Mother to Mother

by Magona, Sindiwe

• ISBN13: 9780807009482
• ISBN10: 0807009482
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-09-01
• Publisher: Random House Inc

Summary

This powerful novel starts with a 1993 incident in South African history: Fulbright scholar Amy Elizabeth Biehl, in Capetown to help organize elections, was killed in the black township of Guguletu. The killer's mother, Mandisa, addresses herself to the mother of the dead girl, gives a compelling account of the harrowing life of Africans in the townships. "The intense cry of sympathy and pain aroused by an all-too-actual tragedy. . . . Risky and honest, Mother to Mother raises a host of hard questions and, for all its compassion, resists consoling answers. I admire it immensely." -Rosellen Brown, author of Before and After

Table of Contents

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

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.