Last Grave Of Dimbaza By Sindiwe Magona

The book goes through Jeannette’s life exposing the mistakes she, her siblings, and her parents made to become the family they were. As her life grows older, Jeannette finds herself in more responsible positions in the world, with editing school newspapers, to writing columns in a small New York newspaper outlet. Her troubles have raised the issue of stereotyping, a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. Due to her status in her childhood, it was not hard for her to fit in with the other members of the poor community. “Dinitia explained that I was with her and that I was good people. The women looked at one another and shrugged.” (Walls 191) The quote talks about how members of the black community in Welch accepted Jeannette to go swimming with them in the morning hours before the white people went in the afternoon. The people who knew Dinita, Jeannette’s friend, knew that Dinita was trustworthy, and let Jeannette pass. This relates to the thesis because it shows how she was accepted amongst the people who were

1. African women worked indoors doing house chores and cooking. The author describes that the women would rather work outside in the field because they were under constant observations by the Master’s wife. Many African slaves were raped by their masters and as a result they had biracial babies. Many masters sexually abused their slaves in order to have more slaves in their plantation. Due to the unfair abused towards slave women, white mistresses had resentment towards the slave girls and believed the slave girls were the ones seducing their husbands into bed. Some of the biracial children can pass off as white or they were very light skinned so they would be sold at “fancy” auctions for a hefty price, therefore it was common for black families to be separated.

Even though it was easy for women to obtain jobs in the field of domestic work or laundresses, they faced heavier exploitation; considering, that with these jobs women often had no time to care for their families. Leading a life in extreme poverty, these women had no choice, but to search for other opportunities to keep their families, and themselves, alive. At some point African American women even had to sacrifice their prides, in order to earn breadline wages to survive.

Poverty and hardship are shown to create vulnerability in female characters, particularly the female servants, allowing powerful men to manipulate and sexually abuse them. Kent illustrates how poverty perpetuates maltreatment and abuse in a society like Burial Rites using the characters of Agnes’ mother Ingveldur and Agnes. Agnes’ mother is forced to make invidious choices as her children are “lugged along” from farm to farm, where she is sexually exploited by her employers. In spite of these circumstances, Agnes’ mother is commonly referred to as a whore in their society which abhors female promiscuity yet disregards male promiscuity as a harmless character trait; as in the case of Natan, who is merely “indiscreet” despite all his philandering. Born into poverty, Agnes experiences similar sexual coercion and manipulation from her “masters” and yet is labelled “a woman who is loose with her emotions and looser with her morals”. The severe poverty of Agnes is explicitly demonstrated to the reader by Kent through the intertextual reference of her entire belongings - a very dismal, piteous list to be “sold if a decent offer is presented”. Furthermore, Kent contrasts the situation of Agnes, a “landless workmaid raised on a porridge of moss and poverty”, to the comparative security Steina has experienced using a rhetorical question from

Sadly, to this day, women are still treated like objects in various parts of the world. Whether forced into marriage or used for inhumane acts, it is a shame that changes towards the treatment of women are only starting to take place now. An insightful look into the worlds of poorly treated women is seen in the short stories “Another Evening at The Club”, and “The Leaving”. Alifa Rifaat, the author of “Another Evening.” depicts the life of an eastern teenager that was forced into marriage and is controlled by the actions of her husband. While the main character, Samia, seems to act as an evil accomplice of her husband, her actions are driven by the need to serve a purposeful life for the sake of survival, and their image together. Similarly,

1. The female factory worker compared her conditions with those of slaves because she felt like they were being treated like slaves by not being allowed to speak for themselves. She felt that they were awed into silence by wealth and power and was under tyranny and cruel oppression

| Relevant Biographical Information About the Author: * White * Born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa in 1903 * Father was Scottish and mother was South African of English heritage * Worked at a reformatory with black youths

“She came here to look for her husband who was recruited for the mines… She lives in Claremont, not far from here. It is one of the worst places in Johannesburg… … that is her work, she makes and sells it… These women sleep with any man for their price… She has been in prison, more than once.” (53)

