ABSTRACT        

Since the end of direct colonization, African literature has remained anchored in a new direction of consciousness-raising and awakening for black people. This literature, which has always served as a means of expression and protest in the face of social challenges, has since served as a tool for learning and education.

In this work, we intend to provide an analytical explanation and exploration on the representation of Black consciousness in Sindiwe Magona's work of forgiveness, Mother to Mother. Indeed, national consciousness has profoundly impacted Magona’s writing. From her To My Children’s Children (Magona, To My Children's Children, 1994), Mud Chic (Fraser & Magona, 2006), Beauty’s Gift (Magona, Beauty's Gift, 2018), and When the Village Sleeps (Magona, When the Village Sleeps, 2021) she makes questions social and political images.

Black Consciousness encompasses an awareness of discrimination and heritage with resistance to injustice, self-appropriation and self-redefinition. Black Consciousness is a central aspect of resistance to injustice. It originated in the social and political movements under the apartheid regime from 1948 to 1994 in South Africa and under the decolonial struggles in the other African ex-colonized countries. In this work, we seek to analyze the question throughout Mother to Mother.

Keywords: Black Consciousness, awareness, Africa, Mother to Mother, Sindiwe Magona.

 

Introduction

Sindiwe Magona's Mother to Mother is poignant in its reference to the history of South Africa. Through this letter exploring themes of loss, mourning, racism, guilt, reconciliation and hope, Magona gives existence to a white mother whose daughter was killed by Mandisa’s son living in a situation between responsibility and guilt. Between the pain and the questions of complexities of Black Consciousness, Magona recalls a historical past between the need to build a common future and a systematic division of society.

Magona, like any other writer, makes her story a reality through literature. She emphasizes: “The value in my story is the authenticity of my voice, of me bearing witness. This is my truth that I write, of what matters to me. You know living in the Western Cape, I am constantly aware of the great natural beauty surrounding me.”[1] Magona positions herself as a witness to the facts. In other words, she writes through her own experiences.

The author did not limit to denunciations, she gave strength and space to understanding her son's motivations and the reasons for the violence, and social and political division. The violence which represents the symbolic image of segregation is a historical legacy of the dominating power of the foreigner over the people found in place.

Sindiwe Magona has a strong voice against oppression and injustice. Mother to Mother testifies to this. Freedom, identity and black consciousness in a particular context known between division and segregation draw consequences in all the actions listed in her work Mother to Mother. This article involves providing in-depth analysis and exploration of issues of freedom, black consciousness, justice and human identity.

The present article will show how Magona has developed the ideology of Black Consciousness in her Mother to Mother. Using an explanatory process of development, this work of research will analyze the question of African consciousness, Black Consciousness and consciousness in the work of Magona.

The Antecedents and Social Conditions of Social Revolutions

Black consciousness, although it was a societal and political movement in Africa in the 60s and 70s, had its roots in the historical features of the slave trade and colonialism. This ideology has long been a promotion of resistance and commitment with political implications in pan-Africanism and negritude. The slave trade and colonization were traumatic experiences in Africa which resulted in thousands of human losses, destruction of cultures, social structures and societal values. This physical and spiritual destruction contributed to the installation of systems of domination and racial discrimination, as Sindiwe Magona points out. These events are the main reasons of the ideology of Black Consciousness.

The African, living in destructive circumstances, was called upon to resist in order to survive. This resistance is the main reason for Black Consciousness. These movements of resistance had a profound impact on black consciousness’ existence. Lesibana Rafapa (Rafapa, 2017) analyzes the question of home in her article "Sindiwe Magona’s To My Children’s Children and Mother to Mother. A Customized Womanist Notion of Home within Feminist Perspectives". He explains that the term 'home' gives Magona the power to highlight the living conditions of women in a society marked by gender and racial segregation. Racial segregations highlight the relations between foreigners and Africans in South Africa. The gender issue calls into question the outcome of human relations in the region, more precisely between women and men. In other words, Magona gives us political and intellectual guidance on issues of race in inter-regional relations and gender in regional households and relations.

