is a letter from the mother of the boy mentioned above to the mother of the girl who was murdered. It is a passionate and heartfelt description of life under apartheid and its trials and horrors; not an apology for murder but a laying out of a map of how things got to where they did. The mother, Mandisa, tells of her own life and the history of her son Mxolisi and touches on the history of the colonisation, including the Xhosa cattle-killing of 1856-7 (also significant in Zakes Mda’s Heart of Redness). There is a great strength and descriptive power, and no glossing over the situation:
"For that is what he had become at the time when he killed your daughter. My son was only an agent, executing the long-simmering dark desires of his race. Burned hatred for the oppressor possessed his being. It saw through his eyes; walked with his feet and wielded the knife that tore mercilessly into her flesh. The resentment of three hundred years plugged his ears; deaf to her pitiful entreaties"
And there is a sense of generational conflict;
"These tyrants our children have become, power crazed, at the drop of a hat, they make these often absurd demands on us, their parents."
Magona charts the tensions between generations and differing opinions about the struggle against oppression and puts it this way:
“In writing Mother to Mother I needed to explain the problems that confronted this boy and our history as a people. It is not just the boy, it is the society. It goes much farther back; it is the stories with which we grow up. It is the hatred that we are taught when we are children. It is the suspicion with which we regarded white people. It is all these things and the irresponsibility of learned grown people who teach children slogans like “One settler, one bullet!” that they themselves know they will never translate to reality - but the children, being children perhaps do. Some psychologists believe that when someone cracks in a family, the schism is not necessarily the problem, This is the manifestation of what is not right in the family, and the child who has a breakdown may just happen to be the most sensitive, not necessarily the most troubled. People like these four boys who killed Amy Biehl may have been the most sensitive and susceptible among us, not necessarily the most cruel or the most evil.”
At its heart though, this is a biography of a people and their struggle told though Mandisa and her son Mxolisi and very powerful it is.
August 19, 2020
Here we go again. Another Magona under my belt. I'm kinda proud of myself for continuously checking out her work after falling in love with Living, Loving and Lying Awake at Night. Magona just never disappoints.
In case ya'll didn't know, Sindiwe Magona (born 1943) is a South African woman, who has published a variety of books, ranging from autobiographies (To My Children's Children, Forced To Grow, short story collections (Push-Push and Other Stories) and novels (Beauty's Gift Life is a Hard but Beautiful Thing, Chasing Tails of My Father's Cattle).
Amy Biehl was an American graduate of Stanford University and an anti-Apartheid activist in South Africa who was murdered by Cape Town residents. As she drove three friends home to the township of Gugulethu, outside Cape Town, on August 25, 1993, a mob pulled her from the car and stabbed and stoned her to death. The four men convicted of her murder were pardoned by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, when they stated that their actions had been politically motivated.
Biehl's family supported the release of the men. Her father shook their hands and stated, "he most important vehicle of reconciliation is open and honest dialogue... we are here to reconcile a human life [that] was taken without an opportunity for dialogue. When we are finished with this process we must move forward with linked arms."
In 1994, Biehl's parents, Linda and Peter, founded the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust to develop and empower youth in the townships, in order to discourage further violence. Two of the men who had been convicted of her murder worked for the foundation as part of its programs.
Mother to Mother is an epistolary novel, in which Mandisi, the mother of Mxolisi, addresses Biehl's mother and writes about her life, the life of her child, and the colonized society that not only allowed, but perpetuated violence against women and impoverished Black South Africans under the reign of apartheid. The result is, of course, not an apology for the murder, but a beautifully written exploration of the society that bred such violence.
Many victims are identified in this novel – not just the young American woman who was killed, but also the teenagers who became embroiled in the violence and escalated what was already brewing, the mother herself who has had to swallow the injustices done to her and her family and indeed her entire people who have been robbed of their rich legacy and inherited land and forced to inhabit slums. She blames the society which bred these characters and the government that ignored the teen killers until their violent act, providing for them now that they are criminals in ways that if they had received those subsidies before, might have prevented the desperation in the first place.
In writing about the hardships, though, Magona also interjects her beautiful memories of the place that no longer exists, even the memory being eroded by the stink of reality. In one instance, she gives us the recollections of her childhood, the ease of navigating the terrain freely as her mother sends her on the errands she is not afraid to allow her own children, older now than she was then, to carry out.
Mother to Mother is such a powerful novel that can teach us so much about empathy, but also about rage. Magona excels at showcasing the injustices committed against Black South Africans – like the forced removal from their mineral-rich tribal land to substandard townships – that are often pushed aside and not discussed enough. Through incorporating all those details, Magona manages to make the the hundreds of years of rage that has been simmering in the Black community after the failed attempts to regain their inheritance and return to their previous way of life palpable.
Interwoven in her recollections, she describes a harsh existence, a desperation borne out of helplessness, and breeding a generation that inherits a hatred that progressively gets stronger. It becomes very clear throughout the narrative that Mandisa is mourning the loss of her child [and the loss of a whole generation in a way] as well. She strikes a common chord of grief with Amy's mother, whom she views as her Sister-Mother.
She attempts to illustrate how her gentle son could become a killer. At 15, Mandisa accidentally became pregnant—which, as much as apartheid, led to a hard life for both mother and son: Mandisa, forced to leave school, became a maid and reared Mxolisi alone. A talkative precocious boy, he stops talking for several years after witnessing the death of two older boys, Zazi and Mzamo. He regains his speech, but during his silence Mandisa realizes the resentment she feels for him, for interrupting her life with an unplanned pregnancy, and dramatically changing the course of her future.
Eventually, Mxolisi also dropped out of school, in his case because Mandisa could no longer afford his textbooks. He was soon active in the "No Education Before Liberation" movement of the late 1980s, as Black children left the classrooms for the streets to protest apartheid in increasingly violent ways. Popular and gifted, he became a leader of the gang that would turn murderous.
Mother to Mother is not a comforting read, but I think it is a necessary one. My only gripe with this book is the somewhat slow way of telling this story, it was drawn-out and therefore sometimes a bit of a pain in the ass to read, if I'm being very honest. Apart from that, it's a perfectly fine book that I would recommend to people who aren't afraid to do some heavy thinking and go into a narrative with an open heart ... and mind.
In case ya'll didn't know, Sindiwe Magona (born 1943) is a South African woman, who has published a variety of books, ranging from autobiographies (To My Children's Children, Forced To Grow, short story collections (Push-Push and Other Stories) and novels (Beauty's Gift Life is a Hard but Beautiful Thing, Chasing Tails of My Father's Cattle).
We laugh, to hide the gaping hole where our hearts used to be. Guguletu killed us ... killed the thing that held us together ... made us human. Yet, we still laugh.In 1998, she published Mother to Mother, a fictionalized account of the Amy Biehl killing. To understand this complex novel it is important to know the background of the real-life event that it was based on.