The narrator is totally crushed by the gender discrimination. She longed to be seen by her mother and her grandma. The narrator is heartbroken that her mother loved her brother more than her and failed to notice her. “When she went into Nonso’s room to say good night, she always came out laughing that laugh. Most times, you pressed your palms to your ears to keep the sound out, and kept your palms pressed to your ears, even when she came into your room to say Good night, darling, sleep well. She never left your room with that laugh” (190). Her agony can be easily seen by the way of her narrating. She does not get the affection that she deserves. She really needs the affection from her own mother, but she is not getting it. She compares the love which her mother shows to his brother and herself. This is gender discrimination can be seen with her grandmother too. She hated her grandma as she would always support her brother and find fault with her. Even though what the brother did, no matter what crime. Her mother and grandmother always supported her brother and never supported or showed interest towards

These two stories exemplify the epitome of women’s repression in the male-dominated society of the late nineteenth century by conveying the feelings of

Women have always been treated differently from our male counterpart. As a woman, we are automatically born with a strike on our back, and as an African-American, we are seen at the very bottom of the totem pole. The trials and tribulations that we are put through no man could possibly withstand. In “Homegoing”, many issues that are still prevalent in today’s society is discussed. The author of the novel touch bases on the importance of family, cultural heritage, and gender inequality. Gender inequality is one of the main issues that women today face. In the beginning of the novel, the women of the village were controlled by the men in all aspects of life. Every move they made were scrutinized by their man counterparts. As the book progressed throughout the decades, the women were still facing issues that the women of today face.

From a feminist critical perspective, it is clear to perceive that her husband’s death was a release of freedom from her marriage. The text describes that at times, she did and did not love her husband. However, love had not mattered anymore because she was now free. Whether they loved each other or not, she would have still been his property. This restriction of freedom was no longer her cross to bear. The death of her husband would pave her a path for a new life.

Many of the contemporary issues in South Africa can easily be associated with the apartheid laws which devastated the country. The people of South Africa struggle day by day to reverse “the most cruel, yet well-crafted,” horrific tactic “of social engineering.” The concept behind apartheid emerged in 1948 when the nationalist party took over government, and the all-white government enforced “racial segregation under a system of legislation” . The central issues stem from 50 years of apartheid include poverty, income inequality, land ownership rates and many other long term affects that still plague the brunt of the South African population while the small white minority still enjoy much of the wealth, most of the land and opportunities

The apartheid era in South Africa, uprooted the lives of many people who were forced to endure oppressive laws and inequality based on the colour of their skin. It continues to remain a painful memory to those who lost loved ones in their struggle for freedom. In Chris Van Wyk’s novel, Shirley, Goodness & Mercy (2004), he explores fond memories growing up in a township called Riverlea. This township is predominantly occupied by coloured people as a result of segregation laws. Contrary to the negative connotations that apartheid holds, Van Wyk shares the memories which enriched his life during his formation. It is against this setting that I will explore various moments in the novel that contributed to Van Wyk’s views of a pre-apartheid time in his growing up. I will establish this by discussing the given extract, and looking at how he perceived a sense of freedom with his friends, his open state of mind towards knowledge, his outlook on justice and the wrongs that were not evident in his growing up. I will also discuss how it relates to the whole novel.

The execution of the Apartheid framework in 1948 influenced the socio; monetary, mental and political structures of South Africa and was straightforwardly gone for dark South Africans. In Mother To Mother by Sindiwe Magona, this arrangement of Apartheid is broke down and analyzed to represent the route in which this controlled type of abuse straightforwardly and in a roundabout way added to the homicide of American Fulbright researcher Amy Biehl. As such, a relative connection will be attracted to clear up the route in which, the unfavorable states of politically-sanctioned racial segregation made and kept up an arrangement of separation and annihilation that in the end impacted or changed the lives of all South Africans paying little respect to shading.