Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Mother to Mother, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Legacy of Colonialism and Apartheid
Family, Tradition, and Obligation
Language, Storytelling, and History
Summary
Analysis
Mandisa is working at the home of her employer, Mrs. Nelson. Mrs. Nelson claims she can’t pronounce Mandisa or any other native names because of the clicks, and calls her “Mandy” instead. Mandisa notes today is Mrs. Nelson’s “day-off,” even though she doesn’t really work in the first place. Unlike Mandisa, who uses her day off to catch up on chores at home, Mrs. Nelson spends her day off going to the gym, shopping, and having lunch with her friends, and always comes home complaining that she is “exhausted.” However, Mandisa knows her own life is harder than that of her mlungu woman (white employer). Mandisa is doing “real and exhausting work,” and on her day off she “work[s] the hardest and longest of all week.”
Mandisa compares her life to that of her white employer, highlighting the stark contrast between the two women. The white Mrs. Nelson, riding on the coattails of white privilege, can afford to hire Mandisa, take a day off of work, and, it’s heavily implied, not work at all on the other days, either. Mandisa’s schedule is an inversion of Mrs. Nelson’s: instead of resting for six days and having one “exhaust[ing]” day, Mandisa works for six days and has one day off. Even then, her day is not spent lunching and shopping but trying to cram a week’s worth of housekeeping and parenting into a single day.
Themes
Mrs. Nelson cuts Mandisa’s day short, although she has not finished working, and drives her partway home. Mrs. Nelson has broken her very predictable routine, and so Mandisa knows something is very wrong. Mandisa gets in the car, and observes Mrs. Nelson’s serious face. She suspects something has happened in Guguletu, or one of the other black townships. Mrs. Nelson does not drive Mandisa home to Guguletu, as no white people are allowed there, but instead drops her off at a nearby bus station.
Mrs. Nelson’s behavior suddenly turns compassionate and serious, which strikes Mandisa as odd. This conversely implies that Mrs. Nelson doesn’t usually treat Mandisa warmly, gesturing to the broader dynamics between black and white people under apartheid. Overall, Mrs. Nelson seems like a frivolous woman—after all, she complains of “exhaust[ion] after a long day of trivial activities to her overworked, impoverished employee—but here the novel points out that she’s not as naïve as the Girl and understands that crossing into the black township of Guguletu would not be wise.
Themes
The bus station is chaotic. Mandisa asks her fellow commuters what has happened, but no one knows. Mandisa assumes it’s another youth riot and is upset by this prospect. She feels children have become “power crazed” and tyrannical, putting “absurd demands” on their parents like boycotting work, school, alcohol, and red meat. Mandisa is fed up with “this nonsense.”
This passage enfolds two of the novel’s key themes. In criticizing the way the youth have become radicalized and “power crazed,” Mandisa points to the festering racial tensions in South Africa, which seem to only be getting worse rather than better. She also criticizes the youth for weighing their parents down with “absurd demands,” which speaks to the way that family can be burdensome.
Themes
Mandisa makes her way onto a bus, densely crowded with bodies and packages and grocery bags. The bus driver yells that Guguletu is “completely surrounded” by police. Mandisa reflects on how there has been trouble in Guguletu since its creation by the government. She considers the irony of the name, which means “Our Pride,” although residents call it Gugulabo, or “Their Pride.”
The two slightly different names for the township highlight black South African’s anger and frustration at the government, as well as the way that language can connect people to their shared experience or history. The name “Our Pride” suggests a unified and harmonious city (or, more broadly, a country) that all citizens are proud to call their own, but this is far from reality. Black South Africans feel like strangers in their own land, and thus call the town “Their Pride,” indicating that white people still run the country and treat black residents as pawns to be moved around and pushed off to the side—and that the white people are proud of it.
Themes
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Mandisa remembers being dumped in Guguletu with her family as a child. She was raised in Blouvlei, but then, like tens of thousands of others, she was relocated from her former home into this enormous city made up of tiny houses, which she describes as “squatting structures. Ugly. Impersonal. Cold…”
The housing project in Guguletu functions as a symbol of the government under apartheid; like the buildings, the government is “[u]gly,” “[i]mpersonal,” and “[c]old,” and cares little for the residents it is supposed to nurture and protect.
Themes
The government underestimated the number of Africans they were relocating, and thus had not built enough houses. Mandisa bitterly reflects on how her family was actually worse off after their relocation: they are “still living in shacks,” but while they once enjoyed “well-knit communities,” they are now intermixed with strangers. Meanwhile the government blamed the Africans, arguing “there were just too many Natives […] How was that its fault?”
Not only are the houses themselves inadequate, but there aren’t even enough of them. As the housing project can be read as a symbol for the South African government, this passage emphasizes that the government is inadequate and unreliable. “[W]ell-knit communities” appear to be the balm against such injustice, but the government doesn’t even give black South Africans that comfort, stirring up established communities and substituting friends with strangers.