Amy Biehl was an American graduate of Stanford University and an anti-Apartheid activist in South Africa who was murdered by Cape Town residents. As she drove three friends home to the township of Gugulethu, outside Cape Town, on August 25, 1993, a mob pulled her from the car and stabbed and stoned her to death. The four men convicted of her murder were pardoned by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, when they stated that their actions had been politically motivated.
Biehl's family supported the release of the men. Her father shook their hands and stated, "he most important vehicle of reconciliation is open and honest dialogue... we are here to reconcile a human life [that] was taken without an opportunity for dialogue. When we are finished with this process we must move forward with linked arms."
In 1994, Biehl's parents, Linda and Peter, founded the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust to develop and empower youth in the townships, in order to discourage further violence. Two of the men who had been convicted of her murder worked for the foundation as part of its programs.
My son killed your daughter. People look at me as though I did.In Mother to Mother, Sindiwe Magona tells the story from the perspective of the mother of one of Biehl's killers. The novel explores the South African legacy of apartheid through the lens of a woman who remembers a life marked by oppression and injustice. Magona decided to write this novel because it hit too close to home: Amy Biehl was murdered just a few yards away from her own permanent residence in Guguletu, Capetown. One of the boys held responsible for the killing was in fact Magona's neighbor's son. Magona began to imagine how easily it might have been her own son caught up in the wave of violence that day.
Mother to Mother is an epistolary novel, in which Mandisi, the mother of Mxolisi, addresses Biehl's mother and writes about her life, the life of her child, and the colonized society that not only allowed, but perpetuated violence against women and impoverished Black South Africans under the reign of apartheid. The result is, of course, not an apology for the murder, but a beautifully written exploration of the society that bred such violence.
Many victims are identified in this novel – not just the young American woman who was killed, but also the teenagers who became embroiled in the violence and escalated what was already brewing, the mother herself who has had to swallow the injustices done to her and her family and indeed her entire people who have been robbed of their rich legacy and inherited land and forced to inhabit slums. She blames the society which bred these characters and the government that ignored the teen killers until their violent act, providing for them now that they are criminals in ways that if they had received those subsidies before, might have prevented the desperation in the first place.
In writing about the hardships, though, Magona also interjects her beautiful memories of the place that no longer exists, even the memory being eroded by the stink of reality. In one instance, she gives us the recollections of her childhood, the ease of navigating the terrain freely as her mother sends her on the errands she is not afraid to allow her own children, older now than she was then, to carry out.
Mother to Mother is such a powerful novel that can teach us so much about empathy, but also about rage. Magona excels at showcasing the injustices committed against Black South Africans – like the forced removal from their mineral-rich tribal land to substandard townships – that are often pushed aside and not discussed enough. Through incorporating all those details, Magona manages to make the the hundreds of years of rage that has been simmering in the Black community after the failed attempts to regain their inheritance and return to their previous way of life palpable.
I have known for a long time now that he might kill someone some day. I am surprised, however, it wasn't one of his friends or even one of my other children he killed. [...] And perhaps it would have been for the better If it had happened, your child would still be alive today. Except, of course, there is always the possibility she might have got herself killed by another of these monsters our children have become.Within her attempt at explaining not the crime itself but how it could've happened in the first place, Mandisa goes back in time, starting on the morning before the violence, her household situation where she is forced to abandon her children to make a living catering to the whims and fancies of a white family, going back to her childhood exile, both with her family when they were forced to relocate, but also her own expulsion when her mother feared not being able to supervise her.
Interwoven in her recollections, she describes a harsh existence, a desperation borne out of helplessness, and breeding a generation that inherits a hatred that progressively gets stronger. It becomes very clear throughout the narrative that Mandisa is mourning the loss of her child [and the loss of a whole generation in a way] as well. She strikes a common chord of grief with Amy's mother, whom she views as her Sister-Mother.
She attempts to illustrate how her gentle son could become a killer. At 15, Mandisa accidentally became pregnant—which, as much as apartheid, led to a hard life for both mother and son: Mandisa, forced to leave school, became a maid and reared Mxolisi alone. A talkative precocious boy, he stops talking for several years after witnessing the death of two older boys, Zazi and Mzamo. He regains his speech, but during his silence Mandisa realizes the resentment she feels for him, for interrupting her life with an unplanned pregnancy, and dramatically changing the course of her future.
Eventually, Mxolisi also dropped out of school, in his case because Mandisa could no longer afford his textbooks. He was soon active in the "No Education Before Liberation" movement of the late 1980s, as Black children left the classrooms for the streets to protest apartheid in increasingly violent ways. Popular and gifted, he became a leader of the gang that would turn murderous.
Yes, the more I think about this the more convinced I am that your laugher must have been the type of person who has absolutely no sense of danger when she believes in what she is doing. [...] People like your daughter have no inborn sense of fear. They so believe in their goodness, know they have hurt no one, are, indeed, helping, they never think anyone would want to hurt them.Mother to Mother is such a complex novels that left me feeling absolutely emotionally exhausted. It's not trying to be judgy. It's not trying to be apologetic. It's not even biased. It's simply real, and at that ugly and harsh. It navigates this complex situation in even more complex ways and leaves enough room for the reader to fully grasp the complexity of this horrible situation. This book really left me reeling. It left me mourning the loss of Amy Biehl, who was so senselessly killed, while at the same time mourning the loss of innocence of South Africa's youth at the time. It made me angry about the hypocrisy and injustices [that a white life will always matter more than a Black life, as is shown by the justified outrage over Amy's murder but the totally unjustified ignorance at the fact that Black people get murdered in this Township every single day]. It made me frustrated at Amy's naiveté ("Did she not see that this is a place where only black people live? Where was her natural sense of unease? Did she not feel awkward, a fish out of water, here?"), at Mxolisi's carelessness, at the whole system that made these children their pawns.
Mother to Mother is not a comforting read, but I think it is a necessary one. My only gripe with this book is the somewhat slow way of telling this story, it was drawn-out and therefore sometimes a bit of a pain in the ass to read, if I'm being very honest. Apart from that, it's a perfectly fine book that I would recommend to people who aren't afraid to do some heavy thinking and go into a narrative with an open heart ... and mind.
March 5, 2018
1.5 ⭐️
I actually think the topic is interesting but this book was soooo sssssllllllllooowwwww-paaacccceeeed. It made it horribly exhausting to read this book
I actually think the topic is interesting but this book was soooo sssssllllllllooowwwww-paaacccceeeed. It made it horribly exhausting to read this book
December 30, 2021
Ich mochte das Buch jetzt nicht besonders. Ich mag nicht das die ganze Story am Anfang des Buches schon vorweggenommen wird. Zu dem war es jetzt auch nicht so leicht verständlich geschrieben. Den Geschichtlichen Part in dem Buch fand ich ganz interessant, jedoch kam es in dem Buch jetzt nicht all zu häufig vor.
August 4, 2021
This book was exactly what I expected it to be, nothing more or nothing less. Unfortunately, this novel turned out to be my school set book and suddenly the word forced was thrown into the equation. I pick it up and put it down trying to avoid it because I knew I would be disappointed. Then my English teacher told me we need to read the whole thing because are going to be writing a literary essay next week. So there I went with my little book.