Magona gives a double image of women in her novel. Women are discriminated against and oppressed for traditional roles for which they are victims. Mandisa, the heroine of the novel, lives in such difficult conditions between poverty and lack of education. She remains submissive to her husband who should be reassured about the education of the children. She was also a victim of domestic violence. These experiences push her to leave home to protect her children. Even after she left her husband, society did not allow her to live the way she wanted. Social structures were based on inequalities between citizens, to which is added verbal and physical violence. Unfortunately, “Young and old alike, men and women, no one is exempt from the scourge. Violence is rife. It has become a way of life.”[2] Mandisa forgets that her son is not guilty of the murder and remains the accused. The structural system of the society did not allow her to meet his expectations and provide quality education to his children. The environment also did not allow for quality education and parents were all busy looking for cabbages to satisfy the basic needs of their children.

Mandisa is influenced by revolutionary ideals against the imposed system. This oppression linked to discrimination and the marginalization of black peoples for the benefit of whites is the effect of revolutionary ideology. Magona, by recalling historical events of the past, systematically raises awareness of the social and political structures that man should pass through to combat inequalities and lead political and intellectual battles.

Methodology:

This study is an exploratory analysis of the key themes in relation to the Black Consciousness ideology. It is a mixed-methods approach, combining descriptive research and an analysis to provide a comprehensive understanding of the question of African consciousness, Black Consciousness in a more precise words. This methodology is chosen to address the multifaceted image of the research question and to leverage the strengths of both analysis and thematic study.

The information collection is basically oriented to the novel under study. This paper is a focus oriented debate on one of the works of Magona. In this work, we employ a postcolonial approach to analyze the question of Black Consciousness. This framework allows the examination of the consequences of colonial heritage and the social consciousness raised in the work of Magona and after the colonial period. It examines the structure of colonial and postcolonial experiences, and the ways in which Black Consciousness is represented in Mother to Mother.

The selection of Mother to Mother by Sindiwe Magona is based on the thematic relevance to the social and political structures in the aftermath of colonial period in Africa and to its significant representation of the time of post-apartheid South Africa.

The analysis focuses on the explanation of the text of Magona, its character’s developments, to its narrative style, its language and symbolic image. Thematic analysis is the objective orientation of the research in question.  

Results:

The study of Mother to Mother by Sindiwe Magona revealed the correlation between the characters’ emotional turmoil and the depiction of the surrounding social and political environment specifically with the raising consciousness ideology.

Black Consciousness is mirrored in descriptions of family, social group, national affairs, political ideologies and social reparations. The two mothers’ lives depict the need to develop collective consciousness for the better understanding of each one. Their children need also peace and revolution.

The change from victimhood and perpetrator to one people feeling the living o others demonstrates the real need for collaboration and consciousness raising between the two group who were using violence and social barriers to make their lives impossible.

So the findings demonstrate that Black Consciousness is not just an ideology needed in the aftermath of South Africa’s apartheid. It is an African oriented political ideological for the desirable change that people are taking since the end of colonization. The questions of comprehension and mutual respect are crucial elements in the process of establishing the Black Consciousness philosophy.

Discussions

-      Individual and Collective Consciousness

Magona highlights the importance of becoming aware of the individual and collective values ​​of the peoples. Through characters also impacted by this history of social and political division, each group feels rejected by the other and the men at the head of public affairs do not worry about forging a policy of integration. Consequently, “…a system repressive and brutal, that bred senseless inter- and intra-racial violence as well as other nefarious happenings; a system that promoted a twisted sense of right and wrong…”[3] The characters, women in general, in Mother to Mother remain marginalized and faced with poverty, violence and discrimination. The sign of revolution is manifested by the need for emancipation and cries of the heart to be heard in such an upset society. To be precise, “Every day —rape, robbery, armed assault and other, more subtle forms of violence. Every day. Guns are as common as marbles were when we were growing up.”[4]

This representation of their living place justifies the situations in which they were living. Mandisa and her family were all days attacked and killed by arms and guns.

This precious testimony to colonial history warns everyone about the actions to take. The scars undoubtedly still exist and still plague the social experiences of the sub-region. As a result, memory becomes a tool of resistance, denunciation and reconstruction. It is with this momentum that black consciousness finds reason for existence and questioning. Even Magona’s novels To My Children (1990) and Beauty’s Gift (2006) give reason to a study of the subjects of black consciousness, freedom and identities.

