52 pages • 1 hour read
Sindiwe MagonaMother to Mother
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1998A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Why do you think Magona chooses not to name Biehl in the narrative itself? On the flipside, why do you think she chooses to distill all of Biehl's killers into a single, named character? Compare and contrast the way Magona depicts Mxolisi and the student, bearing these questions in mind.
Mandisa generally comes across as a confident and honest narrator, but there are moments when she seems torn or at odds with herself; speaking of Mxolisi, for example, she says at one point, "Did I hate my son? Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! How could you hate him?" (156). What purpose do these moments serve? How do they influence our understanding of Mandisa and/or Mxolisi?
Christianity plays a complex role in the novel; it is the religion Mandisa and her family practice, but it is also a religion that was brought to South Africa alongside colonialism. Thinking about both the novel's Christian characters and its allusions to Christianity, discuss Magona's treatment of religion.
Oral tradition is central to the cultural identity of many African peoples, the Xhosa included. Discuss this with reference to Mother to Mother's broader interest in language.
What is it about Guguletu that prevents it from ever being a "home" to the novel's characters? How does Mandisa's longing for a home intersect with South Africa's history of colonialism?
Gender inequality is a persistent backdrop in Mother to Mother—the references to rape, the importance of female virginity, etc.—but it is not one that Magona explores much overtly. Discuss the significance of gender in the novel in terms of plot and/or theme.
Magona frequently uses violent imagery to describe events we don't usually think of as violent (e.g. conception). On the flipside, she often uses words like "intimate" and "caress" to describe destructive forces like fire (16). What do you think Mother to Mother is saying about the nature of violence? Where does it take place, and who are its victims?
Explain the significance of Nongqawuse's prophecy and the cattle-killing to the novel as a whole. Why do you think Magona places it so late in the novel?
Mother to Mother alternates between several different modes of narration: direct appeals to the student's mother, reconstructions of the day of the murder that read almost as third person narration, and Mandisa's first-person account of both her life and the aftermath of the killing. What is the effect of structuring the novel in this way? How does it intersect with themes like fate, colonial history, etc.?
By referring to the student as "your daughter," Mandisa effectively puts the book's readers in the position of the girl's mother. Who is the intended audience for Mother to Mother? Is the novel itself attempting to do something similar to what Mandisa is doing in reaching out to the girl's mother?