Now that I’m done with my ranting let’s get to the nitty gritty.
This book is set in the land of South Africa (yay, my country!) and was about a black mother’s struggles in apartheid.
Reasons I did not enjoy this book:
>I am far from a mother (like far from it)
>I did not live through apartheid
Anyway, those weren’t the only things that annoyed me about this novel. All the characters, in my opinion, were whinny and extremely judgemental. I could not relate or connect to any of them. The main character, Mandisa acted like the whole world was against her and no one cared. She goes off and ends up having a baby when she is like sixteen or seventeen. She is then forced to marry the guy and is then abused by him and his family. Complain complain complain.
She has Mxolisi and the family makes her change his name and he mistakenly kills his friends and he stops talking and the ONLY REASON HE STOPS TALKING IS BECAUSE HIS MOTHER HATES HIM (says the sangoma).
He then LEARNS HIS LESSON LIKE A GOOD BOY and goes and kills a white girl in the townships unmistakenly because he was fighting for education *laughs out loud*
It is clear that Mxolisi is THE FAVOURITE and the one who brings in the most trouble. Which boy saves a girl who was getting raped but then turns against that and goes to stone another girl’s car and stab her to death. Who in there right mind would do that?
But Mr Mxolisi went through so much hardship as a child. Yes, Mr Mxolisi learn some manners please and tell your mother to stop making so many useless excuses.
This book was meant to be about the killing of Amy Biehl but really it was just about all of Mandisa’s pregnancies and how bad her life was. I was frustrated (as you can tell by this very enthusiastic review). The writing in this novel was beautiful but it was written in such a way that half the time I was left confused and had to reread the sentence again. The author also makes use of weird metaphors that really were of no essence to this novel. The events jumps from past to present, adult to teenager, mother to…well mother. That was even more confusing than the weird metaphors.
Maybe I'm not the right target audience or maybe I’m more into fluffy romance novels (as one of my mother-to-mother loving friends told me (I am now considering not being her friend anymore)) but this book made me mad. I mean, life is too short to read a badly written book but set books, I guess I didn’t have much of a choice.
Oh well, I’m off to go read one of my many fluffy romance novel. I know it will be a lot better than this book.
P.S. Thank you to @bookundermybed for being world’s worst reading buddy.
Now that I’m done with my ranting let’s get to the nitty gritty.
This book is set in the land of South Africa (yay, my country!) and was about a black mother’s struggles in apartheid.
Reasons I did not enjoy this book:
>I am far from a mother (like far from it)
>I did not live through apartheid
Anyway, those weren’t the only things that annoyed me about this novel. All the characters, in my opinion, were whinny and extremely judgemental. I could not relate or connect to any of them. The main character, Mandisa acted like the whole world was against her and no one cared. She goes off and ends up having a baby when she is like sixteen or seventeen. She is then forced to marry the guy and is then abused by him and his family. Complain complain complain.
She has Mxolisi and the family makes her change his name and he mistakenly kills his friends and he stops talking and the ONLY REASON HE STOPS TALKING IS BECAUSE HIS MOTHER HATES HIM (says the sangoma).
He then LEARNS HIS LESSON LIKE A GOOD BOY and goes and kills a white girl in the townships unmistakenly because he was fighting for education *laughs out loud*
It is clear that Mxolisi is THE FAVOURITE and the one who brings in the most trouble. Which boy saves a girl who was getting raped but then turns against that and goes to stone another girl’s car and stab her to death. Who in there right mind would do that?
But Mr Mxolisi went through so much hardship as a child. Yes, Mr Mxolisi learn some manners please and tell your mother to stop making so many useless excuses.
This book was meant to be about the killing of Amy Biehl but really it was just about all of Mandisa’s pregnancies and how bad her life was. I was frustrated (as you can tell by this very enthusiastic review). The writing in this novel was beautiful but it was written in such a way that half the time I was left confused and had to reread the sentence again. The author also makes use of weird metaphors that really were of no essence to this novel. The events jumps from past to present, adult to teenager, mother to…well mother. That was even more confusing than the weird metaphors.
Maybe I'm not the right target audience or maybe I’m more into fluffy romance novels (as one of my mother-to-mother loving friends told me (I am now considering not being her friend anymore)) but this book made me mad. I mean, life is too short to read a badly written book but set books, I guess I didn’t have much of a choice.
Oh well, I’m off to go read one of my many fluffy romance novel. I know it will be a lot better than this book.
P.S. Thank you to @bookundermybed for being world’s worst reading buddy.
March 2, 2018
I actually didn’t like it at all.. so boring. Sorry!
Edit: I liked it better now. 1.75/5 ⭐️
Edit: I liked it better now. 1.75/5 ⭐️
May 2, 2018
Okay. Here we go.
I adore the idea of this book. The justification of a murder by the mother, explaining what Apartheid has done to her son? Sign me up.
The adaptation is a solid 2 stars, if that.
First of all, this book was not about the son. That was absolutely falsely advertised. I probably would have liked it more had the back said something like, 'The mother of a murderer explains what Apartheid has done to the people around her through her own story' or something, but she didn't do any justifying. Her son was barely in this book. Which is fine, but then don't tell me it's about him.
Second of all, holy crap, had I not had to read this book for a class I'm taking, I would have DNF'd it. It was:
-slow-paced
-massively overwritten
and
-crying for an editor.
Why were there so many characters? Why was one side-plot eighteen pages long and another was mentioned on the side? Why, why, why?
I'm sorry, but if someone uses a whole paragraph to describe one's knees, I'm done.
Something that makes me sad is that for many in my class, this will the only connection with Apartheid that they make in their life, and the memory of it is boring. (That is not an assumption, I've had several people complain about it to me.)
Why the four-star rating? Because it had a good message, and I like the concept as well as the ending. I don't really know, it's probably closer to three stars if I think about it.
I adore the idea of this book. The justification of a murder by the mother, explaining what Apartheid has done to her son? Sign me up.
The adaptation is a solid 2 stars, if that.
First of all, this book was not about the son. That was absolutely falsely advertised. I probably would have liked it more had the back said something like, 'The mother of a murderer explains what Apartheid has done to the people around her through her own story' or something, but she didn't do any justifying. Her son was barely in this book. Which is fine, but then don't tell me it's about him.
Second of all, holy crap, had I not had to read this book for a class I'm taking, I would have DNF'd it. It was:
-slow-paced
-massively overwritten
and
-crying for an editor.
Why were there so many characters? Why was one side-plot eighteen pages long and another was mentioned on the side? Why, why, why?
I'm sorry, but if someone uses a whole paragraph to describe one's knees, I'm done.
Something that makes me sad is that for many in my class, this will the only connection with Apartheid that they make in their life, and the memory of it is boring. (That is not an assumption, I've had several people complain about it to me.)