With the story of a son who murdered a young student [Amy], Magona, through the monologue, gives an image of guilt, responsibility and individual awareness in a context marked by oppression and after-effects. Magona asks the question: what should we learn from the world of others? She questions the possibility of learning through the violent acts of people. Through the ‘other’. In other words, through violence and inhumane acts, the characters Amy Biehl and Andrew Goodman in Mother to Mother sacrificed their lives for a more just society. Mandisa emphasizes that society has failed to instill humanist values ​​in these young people, which is the result of violence and attacks between individuals. Consequently,

“And yet, are there no lessons to be had from knowing something of the other world? The reverse of such benevolent and nurturing entities as those that throw up the Amy Biehls, the Andrew Goodmans, and other young people of that quality? What was the world of this young women’s killers, the world of those, young as she was young, whose environment failed to nurture them in the higher ideals of humanity and who, instead, became lost creatures of malice and destruction?”[5]

In other words,

“Through his mother’s memories, we get a glimpse of human callousness of the kind that made the murder of Amy Biehl possible. And here I am back in the legacy of apartheid — a system repressive and brutal, that bred senseless inter- and intra-racial violence as well as other nefarious happenings; a system that promoted a twisted sense of right and wrong, with everything seen through the warped prism of the overarching crime against humanity, as the international community labelled it.”[6]

Magona makes a historical reminder of an old story to make her readers understand that much can be learned from history.

Questioning educational, political and economic issues to draw conclusions and lessons seems to be an essential point of Magona's work. That is to say, history teaches, raises awareness, reveals and warns the people. This refers to the role of the teacher and the intellectual. Magona seeks to intellectualize the African historical image.

This response of the group of young people to the racial and oppressive system remains within the narrative framework of legitimate defense in the face of dangers against the life of a group. The morality of the actions of the young people who shake the streets under violence remains understood as a response to a presence of danger that could be a source of violation of their rights and legitimacy. The reaction as violent and inhuman as it is of these oppressed and marginalized groups [the young people who demonstrate] is a response to a systematic aggression: oppression of their groups for the benefit of others in their own country. The young people were defending their existence in the face of threats experienced and perceived. Self-defense, in this context, means any principle of defense of one's existence. Any movement that gives a group the possibility of existing is therefore considered self-defense. In other words, self-defense is the protection of oneself from a social or political danger. This social policy is defined in the possible strategies to circumvent a reality that destroys the life of a group of people. This is only possible in a threatening context such as Africa was during colonization through a defensive character. Literature has always provided examples of self-defense among which The Followers of Evils of Charles Baudelaire (Baudelaire, 2015), and Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Dostoevsky, 2008), etc.

-        Consciousness and Social Devaluation

Mandisa addresses the victim's mother directly. In trying to understand how her son could have done such an act. The narrator questions her role as mother and educator. This interaction between the two mothers demonstrates the individual consciousness highlighted.

“My son killed your daughter. People look at me as though I did it.”[7]

Living between personal responsibility and external influence, Mandisa does not seek to justify the crime. She seeks to highlight the way in which apartheid and segregation have been organized to prepare an angry and disillusioned youth to cause danger. Mandisa is aware that her son, the perpetrator of the crime, is also a victim of an oppressive society.

The murdered girl (a white American called Amy Biehl) is a victim of racist speeches and images, the murderer (a black young boy called Lungile) is also a victim of a system to which he was subjected. The double representation of victim in this example clearly illustrates how an oppressive society creates other victims, namely direct and indirect victims. The killer is a direct victim of the system and the murdered girl a victim of a victim of apartheid (indirect). Even Lungile becomes a victim of the same story. This repressive society had organized the youth to unrest. This awareness goes beyond Mandisa’s image as an individual. It is above all a source of social structures and impacts of the incomprehensible behavior of some towards others. In the cities, with the confinement of blacks and their deplorable living conditions, the consequences could only be violence and attacks between groups.

Amy Biehl's life story reveals the challenges faced by blacks in a destructive and oppressive society. For purpose, Mandisa underlines: “God, you know my heart. I am not saying my child shouldn’t be punished for his sin. 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. God, please forgive my son. Forgive him this terrible, terrible sin.”[8]

Pierre Bourdieu’s theory underlines that there are external and internal forces. He underlines that social boundaries shape individual and collective’s perceptions and actions. Raewyn Connell (Connell, 1987) with her hegemonic masculinity sustains that hegemonic masculinity maintains gender inequalities and establishes social inequality. Social norms were established in a manner that women had no voice and men were dying because of poverty and repressions.

