Mother to mother

Author: Sindiwe Magona

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Summary

Description

In August 1993, Fulbright scholar Amy Biehl was killed in Cape Town by a group of black teenagers incited by an upsurge in 'anti-white' sloganeering. She died just a few metres away from Sindiwe Magona's house. One of the boys held responsible for the killing was her neighbour's son. Mother to mother takes the form of an epistle to Amy Biehl's mother. Sindiwe Magona imagines how easily it might have been her own son caught up in the violence of that day. She writes about their lives in a colonised society that not only allowed, but also perpetuated violence against women and impoverished black South Africans. The result is not an apology for murder, but an exquisitely written exploration of the lives of ordinary people in the apartheid years.

Critic Reviews

...a tour de force' - Andre Brink. '...a graceful, terrible story' - Boston review.

About the Author

Sindiwe Magona was born in a village in the Eastern Cape and grew up in Gugulethu. She completed three years of high school and trained as a primary teacher. Unable to find work, she took a job as a domestic worker, and by twenty three had been deserted by her husband and left with three children. Poverty and single parenthood did not prevent her from obtaining a matric. She has degrees from UNISA and Colombia University in the US, and has worked for the UN in New York, where she lived for twenty three years. She is a writer in residence at UWC, and was recently a visiting lecturer at the Georgia State University in the US.