Why the four-star rating? Because it had a good message, and I like the concept as well as the ending. I don't really know, it's probably closer to three stars if I think about it.
April 26, 2020
I read this for school and I'm honestly too done to point out everything I didn't like so just the main points:
- barely any focus on the psychological side of the son
- more focus on the son and him growing up would have been cool (more samples of oppression for example, to emphasize how it's been going on for decades and centuries)
- it felt incredibly slow
- there were too many details about some stuff that were honestly not plot relevant
Good point:
+ the idea of the letter
+ the throwback from the ending to the beginning
+ it was very realistic (I think it is some kind of autobiographical thing after all, right?)
- barely any focus on the psychological side of the son
- more focus on the son and him growing up would have been cool (more samples of oppression for example, to emphasize how it's been going on for decades and centuries)
- it felt incredibly slow
- there were too many details about some stuff that were honestly not plot relevant
Good point:
+ the idea of the letter
+ the throwback from the ending to the beginning
+ it was very realistic (I think it is some kind of autobiographical thing after all, right?)
January 31, 2022
When I read Chapter 1 of this book I was convinced I was going to enjoy it. Unfortunately for me, the rest of the book was so slow paced which made it hard to look forward to finishing it (yet here I am).
October 18, 2010
Drawing from the 1993 killing of Amy Biehl in apartheid-era South Africa, Mother to Mother, a novel by Sindiwe Magona, shares with us a different perspective. Literature about murders of white people by black people tend to avoid the women in the killer’s life – unless it’s framed in terms of pathology. In Native Sun, for instance, the women were silent [as well as the first to be killed]. It is very rare for such women to be allowed to narrate their own life stories. With her quietly powerful novel, Magona has changed that dynamic.
From the author’s preface (abbreviated):
The mother, Mandisa, had her oldest child, Mxolisi – the one who, through his actions, catapults her into narration - when she was a 15 year old school girl. It has to be noted that, at the time of her pregnancy. Mandisa was a virgin. The inclusion of an African immaculate conception raises immediate questions concerning Magona’s intent. Was it by design – the correlation between Mary and Mandisa and Jesus and Mxolisi. Or was it simply happenstance - a byproduct of the story line? Considering that Mother to Mother is Magona’s first novel (although not her first book), the latter might be more legitimate.
The legitimacy of the questions, however. is overshadowed by the undeniable fact that both Mxolisi and Jesus were instrumental in bringing about changes in their respective status quos. As a result of the crucifixion of Jesus, Christianity became a potent force in the world. Subsequent to the killing of Amy Biehl, the death knoll for apartheid – which had been slowly but steadily ringing for decades – increased in volume to the point that it no longer was a “knoll” but a toyi toyi, the martial dance which symbolized the determination of South Africa’s majority black population to never again live as a disenfranchised minority.
Going the Jesus route, however, in explaining the murder of Biehl sidesteps the question Mandisa herself asks, over and over again.
Or does it? Did Amy Biehl demonstrate a god complex by treading where no white person went? Did she think her presence in South Africa as a well meaning white person assisting with the transition to a democratically elected government would protect her from repercussions of apartheid? Was she so divorced from the harsh reality that produced slogans like one settler, one bullet that she thought it perfectly logically to drive her black companions to Gugulethu?
There will probably never be a definitive answer to such questions. However, Mandisa herself provides a perspective – one that both reinforces the primacy of her life as well as highlights of the consequences of disconnectedness.
From the author’s preface (abbreviated):
Fulbright scholar Amy Elizabeth Biehl was set upon and killed by a mob of black youth in Guguletu, South Africa in August 1993. The outpouring of grief, outrage and support for the Biehl family was unprecedented in the history of the country.
[---]
In my novel, there is only one killer. Through his mother’s memories, we get a glimpse of human callousness of the kind that made the murder of Amy Biehl possible. And here I am back in the legacy of apartheid – a system repressive and brutal, that bred senseless inter- and intra-racial violence as well as other nefarious happenings; a system that promoted a twisted sense of right and wrong, with everything seen through the warped prism of the overarching crime against humanity, as the international community labelled it.
The mother, Mandisa, had her oldest child, Mxolisi – the one who, through his actions, catapults her into narration - when she was a 15 year old school girl. It has to be noted that, at the time of her pregnancy. Mandisa was a virgin. The inclusion of an African immaculate conception raises immediate questions concerning Magona’s intent. Was it by design – the correlation between Mary and Mandisa and Jesus and Mxolisi. Or was it simply happenstance - a byproduct of the story line? Considering that Mother to Mother is Magona’s first novel (although not her first book), the latter might be more legitimate.
The legitimacy of the questions, however. is overshadowed by the undeniable fact that both Mxolisi and Jesus were instrumental in bringing about changes in their respective status quos. As a result of the crucifixion of Jesus, Christianity became a potent force in the world. Subsequent to the killing of Amy Biehl, the death knoll for apartheid – which had been slowly but steadily ringing for decades – increased in volume to the point that it no longer was a “knoll” but a toyi toyi, the martial dance which symbolized the determination of South Africa’s majority black population to never again live as a disenfranchised minority.
Going the Jesus route, however, in explaining the murder of Biehl sidesteps the question Mandisa herself asks, over and over again.
What was she doing, vagabonding all over Gugulethu, of all places; taking her foot where she had no business? Where did she think she was going? Was she blind not to see there were no white people in this place?
Or does it? Did Amy Biehl demonstrate a god complex by treading where no white person went? Did she think her presence in South Africa as a well meaning white person assisting with the transition to a democratically elected government would protect her from repercussions of apartheid? Was she so divorced from the harsh reality that produced slogans like one settler, one bullet that she thought it perfectly logically to drive her black companions to Gugulethu?
There will probably never be a definitive answer to such questions. However, Mandisa herself provides a perspective – one that both reinforces the primacy of her life as well as highlights of the consequences of disconnectedness.
Now, your daughter has paid for the sins of the fathers and mothers who did not do their share of seeing that my son had a life worth living.
November 29, 2021
Einfach beschissen.
Hätte sich auf 2 Seiten zusammenfassen lassen.
Weder gut geschrieben, noch eine interessante Thematik.
Hätte sich auf 2 Seiten zusammenfassen lassen.
Weder gut geschrieben, noch eine interessante Thematik.
March 31, 2019
I chose this as a book to read on a recent trip to Cape Town, my first visit to South Africa. Although Coetzee is the most famous SA author, I wanted to read a black writer. This book seemed like an interesting mix of fiction and history. It takes as its jumping-off point the real historical murder of the white Fulbright scholar and anti-apartheid activist Amy Biehl by a mob of black Cape Town residents in 1993. (Four men were convicted and later pardoned by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.)
