“Where is my own father?”- studying the missing father and the abusive paternal government in Mother to Mother

Abstract

Colonisation and apartheid in South Africa have left deep-rooted trauma
in people, especially the black youth. Writer Sindiwe Magona explores the
aftermath of apartheid in her novel Mother to Mother (1998), tracing familial
and generational tragedies. This article, while exploring the consequences of
apartheid, focuses on the role of the absent father and the abusive government
in the context of the text. Set around the event of the murder of anti-apartheid
activist Amy Biehl in 1993 in Gugulethu, this article investigates the politically
volatile environment which impacted black youth psychologically and gives
particular attention to the effects of abandonment by a father in the formative
years of a child. Therefore, this article explores the nuances of apartheid which
impacted the young people to perpetrate further violence, incited by the unjust
and racially biased government and the abandonment of fathers.