Social structures are the main reasons for the acts of the boys who killed the foreign student in Mother to Mother. Young people have only responded to the image of society in order to exist. For them, it was necessary to fight injustice in order to live or perish. They chose to fight at the cost of their lives. Through restrictions, poverty, domestic violence and the lack of education of the black man, young people were facing a system that had to be destroyed or let themselves be destroyed. They opted for the fight and the destruction of this system which is only oppressive and destructive.

It is clear that living conditions had given more opportunities to whites under an oppressive apartheid system. As such, it is probably in the interest of other groups to lead a struggle for freedom and protest. The youth had succeeded in this task. This awareness of the dire living conditions of blacks highlighted an urgent social and political need for change. This need was a response to social and political realities.

-        The Question of Justice and Liberty

Magona articulates a mode of being and becoming humanists in a continuous oppressive context. The becoming involves dignity, power, authenticity, agency, rationality and the other qualities of humanities (Seedat & Suffla, 2021). This calls to resistance to the negative images imposed by western discourses, practices and policies. Black Consciousness as developed by Steve Biko is an African-inspired system of knowing developed throughout historical, social and material contexts. It is an epistemological and methodological contribution to the knowledge building in Africa. Therefore, in this context individuality is composed of a whole as a function of change. In doing so, Magona seeks to decolonize the mind of the oppressed, of the unconscious to a decolonial view of their humanity.

David B. Grusky’s ‘microclass’ (Baron, Grusky, & Treiman, 1996) analyses social stratifications. He emphasizes that stratification is not limited to economic inequalities. It generates educational, social status, race and gender inequalities composed of social structures. In this regard, he explains that public policies influence these inequalities in some way through economic, fiscal and social policies. David underlines that certain occupations (power, politics, etc.) perpetuate inequalities through mechanisms of intergenerational transmission. Friedrich Hayek’s ‘spontaneous order’ (Beauchamp, 2024) defines society as a place where social orders emerge in the fight for people’s own interests.

In terms of development, society is a complex fabric of interactions. It makes man a political, economic and societal image. Whether the powers are political, economic, social or cultural, they generate hierarchization. In other words, inequalities of power (political, economic, etc.) create social disparities where some groups are more privileged than others in terms of resources, opportunities and rights, while the others are the dead image. Indeed, modern society, power, politics and discrimination are interdependent in Africa. And this is a fruit inherited from colonization. This is why social movements, awareness raising, education and collective action play crucial roles in challenging power structures.

Sindiwe Magona’s Mother to Mother is a poignant figure of social constructs and oppression. Through these social constructs and systems of oppression, the lives of the black individuals and communities remain shaped in devastating consequences that people experienced. The consequences of black oppression cost the life of the white student in Mother to Mother. This is to say that the consequences of injustice remain uncontrollable in the social and political historical image. As a matter of fact, “What was the world of this young women’s killers, the world of those, young as she was young, whose environment failed to nurture them in the higher ideals of humanity and who, instead, became lost creatures of malice and destruction?”[9]

Injustices were manifested through the image of society facing a police force unable to secure the community ‘necklacing’ (burning a person alive with a burning tire), repression, violence and attack on a targeted group. The character of Mandisa illustrates that the focus remains on the repression of opponents of the system of oppression in place. It is also worth noting that ‘Justice was on holiday’[10]. This means that justice was absent, dead.

Khadidiatou Diallo (Diallo, 2016) highlights the causes of violence in Magona’s Mother to Mother. She explains that violence has political and social roots. Indeed, Khadidiatou Diallo emphasizes that the story of Magona’s novel questions oppressive political images as a form of response.

Sindiwe Magona’s novel is called a social justice novel because themes of inequality, the historical legacy of oppression, and collective responsibility are challenged. Magona, in trying to understand the social, political, and historical roots of this act of violence, at the same time denounces injustices.

“Trouble is, there is always trouble in Guguletu ... of one kind or another . . . since the government uprooted us from all over the show: all around Cape Town’s locations, suburbs, and other of its environs, and dumped us on the arid, windswept, sandy Flats.”[11]

The denunciations of social and racial inequalities impact the lives of black people in towns like Guguletu. Guguletu is marked by poverty, lack of education and lack of opportunities and factors that fuel frustration and violence.