The book is told from the perspective of the mother of one of the murderers, written as a letter to the mother of Amy Biehl. It shifts back and forth between a tick-tock recounting of what the mother experienced on the day of the murder and the day after, and her recounting of her own life, including the upbringing of her son. It is not written as a defense of the murder, but more as a contextualization of it--echoing Martin Luther King's statement that "a riot is the language of the unheard." We see through the story how the resentment and anger that resulted in the murder were cultivated by the apartheid system. In Mandisa's (the mother's) own life, this starts with the forcible removal of non-white families from Cape Town into the outlying townships following on the Group Areas Act of 1950. This uprooted people from their communities and resettled them in arbitrary places where they lacked any connections, destroying the economic basis of family life and creating an environment that fostered drug trade and gang activity. Stories told within the narrative hearken back even further in history, all the way back to the Xhosa cattle slaughter of 1856. Later, we see other events that impacted Mxolisi (the boy that took part in the murder), including witnessing (and being the accidental cause of) the murder of two friends by police of the apartheid state. Through all of this, Magona also highlights the special burdens placed upon women like Mandisa.
I'm glad I read this book during my visit. I like the approach of telling a fictionalized story around a known historical event (I mean more specifically than the general category of historical fiction).
The book is told from the perspective of the mother of one of the murderers, written as a letter to the mother of Amy Biehl. It shifts back and forth between a tick-tock recounting of what the mother experienced on the day of the murder and the day after, and her recounting of her own life, including the upbringing of her son. It is not written as a defense of the murder, but more as a contextualization of it--echoing Martin Luther King's statement that "a riot is the language of the unheard." We see through the story how the resentment and anger that resulted in the murder were cultivated by the apartheid system. In Mandisa's (the mother's) own life, this starts with the forcible removal of non-white families from Cape Town into the outlying townships following on the Group Areas Act of 1950. This uprooted people from their communities and resettled them in arbitrary places where they lacked any connections, destroying the economic basis of family life and creating an environment that fostered drug trade and gang activity. Stories told within the narrative hearken back even further in history, all the way back to the Xhosa cattle slaughter of 1856. Later, we see other events that impacted Mxolisi (the boy that took part in the murder), including witnessing (and being the accidental cause of) the murder of two friends by police of the apartheid state. Through all of this, Magona also highlights the special burdens placed upon women like Mandisa.
I'm glad I read this book during my visit. I like the approach of telling a fictionalized story around a known historical event (I mean more specifically than the general category of historical fiction).
April 26, 2017
this book is amazing. A very moving account of life in Gugulethu in the years of apartheid. The way the current events are placed in a genealogy of violence is very well done. Anyone interested in structural racism or South Africa should read this.
August 3, 2021
4.5/5
Speechless. Utterly speechless. Read this for a class I have to teach but found so much more than that, WOW.
Speechless. Utterly speechless. Read this for a class I have to teach but found so much more than that, WOW.
July 1, 2024
when a 17 year old child buys you a book and says “this is my favorite book” that is a five star book
February 10, 2017
Sindiwe Magona’s novel “Mother to Mother” is an extraordinary novel and definitely worth reading. Here is why:
First, I have to admit that I did not choose to read this book, but instead had to read it in English class. However, it turned out to be a thrilling story with a catching atmosphere which is based on true events. It is a novel about a whole country that suffered from cruel racial segregation, portrayed through the destiny of a black mother who lives with her family in a South African township during the apartheid era. Since she is the narrator of the book, we experience the living conditions, daily racism and a murderer mother’s pain as she finds out what the country’s policy, poorness, police violence and the hate promoting anti-white movement in his environment have made of her son.
Magona was inspired by the terrible murder of American Stanford University graduate and anti-apartheid activist Amy Biehl who was fatally killed by a black mob in 1993. In the novel Mandisa, the mother, writes a heartbroken but straightforwarded and honest letter to the victims mother in which she tries to find answers and achieve condolence.
What did I like?
The book is beautifully, eloquently written. Magona’s simple and poetic writing transports the feelings of an ordinary mother. All her love, grieve and even her desire to rationalize her son’s ‘terrible sin’ by imparting the circumstances and triggers for it. This piece of smart and moving fiction brings her confusion to live. Sensory Images are created by the simple language and embedded short quotes in Zulu language which prevent the writing from getting to complex and therefore from detracting or dazzling from the emotional impact.
Moreover, the idea and the format are really innovative. The Mother of the murderer is writing to the mother of the murder victim. This shares with us an unusual perspective on the happenings and the culprit’s past. Another strong aspect is that the narrator is a black woman, one of those who probably suffered a lot without having the chance of being heard. Mandisa (the mother) narrates maneuvring between past and present, intersections of social-political chaos and individual experience, midst a heartbroken letter.
What did I not like?
Besides these positive aspects I encountered a few negative things which I would also like to mention. The novel partially lacks suspense. The condition that one knows the murderer right from the beginning is an often used method by writers or in movies. Nevertheless, this made reading at times really discouraging, because there seemed to be no suspense at all. Additionally, I was mor interested in Mxolisi’s (the murderer) development than the narrators past. Actually, the novel is mostly focused on Mandisa. This made me wish, the other characters were more fleshed out.
Conclusion?
Before I read the book, I was not fully aware of the apartheid situation in South Africa. That made the novel very precious, because of the historical background worked into it. It showed me the warm, loving side of South Africa as well as the terror of the apartheid regime. Once you get a glimpse into the life of a township, this story won’t leave you unmoved. Putting everything into account, I definitely recommend the novel, because it is innovative and thrilling. As I said, there are a few things that bothered me, but overall this book is really informative and touching.
First, I have to admit that I did not choose to read this book, but instead had to read it in English class. However, it turned out to be a thrilling story with a catching atmosphere which is based on true events. It is a novel about a whole country that suffered from cruel racial segregation, portrayed through the destiny of a black mother who lives with her family in a South African township during the apartheid era. Since she is the narrator of the book, we experience the living conditions, daily racism and a murderer mother’s pain as she finds out what the country’s policy, poorness, police violence and the hate promoting anti-white movement in his environment have made of her son.
Magona was inspired by the terrible murder of American Stanford University graduate and anti-apartheid activist Amy Biehl who was fatally killed by a black mob in 1993. In the novel Mandisa, the mother, writes a heartbroken but straightforwarded and honest letter to the victims mother in which she tries to find answers and achieve condolence.
What did I like?
The book is beautifully, eloquently written. Magona’s simple and poetic writing transports the feelings of an ordinary mother. All her love, grieve and even her desire to rationalize her son’s ‘terrible sin’ by imparting the circumstances and triggers for it. This piece of smart and moving fiction brings her confusion to live. Sensory Images are created by the simple language and embedded short quotes in Zulu language which prevent the writing from getting to complex and therefore from detracting or dazzling from the emotional impact.
Moreover, the idea and the format are really innovative. The Mother of the murderer is writing to the mother of the murder victim. This shares with us an unusual perspective on the happenings and the culprit’s past. Another strong aspect is that the narrator is a black woman, one of those who probably suffered a lot without having the chance of being heard. Mandisa (the mother) narrates maneuvring between past and present, intersections of social-political chaos and individual experience, midst a heartbroken letter.
What did I not like?
