This passage comes as Refentše and Lerato, from heaven, watch the “film” of Piet’s ill-fated life in Alexandra. Molori’s mother fell ill, and he and his uncle called on a local bone thrower to explain why she was sick.

This passage reads as ironic, since just a page earlier the narrator explained that this bone thrower made it his business to know all of the people in the area’s family trees. Thus, the bone thrower is actually using his knowledge of Molori’s family (not any mystical power) to accuse Piet and his mother of treachery. Molori’s “reasoning,” then, is supposed…