Chapter summaries
Chapter 1 – Mandisa’s lament
The novel Mother to Mother by Sindiwe Magona begins with a letter from Mandisa, the main character. She is writing to the mother of the young white woman Mandisa’s son has murdered.
Mandisa says the people in her community look at her as though the murder was her fault. She says she is not surprised her son killed someone. While she does not agree with her son’s crime or excuse it, she believes her son to be capable of murder. Mandisa asks the mother what her daughter was doing in Guguletu, a township of Cape Town where only black people live. Mandisa believes the young woman had no sense of fear and believed in the goodness of other people so much that she did not think someone would want to hurt her.
Mandisa also says that if her son had killed one of the black people with the white woman that day, he would not have been in as much trouble as he is in for killing a white woman. She asks the mother why her daughter did not stay away from Guguletu and came into a black neighborhood.
Mandisa then wonders why the government takes better care of her son now that he is imprisoned, by paying for his food, clothes, and housing, than they did before he was sent to prison. Mandisa ends her by begging God to forgive her son for his terrible sin.
Chapter 2
Mandisa imagines the white woman's morning on the day she was murdered and then describes how her own morning went. Mandisa wakes her three children: Mxolisi, the eldest boy, his brother Lunga, and the youngest daughter Siziwe. Meanwhile, the white woman is preparing to leave South Africa the next day and to say goodbye to her friends.
None of Mandisa’s children go to school as the Congress of South African Students ordered the children to support the teachers, who are on strike, and to protest against the lack of quality education they receive. Mxolisi leaves to go and meet with his friends.
At the University, the white woman is having lunch with her friends for the last time before returning home to the United States. She offers to drive her friends home to spend more time with them. Meanwhile, Mxolisi and his group of friends are asking the reverend of the local church if they can use the church hall for their meeting, but they are told it is occupied. The group decides to meet there the following morning instead.
The group leaves, chanting and toyi-toyi-ing. They suddenly notice there is a fire nearby and hear people cheering, so they run towards the noise. A delivery van has been looted and set on fire. Police sirens sound, and the group scatters. The white woman and her friends drive towards Guguletu and enter the neighborhood. Mxolisi’s friends have mostly scattered, and a small group is waiting for the bus. However, they hear a cry and run towards the noise where they see people gathering around a small car, surrounding it completely, chanting and screaming.
Chapter 3
Mandisa is at the house of the white woman for whom she works as a maid. Wednesday is usually Mrs. Nelson’s day off, which means that Mandisa can do her chores alone while Mrs. Nelson is away. Mrs. Nelson normally goes to have breakfast with...