Themes
School was also an issue in Guguletu. Blouvlei had one school and Guguletu had a dozen, but children and parents who assumed they would go to the school where their old teachers worked were mistaken. Like their students, teachers were scattered, and the Department of Education was predictably disorganized. On opening day, many schools were full by the time Mandisa and her brother Khaya arrived, but they were allowed in by their former teachers, because they were good students.
Education is scarce in the Guguletu that Mandisa knows as a child. It’s only by being good students in the past that Mandisa and her brother are afforded spots in the already overflowing school. Here, education leads to more education, which will possibly allow Mandisa and Khaya to break out of the shackles of poverty. This explains the adult Mandisa’s earlier lament about how “burdensome” it is for her to know that her children aren’t going to school like they’re supposed to.
Themes
Still, as lucky as she was to be in school with teachers she knew, Mandisa was shocked by the school’s size, and the realization that her classmates were mostly strangers. Mama refused to listen to Mandisa’s complaints, even as Mandisa wished she was one of the children who had not secured a place in a school, and had the year off. However, as an adult, Mandisa now realizes some of those children would never return to school.
The novel introduces Mama, Mandisa’s mother, who is depicted as a firm, no-nonsense figure in Mandisa’s life. In charting Mama and the young Mandisa’s relationship, the novel draws attention to some of the behaviors that the adult Mandisa models for her children, like trying to force them to go to school.
Themes
Mandisa relates her own troubles with education to current issues in Guguletu, where there are still not enough teachers or schools. Additionally, she recognizes that mothers are working, or drunk, or dead (“We die young, these days”), and are thus unable to force their children to go to school.
Mandisa illustrates how the problems in Guguletu are like a domino effect: because of institutionalized racism, black South Africans are kept in poverty and forced to work long hours for little pay. This arrangement is extremely grating, and many people turn to drink. Whether parents are drinking, working, or dead, they simply can’t be engaged in their children’s lives and be around enough to ensure their children are going to school. Plus, institutionalized racism means that schools in black townships are sparse, underfunded, and understaffed, which makes education not only less appealing but also less impactful.
Themes
Mandisa still misses Blouvlei, which, although made up of shacks, was “no pretense,” unlike Guguletu, which pretends to be a “civilized” “housing development” but is actually “harsh and uncaring.” The difference, in her mind, is that living in Blouvlei was a choice—the shacks were built by the families inside of them, and the community was tight-knit. She feels the dehumanizing houses in Guguletu “could not but kill the soul of those who inhabited them,” and “loosen[ed] the ties among those who dwelled in them.”
Once again, the housing developments symbolize the South African government under apartheid. The housing in Guguletu pretends to be civilized but is actually “harsh and uncaring,” just like the government itself, which couches its inhumane racism in laws and policies. Even though people are packed in tighter than ever before, such confined spaces actually “loosen the ties” among residents. This suggests that a community isn’t just a group of people who are thrown together, but, as the novel argues elsewhere, a group of people who support and guide one another.
Themes
Back on the bus in the novel’s present, Mandisa listens to her fellow commuters speculate about what’s going on in Guguletu. Someone says schoolchildren have beaten up university students, which doesn’t make sense to Mandisa, who assumes the university students are black. A young man claims he really saw what happened, saying a car was “stoned, overturned, and set alight.” As people ask the man for more specific information on where the crime occurred, Mandisa realizes it was close to her home. She worries about her children, and prays to God to keep them, especially Mxolisi, safe. She then feels guilty for favoring him, but understands it is to make up for indirect “bewilderment,” “anger,” and “rejection” she felt for him in his early years.
Mandisa has previously singled out Mxolisi as the biggest troublemaker out of all her children, but here she suggests that he’s also closest to her heart. Earlier, the novel revealed that Mxolisi’s birth was unplanned, which may be why Mandisa felt “bewilderment,” “anger,” and “rejection” toward him. In other words, Mandisa alternately loves, despises, and worries about her firstborn son more than any of her children, and seems to feel very bound up in his actions.
Themes
The bus driver kicks off his passengers earlier than usual, telling them it’s their own fault for having troublesome children. Mandisa feels lucky that the bus has stopped close to her house.
The bus driver voices a belief that is widely held in the community: that parents are responsible for their children’s actions and choices.
Themes
As Mandisa walks home, she continues to worry about her children, especially her daughter, Siziwe. The street is swarming with people, and she struggles to push through the crowd. Someone elbows her, and she loses a shoe in the chaos. Still, she makes it through, and is happy to see Siziwe.
Mandisa gets stuck in an impassioned crowd just like Mxolisi did earlier, but unlike her son, who was drawn toward the riot, Mandisa is desperate to get out of it. Though they’re both frustrated, angry, and downtrodden, Mandisa seems more intent on quietly enduring her circumstances, while the young and radicalized Mxolisi continues to look for outlets to show his anger.
Themes