MABASA ALEN ZIMUNYA (ZIMUNYA) points out that politics remains a key point in this turn of the novel. Indeed, the political acts of the apartheid regime caused struggles against injustices from the initiation of apartheid to the end of the system of oppression around the 1990s.

Namrata (Roy, 2021) explores the term ‘biopolitics’ to talk about the political control of power and the regulation of bodies and populations. In other words, for Namrata, biopolitics manifests itself through segregation, the limitation of movements, state violence and the differential management of life and death. The case of the death of the young student remains an illustrative example. After the massacres of many blacks, the State does not react, but with the death of the white student, the State takes their responsibilities to judge the case and even seek to provide solutions. This is an example of the neglect of blacks by the regime in place in Mother to Mother. Added to this is the very difficult access to human resources for black communities while whites remain with many more opportunities and chances. The employability and education of whites was more assured than blacks who no longer even had anywhere to learn and to work.

This stripped-down existence of blackness had made them devalued protagonists by an oppressive political context. Logically, the revolution could not be stopped. Black people needed freedom and peace. Mandisa’s voice remains as resilient with her claim for her right to tell her story and give an understanding of the violence. The demand for restorative political and social justice engenders the government’s will for imperative change.

Justice represents the most needed lack of society in the novel of Magona. For this oppressed, abandoned, forgotten and neglected black man, the fight for survival governs the demand for freedom. Namely, political, economic, social freedoms etc. make society a justiciable image.

The theory of justice, understood as the establishment of social justice by principles to govern remains an essential factor in Magona's novel. To quote only Rawls (Rawls, 1999), the principles that guarantee the distribution of rights for an equal society always require movements between fights, revolutions and castigations. This reconciles freedom and equality. This is why Rawls' theory provides a basis for criticism of institutions. Rawls demands the idea of ​​ensuring distributive justice. In other words, he emphasizes that social norms and values must be distributed equally in society.

-        Black Identity and Social Conflicts

The end of colonization and the beginnings of New African ‘independent’ States of change’s ideology participated in the initiation of certain movements of thought. The ideology of independence has not until then been a simple rejection of the establishment of a foreign administration. It is a rejection of any legacy of domination resulting from colonization and foreign dominations. The identity of the people will be defined to this point through this image of sovereignty of the will for freedom. From the exteriorization of the fight for justice to the interiorization of the fight for a just and equitable society, black consciousness has been able to impose its roots in precise and well-defined ideologies. This movement is not only a tool for claiming the human existence of black people, it is a tool for repairing the damaged image of black people. It is to this end "a liberating and formative ideology of the black world". It is in these terms that questions of identity and history find meaning in existence again. Black consciousness seeks to answer the question: "What does it take for African society to be independent, sovereign and modern?" So African writers in this respect seek to fight for a social and political structure that is much more objective than subjective for a cultural, economic, political, ideological, philosophical, etc. representations.

Racial identity and historical legacy remain explored through the prisms of race and social class. The protagonist [Martha] is a victim of history that continues to impact her life. Mandisa and her family’s identity remains constructed in this world of generational segregation. Which is tangibly linked to the violence experienced and to social and political repression.

The maternal identity, for Mandisa, is generated by this image of shame and guilt which pushes her to seek understanding for her failure to be a parent. The mother disclaims her responsibility in these terms: “My son was only an agent, executing the long-simmering dark desires of his race. Burning hatred for the oppressor possessed his being.”[12]

Mandisa's identity is defined here by her characteristics. Without forgetting that her personality remains engraved in the country's history between oppression, segregation, marginalization and inequality. She is the representation of a community in danger because of lack of independence and liberty.

Melissa Steyn (Steyn, 2001) gives the image of identity a much more evolutionary understanding. Melissa emphasizes in her work Whiteness Just Isn't What It Used To Be: White Identity in a Changing South Africa that the white man has lost his privileges and that radical changes have taken place. Even though there are notable changes, it is very important to emphasize that the white man still remains the greatest beneficiary of social and political advantages in the New South Africa. The victory in the fight of equality is a journey to be undertaken and for its success, other victims will undoubtedly be recognized. This refers to a study of the challenges to be carried out in this fight which always requires efforts.

