Chapter 10

Info

• page: 173-197
• place: Guguletu, Khayelitsha
• time: Thursday 26th of August 1993, at night
• people: Mandisa, Mxolisi, Reverend Mananga, Mandisas family (in her memories)

Content

• Mandisa transports herself back to her youth and remembers her grandfather Tatomkhulu supporting her in her schooling when he visits her. So he shares his knowledge about for instance the naming of Cape Town and the true story of the prophetess Nongqawuse of the Xhosa people
• It turns out that Mandisa, like many other South African school children, had been taught lies at school instead of the truth, and only now is she learning the real story of Nongqawuse
• In her school days, Mandisa had been taught to celebrate the white settlers who came to South Africa during the 18th century for the changes that colonization brought. Through her grandfather, however, she learns that the white settlers at the time claimed land that did not belong to them and was already being farmed by the African population
• According to Mandisa's grandfather, the resistance of the black South Africans, which is still deeply rooted in their humiliated hearts, was the fault of the whites themselves. However, the settlers and today's white South Africans have never taken responsibility for the fact that they took away the livelihood of countless inhabitants at that time and that until today the black population of South Africa is still oppressed in their own country
• Back in Guguletu in the present, Mandisa wakes up from her daydream and prepares something to eat, by now it is 1 o'clock noon. She learns from her daughter Siziwe that Lunga ran away from home because he had been approached on the school bus about Mxolisi and had insulted him
• Reverend Mananga appears and slips Mxolisi's mother a note instructing her to leave the house as quickly as possible and take a cab to Khayelitsha. Without hesitation, Mandisa follows the reverend's instructions. After arriving in Khayelitsha, Mananga informs her that a red car will take her to her destination
• Arrived at the destination, her son Mxolisi is waiting for his mother in a house. After they greet each other, Mandisa asks her son what happened. He says that together with the other youths he attacked the car of the white student and that he is accused of having killed the student, but he was not alone
• His mother points out that Amy was killed with a knife and that he had one with him. Mxolisi tearfully affirms that he was not alone, and although Mandisa senses that it was her son who killed the girl, she cannot turn away from him, and the chapter ends with the two of them in each other's arms

Chapter 11

Info

• page: 198-202
• place: Guguletu
• time: 26th of August at night
• people: Mandisa

Content

• Mandisa once again turns to the victim's mother, wondering how she should now respond to Mxolisi's accusations
• She is torn between loyalty to her son and the reality of his cruel deed and the consequences it will have for the victim and her mother
• For Mandisa, she and the victim's mother are in similar positions, both grieving for their two children. She feels the grief of the other mother, even more than grief over the death of the white student
• However, Mxolisi's mother also points out that Amy Biehl possessed a life before her murder, one that she could shape and mold as she saw fit. She contrasts this with the day-to-day reality of her son's life and speaks to the injustice of the two having such different access to life
• Mandisa tries to make the victim's mother understand that violent young men like her son are first raised to be what they are by society, which does nothing to fight social injustice and racism
• The fact that her son became a murderer has made Mandisa a suffering mother who can never forget what her son is capable of. The victim's mother and her mourning for her daughter is omnipresent in Mandisa's life and no matter where she goes, the shame and horror of the cruelty in from within the family follows her everywhere
• But the killer's mother notes that the problem, the deep hatred in the minds of the black young population against the injustice they face from the government and society, has not gone away with Amy Biehl's death.
• It almost kills Mandisa that she is only certain of one thing: that conditions in the townships will continue exactly as before. The police will continue to terrorize the inhabitants of the slums, the youth will continue to hang around on the streets instead of in school, and the mothers will have to work so much and for so long in order to even be able to halfway feed their families. In other words: the horror will continue
• In the end, Mandisa's neighbor Skonana visits the murderer's grieving mother because they are there for each other in the neighborhood, no matter how horrendous the circumstances. While those who blame the mother in part for the victim's death make Mandisa's life a real hell, all the others who mourn with her give you strength

Chapter 12

Info

• page: 203-210
• place: Guguletu
• time: Wednesday 25th of August 1993, late afternoon
• people: Mandisa, Mxolisi and his companions

Content

• In this final chapter, Mandisa speaks to the victim's mother again and describes Amy Biehl's murder at the end of the chapter
• At the beginning, the perpetrator's mother describes the chances and opportunities that are offered to a boy like Mxolisi in the townships. The truth is disillusioning and demotivating. Mxolisi's future, like that of countless other young people at the time of apartheid, is by no means dazzling and promising, but almost certainly just as marked by everyday cruelty and injustice as the present. The only thing that is certain is that a young man in a position like Mxolisi's will have to spend his life fighting for his rights, not saying that the fight will end up in his favour
• In the following, Mandisa narrates the course of events in the murder of the American Amy Biehl. A "yellow Mazda" (p. 204, l. 2) drives along the road coming from Belville into Guguletu township in the afternoon. There was nothing "special, peculiar or marked" (p. 204, l. 22) about the car
• Mxolisi is travelling with his group of rebels and is already almost home when one of the group members recognises a white girl in the Mazda
• Immediately after it is seen that the driver of the car is a white-skinned person, the young men start shouting the words "one Settler! One Bullet". The shouts swell to a loud roar and more and more angry rebels gather around the car
• Amy tries to drive away in a panic, but by now the mob has completely surrounded her, so she can't get away. First, the roaring crowd begins to pelt the car with stones, which soon cause the windows to burst
• The crowd of young men cheer each other on by chanting "Amandla! Ngawethu!" (p. 209, l. 13) over and over again which means "power! It's ours!" (p. 209, l. 13)". They also scream "Amabhulu Azizinja!" (p. 209, l. 24), which means translates to "Boers, they are dogs!" (p. 209, l. 26). Boers are white South Africans of Dutch decent. Mxolisi and his friends use the word as synonyme for all whites in South Africa
• Mxolisi stabs Amy amidst the angry mob, driven by the shouts and frenzy of the crowd