Besides these positive aspects I encountered a few negative things which I would also like to mention. The novel partially lacks suspense. The condition that one knows the murderer right from the beginning is an often used method by writers or in movies. Nevertheless, this made reading at times really discouraging, because there seemed to be no suspense at all. Additionally, I was mor interested in Mxolisi’s (the murderer) development than the narrators past. Actually, the novel is mostly focused on Mandisa. This made me wish, the other characters were more fleshed out.
Conclusion?
Before I read the book, I was not fully aware of the apartheid situation in South Africa. That made the novel very precious, because of the historical background worked into it. It showed me the warm, loving side of South Africa as well as the terror of the apartheid regime. Once you get a glimpse into the life of a township, this story won’t leave you unmoved. Putting everything into account, I definitely recommend the novel, because it is innovative and thrilling. As I said, there are a few things that bothered me, but overall this book is really informative and touching.
August 3, 2021
(2.5 stars)
Mother to Mother is the story of Manisa. Her son has killed an innocent white girl in the township of Gugulethu and Mandisa is struggling to come to terms with it. It is a letter to her past self as she looks back on her life and the events that brought her to this moment.
There is no doubt that Sindiwe Magona is a talented writer and this story is so powerful but I feel like I am not the audience this book was written for.
The story takes place during the time of apartheid and being South African myself, I have heard a lot of stories from my parents and grandparents and we learn about this kind of thing every year in our history classes. I myself, did not live through apartheid (I’m giving away my age here 🤣) but I know a lot about it.
The book did what it was aimed to do, it brought across the message loud and clear but I found myself pushing to finish it. It was extremely slow and I struggled to finish it.
At the beginning, the book seems to be about the death of Amy, and how Mandisa’s son is the murderer but by the end of the book, you realize most of the story was about Mandisa growing up during apartheid and how her children were born and how she got to where she is in the story.
Which kind of irritated me because I was hoping to find out more about the killing.
I found it hard to relate to Mandisa. Her story was a tragic one and I didn’t see the I do think that I should have checked the trigger warnings as I had no idea that there would be violence and teenage pregnancy in the book.
I honestly think that if I were a foreigner I would struggle. I guess, I wouldn’t know but I feel as if the book doesn’t explain everything exactly as it is and there was a lot of ambiguity.
The book does portray South Africa well and includes stuff like Vetkoek and Sangomas which was nice to see.
The book dragged a lot and it speed up a bit towards the end but Mandisa shows clear favoritism to Mxolisi which angers me because her other children are worth so much more. I also feel like Mxolisi’s actions were unacceptable and Mandisa making excuses for what he had done was incorrect.
I do believe that this book is for people who can appreciate it’s beauty and will enjoy reading about Mandisa’s complex emotions and her struggle. Unfortunately, I was not a fan but I feel like I am a bit young to appreciate this for what it is. 💕
Thank you to Bookcat700 for doing this buddy-ish read with me.
Mother to Mother is the story of Manisa. Her son has killed an innocent white girl in the township of Gugulethu and Mandisa is struggling to come to terms with it. It is a letter to her past self as she looks back on her life and the events that brought her to this moment.
There is no doubt that Sindiwe Magona is a talented writer and this story is so powerful but I feel like I am not the audience this book was written for.
The story takes place during the time of apartheid and being South African myself, I have heard a lot of stories from my parents and grandparents and we learn about this kind of thing every year in our history classes. I myself, did not live through apartheid (I’m giving away my age here 🤣) but I know a lot about it.
The book did what it was aimed to do, it brought across the message loud and clear but I found myself pushing to finish it. It was extremely slow and I struggled to finish it.
At the beginning, the book seems to be about the death of Amy, and how Mandisa’s son is the murderer but by the end of the book, you realize most of the story was about Mandisa growing up during apartheid and how her children were born and how she got to where she is in the story.
Which kind of irritated me because I was hoping to find out more about the killing.
I found it hard to relate to Mandisa. Her story was a tragic one and I didn’t see the I do think that I should have checked the trigger warnings as I had no idea that there would be violence and teenage pregnancy in the book.
I honestly think that if I were a foreigner I would struggle. I guess, I wouldn’t know but I feel as if the book doesn’t explain everything exactly as it is and there was a lot of ambiguity.
The book does portray South Africa well and includes stuff like Vetkoek and Sangomas which was nice to see.
The book dragged a lot and it speed up a bit towards the end but Mandisa shows clear favoritism to Mxolisi which angers me because her other children are worth so much more. I also feel like Mxolisi’s actions were unacceptable and Mandisa making excuses for what he had done was incorrect.
I do believe that this book is for people who can appreciate it’s beauty and will enjoy reading about Mandisa’s complex emotions and her struggle. Unfortunately, I was not a fan but I feel like I am a bit young to appreciate this for what it is. 💕
Thank you to Bookcat700 for doing this buddy-ish read with me.
May 19, 2020
I did not like this book. It felt like a jumpy motley of different texts, most of those tedious and trying-too-hard, speckled with incomplete sentences that simply feel weird.
The intention behind the book is great, of course. The general idea is that of one huge letter, written by the mother of a native South African would-be murderer to the mother of the white victim of the horrible incident in Guguletu in 1993. The letter is supposed to be an excuse and also a justification, but it goes deeper than that. While in no way denying the guilt of the culprits, Magona utilizes a few background stories to show that the murderers were badly influenced by growing up in the racist Apartheid system.
However, the execution of merging these ideas into one coherent whole is lacking. Many paragraphs are too long and don't contribute anything to the overall picture. Some sentences are not real sentences and thus feel incomplete. Chapter 8 is a fifty-page interlude about the mother's background, how she conceived without sex and how miserable life was for her in general. This is interesting enough in its own right, but if the text is supposed to be a coherent whole, it feels off, too much and simply does not have too much to do with what the book is actually supposed to be about.
The only chapters I liked were the last two. The second to last one is about the mother being sent around Cape Town and finally being reunited with her son. Here, some suspense builds up: what is going to happen? Why is she being sent around Cape Town? And the last chapter shows the event that sparked the idea for this book: the last moments of the Fulbright scholar, there to help and killed simply for being white. Interesting and suspenseful chapter, which I thought could've been longer. Too bad.
Overall, the topic is very important and the book may contribute to create a forum for critical discussions. The writing itself, however, is not enjoyable for the aforementioned reasons.
February 28, 2019
The book is outrageous in its premise. Not the fact that it tries to make a murderer understandable and to show that he might, in a way, have been a victim himself, but the fact that it’s done in this form. A letter from the mother of the murderer to the grieving mother of the victim. And in that letter even in part blaming the daughter for her own death. That’s the inexcusable part. And it makes the main character, Mandisa, unlikable right from the first chapter on. It’s very unfortunate. Almost non of the characters are perfect, but they are flawed in ways that make them unlikable, not human. The book is also boring at times and it feels like a lot of scenes drag on for unnecessarily long and that they add nothing new.