The change in personality of Magona’s novel from responding to the needs of their group to a social and political analysis of the circumstances is a political evolution of the demands that the change of revolutions that that apartheid regime has led to. Therefore, identity plays the role of political formation and positioning. The inequalities between the characters in the novel refer to the social division which has caused a constant evolution. Through social classes, questions of gender and history Magona opens an animation to reconciliation and healing.

-        Black Consciousness and the Question of Liberation

The struggle for the freedom of peoples has always been a heated debate in colonial and post-colonial times. The black people wanted at all costs the abolition of the apartheid regime but the real problem arose: "Would the end of apartheid mean the end of oppression and violence? Wouldn't the weakest always be victims?" In this perspective lies the question of freedom and the real problem of equality by all and for all. As Biko pointed out in an interview "Who am I? Am I black? Am I white? Or am I a man?" (Gibson, 1988). On that account: “I must emphasize the cultural depth of Black Consciousness. The recognition of the death of white invincibility forces Blacks to ask the question: "Who am 1?" "Who are we?" And the fundamental answer we give "People are people!" So 'Black" Consciousness says: 'Forget about col- our!" But the reality we faced 10 to 15 years ago did not articulate this....One must immediately dispel the thought that Black Consciousness is merely a methodology or a means to an end.” (Biko, 1977)

The answer to the question “who are we?” has given rise to positions but he was very clear in emphasizing that "a people remains a people and that color has no place in business." This reveals Biko’s greatness, but did the white man think so? Therefore, awareness was needed. Isn't awareness still needed on this same problem?

The issue of freedom and conscience remains covered between individuality and community. Mandisa, struggling against the image of guilt and shame assigned to her because her son killed a white woman, lives in an attempt at understanding and in an inner liberation of herself. Encountering difficulties in freeing herself from this act, she lives in a world mixed between trauma, violence and injustice. How can she free herself from an injustice that she has experienced since childhood and that her son continues to carry as a burden? Her life and the life of her son remain all destroyed by the political image of this society of rejection and accusation. Magona appeals to understanding through black consciousness.

Magona explains that she did not just imitate the realities of her country. She describes being at the service of the history of a people, a nation and a country. This refers to the contextual study of history and the history of the people concerned. In fact, “In writing Mother to Mother I needed to explain the problems that confronted this boy and our history as a people. It is not just the boy, it is the society. It goes much further back; it is the stories with which we grow up. It is the hatred that we are taught when we are children.”[13]

Liberation begins with recognition. This recognition is a sign of strength. The act of writing the letter directly to the victim’s mother is an essential sign of liberation for Magona. By writing the letter, Mandisa acknowledges that her son is wrong and asks for forgiveness. As Daniel José Older (Older, 2024) points out that “writing begins with forgiveness.” By taking up her pen to write, Magona asks for forgiveness and feels free.

The narrative retains a status of healing and reconciliation. Magona makes black consciousness a requirement. On the other hand, this black consciousness, according to Magona, must pass through the truth which would be a source of healing and liberation. She emphasizes that liberation is not possible without the truth. And by liberation, she refers to individual and collective liberation is possible without forgiveness and understanding.

Conclusion

Magona questions the political, social and historical responsibilities in the consciousness-raising of peoples in society. Consequently, Mother to Mother is a sharp reflection of the question of justice and freedom in a world shaken by oppression and segregation? Faced with this question of revolution and consciousness-raising, reconciliation remains an essential point for the union of the diverse and long-dispersed paths by historiography.

It is noted from the beginning of the work that black consciousness remains in the political and social plans to meet social needs. In Africa, to change the situation of the continent, the African must change his mentality. This means that the ways of thinking inherited from colonialism and the dynamics that hinder the development of the African continent must undergo transformations. To be more precise, a deconstruction of the mental structures imposed by postcolonial/colonial domination as Magona underlines in her novel and a reappropriation of identities, cultures and models of governance are to be involved.

After independence, African states continued to operate according to the legacy of colonialism. Citizen engagement in the rehabilitation of African cultures and knowledge and in the question of African unity is of capital importance in this political and social maneuver.

Indeed, according to Magona, it is necessary to overcome the ideologies inherited from colonialism, break with oppressive legacies and adopt a vision of development anchored in African realities with an openness to the world in a sovereign and egalitarian manner.

