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
Back in the present, Mandisa has thousands of questions after the police leave, as they told her nothing about their raid. However, she’s afraid she already knows the answers—the police are looking for Mxolisi because of his involvement in the death of the Girl.
This passage returns to the police raid that took place several chapters ago, in which the police abused Mandisa but provided no information about what was going on. Mandisa is afraid of asking the police any questions and engaging with them further, especially because she already intuits that son must have been involved in the murder.
Themes
Skonana comes by looking for gossip, but Dwadwa asks her to leave. As she goes, offended, she says she came over because wanted to tell them “what people on the street are saying.” Mandisa is curious, but doesn’t call out. Instead, she takes her frustration out on Dwadwa, and then begins worrying more about Mxolisi.
Once again, the details of tragedy begin as rumor. Like when young Mandisa and her family were forcibly relocated—which they found out about first through the rumor mill and then through impersonal sheets of paper dropped from an airplane—neither the government nor law enforcement bothers to communicate personally with Mandisa.
Themes
Mandisa is happy to examine Lunga and see his injuries are only superficial. Siziwe, however, who was physically uninjured, is emotionally devastated. Mandisa goes to care for her daughter as Dwadwa cares for their son. She is interrupted by another neighbor, Qwati, whom Dwadwa also quickly kicks out.
Finally left to their own devices, the family becomes suddenly insular—kicking out anyone who is not part of their brood—and cares for one another tenderly, showing how family obligation can sometimes be a good thing.
Themes
Mandisa picks up Siziwe from where she is squatting and shaking in the kitchen and carries her to the bedroom. She can neither cry nor speak, but eventually seems to fall asleep. Mandisa gets up but Siziwe wakes up and calls her back, tears finally pouring forth. She admits she saw Mxolisi the previous day; he ran into the house and hid something in the hokkie. Siziwe has a “cagey” look, and won’t tell Mandisa any more details.
Siziwe’s “cagey” look suggests that she’s torn between obligation to her brother and mother; she doesn’t want to tattle on her brother, but she doesn’t want to keep her mother in the dark. This is yet another example of how familial obligation can be difficult to bear, as in this case Siziwe has conflicting obligations to different family members rather than to the family as a whole.
Themes
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Dwadwa prepares to go to work, and Lunga asks Mandisa to wake him up in a few hours for school. Although normally an advocate for education, Mandisa feels Lunga is too injured to go.
More conflicting obligations abound—although Mandisa believes it’s her responsibility as a parent to force her child to go to school, she realizes that it’s also her responsibility to nurture him when he’s in pain.
Themes
Siziwe and Lunga are relatively safe, and Mandisa finally gives herself a moment to feel “fear and anger.” She “feared, and refused to accept” what has happened to Mxolisi. Dwadwa tries to comfort her as he prepares for work, and checks in one last time before he leaves. Mandisa decides to stay home and wait for Mxolisi. Dwadwa wonders what she’ll do if her son doesn’t return, but Mandisa, angry, responds that he “always comes home,” and if he’s not home by lunch she’ll go look for him.
Once Mandisa has fulfilled her obligations as a mother—calming her children down and nurturing them—Mandisa can then deal with her own emotions. As is consistent with the rest of the novel, family obligations come first. Dwadwa also fulfills his obligation as a husband, making sure his wife feels supported.
Themes
Dwadwa doesn’t think Mxolisi will return. Dwadwa believes Mxolisi knows the police are after him. Mandisa asks him why he thinks the police are after her son. Dwadwa is shocked—he argues that he’s always said Mxolisi “will bring us heavy trouble one day.” As he leaves, he warns Mandisa that Mxolisi will come home “dragging […] a thorny bush of a scandal.”
The idea that Mxolisi will return home “dragging […] a thorny bush of a scandal” is reminiscent of Mandisa’s much earlier suggestion that getting married to China (who wanted nothing to do with her) would be like “tying oneself to a dog in a patch of nettles.” Through similar language, Magona draws a connection between Mandisa’s “thorny” past of an unplanned pregnancy and forcibly mandated marriage, itself a type of prison, and the “thorny” situation Mxolisi has gotten himself into, which will almost certainly lead to prison of the real sort.
Themes