The book does do a good job of presenting the life in the townships in a serious non beautifying tone, that seems authentic. It actually has some great quotes as well. If it weren’t for the first chapter the book might be better. But I was more annoyed than anything else while reading this book.
The book does do a good job of presenting the life in the townships in a serious non beautifying tone, that seems authentic. It actually has some great quotes as well. If it weren’t for the first chapter the book might be better. But I was more annoyed than anything else while reading this book.
November 22, 2025
Mother to Mother is the second novel in my reading about the complexity of motherhood from three different perspectives, from within London’s Caribbean diaspora in The Mother by Yvvette Edwards, apartheid-era South Africa in Mother to Mother, and contemporary Black America in Brit Bennett’s The Mothers.
Making Sense of a Tragedy
Sindiwe Magona decided to write this novel when she discovered that Fulbright Scholar Amy Biehl, who was set upon and killed by a mob of black youth in August 1993, died just a few yards away from her own permanent residence in Guguletu, Capetown.
She then learned that one of the boys held responsible for the killing was in fact her neighbor’s son. Magona began to imagine how easily it might have been her own son caught up in the wave of violence that day.
Mother to Mother, A Novel
When there are tragedies such as what happened here, usually and rightly, a lot is heard about the world of the victim, their family, friends, achievements and aspirations. The Biehl case was no exception.
Sindiwe Magona reflects and asks; are there no lessons to be had from knowing something of that other world, the opposite environments to those that grow and nurture the likes of Amy Biehl; to grow up under the legacy of apartheid, a society where you were born a second-class citizen, a system that relegated black people to the periphery and treated them as sub-human.
In reality, there were four young men, in the novel there is just one. Through the mother’s narrative of her life raising her children in this oppressive environment, through her memories, we come to understand a number of factors that contributed to the continuing dehumanisation of a population that became more and agitated as the little they had was taken from them, destroyed, bulldozed over and opportunities few and far between and one race of privileged people responsible.
Mandisa’s Lament
Mandisa, bewildered and grief-stricken, on learning the news of her son’s involvement in this terrible tragedy, mines her memory and reflects on the life her son has lived, that brought them to this moment. In looking for answers she paints a vision of her son and his world, the world she has inhabited and done her best to navigate and lead her children through, as if in conversation with that other mother, the one who has lost a daughter, forever.
Forced Removals
What began as a rumour, that the government was going to forcibly remove all Africans from numerous settlements to a common area set aside for them all was initially laughed off, not believed. Everyone talked about it, but not with concern, it was impossible.
But the government was not laughing. When the rumour paled and was all but forgotten, one day if returned with a deafening roar, as an aeroplane dropped flyers warning them all of the impending deadline, that they would be forcibly removed. To Guguletu.
Segregation was enforced and black people were removed from their settlements, from suburbs where only white people would now live, pushed into a place and among people they did not know, in challenging conditions and the need to find work.
On A Dark Day, Resentments Build
The narrative is written in two timelines, the day of the protest, when Mandisa is sent home early from her job as a cleaner in a white woman’s home, due to the unrest – interspersed with memories of how their lives came to arrive at this point. She waits and waits for her son to come home and becomes increasingly concerned at his lack of appearance.
As the family circumstances are shared and the life of this mother is revealed, I am reminded of the two autobiographies I have read, of the similarly challenging life and raising of her own children the author in similar circumstances. Although this is fiction, there is resemblance to her own circumstances, no doubt the reason why she understands this could so easily have been any one of those mothers in their neighbourhood.
The story leads up to the actual event, to what occurred on that day, the clash, the terrible crossing of paths, of being in the wrong pace at the wrong time, the burning hatred of an oppressor, the innocent face of one who looked like them, the dark desire of a race seeking revenge, the deep resentment of decades expressing itself in rage.
It is a courageous attempt to present a community in the grip of violent rage, to allow the voice of a mother to speak and share the growth of a family, the intense pain of all touched by a tragedy, to consider a path of redemption, to learn something from it. There may not be any conclusions, but perhaps we are all, all the better for being open to listen to the mothers, to find empathy for people doing the best they can in challenging circumstances. A thought provoking, powerful read.
Restorative Justice
In a final end piece to the story of Amy Biehl, after four men were convicted and given 18 -year prison sentences, there was in July 1987, an appearance before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee to argue for their release from prison, due to the politically motivated nature of the crime.
The parents, the Biehl’s attended the trial and shook hands with the parents of all four men. They understood the context of the South African struggle better than many South Africans.
The men spoke and asked for forgiveness. After consideration, all four were pardoned and the Biehl family supported their release.
Linda and Peter Biehl created a humanitarian organisation, the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust to develop and empower youth in the townships, in order to discourage further violence.
Two of the men who had been convicted of her murder went on to work for the foundation as part of its programs.
Making Sense of a Tragedy
Sindiwe Magona decided to write this novel when she discovered that Fulbright Scholar Amy Biehl, who was set upon and killed by a mob of black youth in August 1993, died just a few yards away from her own permanent residence in Guguletu, Capetown.
She then learned that one of the boys held responsible for the killing was in fact her neighbor’s son. Magona began to imagine how easily it might have been her own son caught up in the wave of violence that day.
The outpouring of grief, outrage, and support for the Biehl family was unprecedented in the history of the country. Amy, a white American, had gone to South Africa to help black people prepare for the country’s first truly democratic elections. Ironically, therefore, those who killed her were precisely the people for whom, by all subsequent accounts, she held a huge compassion, understanding the deprivations they had suffered.
Mother to Mother, A Novel
When there are tragedies such as what happened here, usually and rightly, a lot is heard about the world of the victim, their family, friends, achievements and aspirations. The Biehl case was no exception.
Sindiwe Magona reflects and asks; are there no lessons to be had from knowing something of that other world, the opposite environments to those that grow and nurture the likes of Amy Biehl; to grow up under the legacy of apartheid, a society where you were born a second-class citizen, a system that relegated black people to the periphery and treated them as sub-human.
What was the world of this young woman’s killers, the world of those, young as she was young, whose environment failed to nurture them to the higher ideals of humanity and who, instead, became lost creatures of malice and destruction?
In reality, there were four young men, in the novel there is just one. Through the mother’s narrative of her life raising her children in this oppressive environment, through her memories, we come to understand a number of factors that contributed to the continuing dehumanisation of a population that became more and agitated as the little they had was taken from them, destroyed, bulldozed over and opportunities few and far between and one race of privileged people responsible.
Mandisa’s Lament
Mandisa, bewildered and grief-stricken, on learning the news of her son’s involvement in this terrible tragedy, mines her memory and reflects on the life her son has lived, that brought them to this moment. In looking for answers she paints a vision of her son and his world, the world she has inhabited and done her best to navigate and lead her children through, as if in conversation with that other mother, the one who has lost a daughter, forever.
Forced Removals
What began as a rumour, that the government was going to forcibly remove all Africans from numerous settlements to a common area set aside for them all was initially laughed off, not believed. Everyone talked about it, but not with concern, it was impossible.
