Mother to Mother: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Mandisa begins retroactively piecing together the story of the Girl’s life. In describing the Girl’s normal, mundane morning, Mandisa implies that South Africa is so unstable that violence can bubble up out of seemingly nowhere, punctuating an otherwise normal day with bloodshed, loss, and grief.

The fact that the family doesn’t have access to eggs or fish begins to paint a fuller picture of their poverty. This also hints at the poverty that affects black South Africans more generally under apartheid, a social and political system of institutionalized racism that the South African government adopted in 1948 and maintained until 1994, the year after the real-life murder of Amy Biehl and the fictional murder of the Girl.

Although Mandisa claimed at the beginning of the novel that Mxolisi’s actions should not be her fault, her slightly younger self is adamant that she must “have authority over [her] children.” Before Mxolisi murders the Girl, Mandisa appears to bend to the community’s expectations and traditions surrounding parenthood. However, it’s clear that Mandisa is merely performing the part of the authoritative parent, as she knows that her children won’t actually follow her rules.

Mandisa seems increasingly helpless when it comes to guiding her children, as she can’t get them to go to school. The government can’t (or won’t) either; under apartheid, education is compulsory for white children, but not for black children. As Mandisa will later reveal in greater detail, knowing that her children aren’t going to school is particularly “burdensome” because she deeply values education but couldn’t finish out her own schooling due to her unplanned pregnancy. She also knows that it is one of the few ways in which a black South African can escape poverty, so it “weighs [her] spirit down” to know that her children won’t have that chance at a better life.

The novel pays careful attention to the political and social fabric of South Africa leading to Mxolisi’s murder of the Girl, not to justify the crime but to explain how it came to pass. Here, in charting how certain well-intentioned political movements festered and erupted into pure violence, the novel also charts the increasing radicalization of Mxolisi’s generation. This passage also reminds readers that Mxolisi’s generation is still young and ignorant; although they have an abundance of pent-up energy and anger against the government and their circumstances, they are still just “big-mouthed children [who] don’t know anything.”

Mandisa once again singles Mxolisi out as the problem child in her brood. She’s willing to try anything to help him get on the right path—including sending him to be circumcised when he came of age, hoping, it seems, that the procedure would turn him into a man. Once again, though, Mxolisi is stubborn and headstrong, unable to be controlled or shepherded toward a different path.

Although the novel never explicitly says that the Girl is Amy Biehl, this passage mirrors her story thus far. Amy was a Fulbright scholar with a heart for helping people, as seen both by her very presence in South Africa (she was there to help the residents prepare for their first-ever democratic elections) and her willingness to put herself in danger in order to do something nice for her friends. This connects back to Mandisa’s letter to the Mother at the beginning of the novel, when she noted that “people like [the Girl] so believe in their goodness” that “they never think anyone would want to hurt them.” Thus, Mandisa depicts the Girl as innocent and altruistic but also naïve and idealistic.

The interaction between Mxolisi’s posse and Reverend Mananga is tense. The group’s refusal to take no for an answer suggests that they see people as either with them or against them; in refusing to give them space to meet, the Reverend was immediately dubbed a “Reactionary” (someone who opposes political change). Not wanting to make enemies of the group, the Reverend quickly folds. His feeble attempt at standing up against the radicalized young people also suggests that they are a dangerous force to be reckoned with.

In joking about the fate of the driver of the burning car, Mxolisi and his friends reveal themselves to be callous and desensitized to violence. Plus, the fact that they come across a burning car at all emphasizes how violence is commonplace in their township. Although the novel implicitly criticizes Mxolisi and his friends for their hardened hearts, it also points out that they have every reason to be angry; here, the boys discuss that the only way they get basic necessities (such as life-saving medicine) is if it is convenient or beneficial for white people (boers).

Mxolisi and his gang are clearly disdainful of the police, who are likely white and corrupt. This passage also suggests that the white law enforcement is unreliable and volatile, as they serve the township based on their fluctuating “mood[s].” Desensitized to violence and simmering with anger, the boys also consider “sporting,” or playing, with the police, meaning that they see violence against their white oppressors as a darkly entertaining pastime.

While everyone in the car likely expects to get “closure” in the sense of saying a final goodbye to one another after college, the novel foreshadows an even more final goodbye that the Girl must make to her friends.

This passage is important because it points out that Mxolisi was not first to the scene—a riot was already forming around the Girl’s car, and Mxolisi and his friends are merely drawn into the fray.