Apartheid is the colonial system that brought violence into the minds and homes of black South Africans. It was meant to oppress black people and separate the development of different racial groups in South Africa. It is also a colonial system in that whites took over South Africa and took the land of black people as the laws forced for the different racial groups live in separation. Black women were exploited as they were moved to location away from the suburbs where the whites lived. The very same women who were moved into shacks still had to come to the suburbs and work as domestic workers for the white people.
Patriarchy on the other hand Is a system whereby the men hold all the power and women are totally excluded from it all they have to do is obey the men at all time. It is some sort of gender violence and discrimination. Magona’s novel has portrayed ways in which women were exploited and victimised by both colonialism (apartheid) and patriarchy and I will be focusing on some of those ways, them being of that Mandisa is a mother of three children from three different men, the death of Amy Beihl, the police brutality towards women and the resentment Mandisa has towards his son Mxolisi after she feels that he has ruined everything for her.
Mandisa the protagonist of the novel is a mother of three children namely Mxolisi who is the first born son and his father is China who was Mandisa’s first husband, there is Lunga the second born daughter whose father is Lungile who was Mandisa’s second partner. Lastly there is Sizwe who is the third born daughter and her father is Dwadwa, Mandisa’s current partner. It is not by choice that she has three children from different men, but it is the laws of apartheid and patriarchy that led her to be in this situation. Women in South Africa were affected by the limited access to contraceptives due to factors like religion, culture, sexism and the quality of healthcare that existed during apartheid. They had no choice as to how many children they can and want to have. Nature was allowed to run its course on women so they could have as many children as their fertility allowed them to.
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The patriarchal system degraded women socially, physically, economically and traditionally in a way that women were seen as objects, they had to always be below men and not above them. They were not allowed to earn or to be dominant to men. In the case of Mandisa, she worked in a kitchen and not far away as her man Dwadwa worked. After finishing her duties at the white woman’s house, irregardless of when she finished she had still had to come back home and prepare food for the family and take care of her children. Another factor was child bearing, it limited women in life, Mandisa was limited in achieving her dreams because after she fell pregnant with Mxolisi she could not finish school and have a better future like she had wished.
Apartheid on the other hand separated families, it destroyed family structures. Mandisa’s family and other families were moved from their houses to shacks in Gugulethu. It made China to run away, leaving Mandisa alone to raise their child on her own. In that apartheid and patriarchy worked hand in hand in a way of taking people’s identities. I say this because black people depended on white people and women depended on their men. Mandisa earned little despite how hard she worked and that was because of the system, she could not have earned more than what her husband earned although his money was also not enough to provide for all their needs. Men had to go work in far places to try and bridge the income gap and be able to provide for their families but going to work far was still not enough because it still did not help around the house.
After all that Mandisa has to go through as a single mother, she is victimised by Mxolisi’s actions of killing Ami Beihl an American student who was part of planning the first elections that would take place in Gugulethu. She is labelled as the mother of a murderer as if she was somehow responsible for Amy’s death. She says “people look at me as though I did it. But I am a mother with a mother’s heart. The cup you have given me is too bitter to swallow. The shame, the hurt of the other mother. The young woman whose tender life was cut so cruelly short’’. Mandisa says all of this in a sympathetic manner to show how the helplessness she must face as a mother. The sin her son committed is also pinned on to her role as a mother.
The police (which were men) in apartheid and the patriarchal system act as a symbol of corruption in the novel, they abuse and oppress women. Women expect these policemen to provide safety and security, but instead they are figures of authority that are feared by the citizens. The police show mistreatment of women. They raid Mandisa’s house during the search for her son Mxolisi, they were impatient, ruthless and unforgiving towards her. The actions of the police showed how much they did not care about the safety and wellbeing of women. It is also evident from the way the police treated women they were seen as objects and so inferior that they do not deserve any respect that is why the police treated them with such brutality.