References

[1.]               Baron, J. N., Grusky, D. B., & Treiman, D. (1996). Social Differentiation And Social Inequality: Essays In Honor Of John Pock (2019 ed.). New York: Routledge.

[2.]               Baudelaire, C. (2015). The Flowers of Evil. Digireads.com Publishing.

[3.]               Beauchamp, Z. (2024). Critiquing Trump’s economics from the right: What one of the right’s greatest thinkers would make of Trumponomics. Politics.

[4.]               Biko, S. (1977, December). 'The Definit of Black Consciousness" in Steve Bikds I Write Whet I Like, (London: Heineman, 1979) p. 51. Bernard Zyistra.

[5.]               Connell, R. W. (1987). Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics. Polity Press.

[6.]               Diallo, K. (2016). Sindiwe Magona’s Mother to Mother: The Unspoken of a Text. Revue du Groupe d'Etudes et de Recherche Africaines et Hispano-Américaines.

[7.]               Dostoevsky, F. (2008). Crime and Punishment. The Pocket Book.

[8.]               Fraser, C., & Magona, S. (2006). Mud Chic. Association of Southern Africa Indexers & Bibliographers.

[9.]               Gibson, N. (1988). “Black Consciousness 1977-1987; The Dialectics of Liberation in South Africa”. Africa Today, 35(1), 5-26.

[10.]            Magona, S. (1994). To My Children's Children (1999 ed.). Interlink Publishing Group Incorporated.

[11.]            Magona, S. (2018). Beauty's Gift. Picador Africa.

[12.]            Magona, S. (2021). When the Village Sleeps. Picador Africa.

[13.]            Older, D. J. (2024). Writing Begins With Forgiveness: Why One of the Most Common Pieces of Writing Advice Is Wrong. Sketchbooks & Scratchpads. Retrieved Janvier 20, 2025, from https://danieljosolder.substack.com/p/writing-begins-with-forgiveness

[14.]            Rafapa, L. (2017). Sindiwe Magona’s To My Children’s Children and Mother to Mother. A Customised Womanist Notion of Home within Feminist Perspectives. International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 7(5), 282-286. doi:doi: 10.18178/ijssh.2017.7.5.835

[15.]            Rawls, J. (1999). A Theory of Justice (1999 ed.). Havard University: Belknap Press.

[16.]            Roy, N. D. (2021). Story of a Mother: a Biopolitical Reading of Mother to Mother. Safundi, 1-15. doi:10.1080/17533171.2021.1943847

[17.]            Seedat, M., & Suffla, S. (2021). Africa’s Knowledge Archives, Black Consciousness and Reimagining Community Psychology. Community Psychology. doi:DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-72220-3_2

[18.]            Steyn, M. (2001). Whiteness Just Isn't What It Used To Be: White Identity in a Changing South Africa. USA: State University of New York Press.

[19.]            ZIMUNYA, M. A. (n.d.). Mother to Mother – plausible readings. Retrieved Décembre 27, 2024, from https://www.teachenglishtoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Mother-to-M...

 

 

 

 

 

Biography

Lassana KANTE was born in 1998 in Senegal, kaolack. He is a student at Cheikh ANTA Diop University of Dakar. He completed his elementary and secondary studies in his home region. He graduated from Cheikh Anta Diop University where he recently received his Master degree of literature in African and Postcolonial Literature in the Department of English Studies where he got his bachelor degree.

 

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[1] Elaine Salo speaks with Sindiwe Magona, “In Conversation: Living Language, Living Writing: A profile of Sindiwe Magona”, In Conversation, p. 128, downloadable on https://feministafrica.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/fa13_in_conversati...

[2] Sindiwe Magona, Beacon Press, Preface, 1998, p. 43

[3] Sindiwe Magona, op. cit. Preface,

[4] Ibid., p. 43

[5] Ibid. Author’s preface.

[6] Ibid. 

[7] Ibid., Part one : Mandisa’s lament

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid. Preface.

[10] Ibid., p. 74

[11] Ibid., p. 26

[12] Ibid. Magona, p. 199

[13] Sindiwe Magona interviewed by Stephan Meyer, “We Would Write Very Dull Books If We Just Wrote about Ourselves”, https://sci-hub.se/downloads/2020-01-02/ad/meyer2017.pdf