There were so many of us in Blouvlei, a tin-shack location where I grew up, Millions and millions. Where would the government start? Who could believe such a thing?
The sea of tin shacks lying lazily in the flats, surrounded by gentle white hills, sandy hills dotted with scrub, gave us (all of us, parents and children alike) such a fantastic feeling of security we could not conceive of its ever ceasing to exist. This, convinced of the inviolability offered by our tremendous numbers, the size of our settlement, the belief that our dwelling places, our homes, and our burial places were sacred, we laughed at the absurdity of the rumour.
But the government was not laughing. When the rumour paled and was all but forgotten, one day if returned with a deafening roar, as an aeroplane dropped flyers warning them all of the impending deadline, that they would be forcibly removed. To Guguletu.
A grey, unending mass of squatting structures. Ugly. Impersonal. Cold to the eye. Most with their doors closed. Afraid.
Oppressed by all that surrounds them…by all that is stuffed into them…by the very manner of their conception. And, in turn, pressing down hard on those whom, shameless pretence stated, they were to protect and shelter.
Segregation was enforced and black people were removed from their settlements, from suburbs where only white people would now live, pushed into a place and among people they did not know, in challenging conditions and the need to find work.
On A Dark Day, Resentments Build
The narrative is written in two timelines, the day of the protest, when Mandisa is sent home early from her job as a cleaner in a white woman’s home, due to the unrest – interspersed with memories of how their lives came to arrive at this point. She waits and waits for her son to come home and becomes increasingly concerned at his lack of appearance.
10.05 PM – Wednesday 25 August 1993
…where was Mxolisi? Not for the first time, I asked myself what it was that made him so different from the other two children… What had made Mxolisi stop confiding in me? And when had that wall of silence sprung between us? I couldn’t remember. He used to tell me everything…and then, one day I woke up to find I knew almost nothing about his activities or his friends.
As the family circumstances are shared and the life of this mother is revealed, I am reminded of the two autobiographies I have read, of the similarly challenging life and raising of her own children the author in similar circumstances. Although this is fiction, there is resemblance to her own circumstances, no doubt the reason why she understands this could so easily have been any one of those mothers in their neighbourhood.
The story leads up to the actual event, to what occurred on that day, the clash, the terrible crossing of paths, of being in the wrong pace at the wrong time, the burning hatred of an oppressor, the innocent face of one who looked like them, the dark desire of a race seeking revenge, the deep resentment of decades expressing itself in rage.
My son, the blind but sharpened arrow of the wrath of his race.
Your daughter, the sacrifice of hers. Blindly chosen. Flung towards her sad fate by fortune’s cruellest slings.
It is a courageous attempt to present a community in the grip of violent rage, to allow the voice of a mother to speak and share the growth of a family, the intense pain of all touched by a tragedy, to consider a path of redemption, to learn something from it. There may not be any conclusions, but perhaps we are all, all the better for being open to listen to the mothers, to find empathy for people doing the best they can in challenging circumstances. A thought provoking, powerful read.
Restorative Justice
In a final end piece to the story of Amy Biehl, after four men were convicted and given 18 -year prison sentences, there was in July 1987, an appearance before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee to argue for their release from prison, due to the politically motivated nature of the crime.
The parents, the Biehl’s attended the trial and shook hands with the parents of all four men. They understood the context of the South African struggle better than many South Africans.
The men spoke and asked for forgiveness. After consideration, all four were pardoned and the Biehl family supported their release.
Linda and Peter Biehl created a humanitarian organisation, the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust to develop and empower youth in the townships, in order to discourage further violence.
Two of the men who had been convicted of her murder went on to work for the foundation as part of its programs.
November 13, 2017
I loved the writing of this novel! Magona has a way with language that makes it flow off the page and creates sensory images around you as you read. The novel treats its subject matter with nuance, compassion, and sensitivity.
The only flaw I can find from this text is that the side characters often only fit one purpose. Not totally a bad thing, because the novel is very focused on the story of the Mxolisi and Mandisa, but I do sort of wish that the other characters were more fleshed out.
The only flaw I can find from this text is that the side characters often only fit one purpose. Not totally a bad thing, because the novel is very focused on the story of the Mxolisi and Mandisa, but I do sort of wish that the other characters were more fleshed out.
January 13, 2010
I liked several things regarding this book. First the idea of hinging a fictional novel on a real life event. Second the format of the mother of the murderer writing to the mother of the murder victim. Third the historical background information worked into the novel. This is what I call a simple novel in the sense that the language isn't meant to dazzle or detract from the emotional impact.
March 19, 2019
Had to read it for school...
June 5, 2022
ugh i had to read this book for school and totally forgot to give an update on me finishing it.
Was it good for what it is? Yes, definitely.
Would I read it again? Oh, hellll no.
It was light and dark at the same time, hopeful and tragic… Yet, I hateee antihero-stories because I’m just sitting there shaking my head about the things the MC had to go through in her childhood, how that affected her future life and the way she treated her own children.
This book is highly triggering, so blunt and yet such a have-to-read because of it’s importance to understand the oppressed-oppressor relationship.
There is no Happy End, no hero that saves them all but maybe that’s the point of the book. To show the reader that they have the potential to be the hero for people who have to face similar things/issues/life circumstances to Mandisa’s.
Was it good for what it is? Yes, definitely.
Would I read it again? Oh, hellll no.
It was light and dark at the same time, hopeful and tragic… Yet, I hateee antihero-stories because I’m just sitting there shaking my head about the things the MC had to go through in her childhood, how that affected her future life and the way she treated her own children.
This book is highly triggering, so blunt and yet such a have-to-read because of it’s importance to understand the oppressed-oppressor relationship.
There is no Happy End, no hero that saves them all but maybe that’s the point of the book. To show the reader that they have the potential to be the hero for people who have to face similar things/issues/life circumstances to Mandisa’s.
April 23, 2019
An uncompromising "based on true events" novel that looks into the complex background of race relations at their absolute worst level of mutual antagonism, and the people caught between the cross fire. While the writing had its melodramatic moments or pacing issues, the emotional beats never skipped at all.
June 16, 2021
wir haben das Buch in englisch gelesen und es war tatsächlich ganz spannend. Der Plot hat sich teilweise echt gesogen, aber die allgemeine gesammessage und der gesamte Inhalt des Buches war sehr wichtig und auch gut geschrieben.
November 1, 2022
I'm a teeny bit unsure about this rating but...
I really regret having read this book fast, but I had to because it was assigned for a class. I think if I took my time with it and really absorbed every sentence it would affirm this rating or maybe even raise it.
I really regret having read this book fast, but I had to because it was assigned for a class. I think if I took my time with it and really absorbed every sentence it would affirm this rating or maybe even raise it.
May 24, 2018
Deep run the roots of hatred here [...]
[...] the hatred has but multiplied.
Amazing.
[...] the hatred has but multiplied.
Amazing.
February 20, 2024
2.5 stars. Really fascinating story that everyone should know about, but the book super slow paced.
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