Mother to Mother, Chapters 1-4

During Mandisa's childhood, she experienced a massive forced migration of black Africans away from the cities and into massive housing projects. Disguised as a 'slum clearance' project, the government moved millions of Africans out of their homes. The true incentives of the plan were to move black people out of "black spots" in white areas, as a part of apartheid. Made to abandon their communities, people were forced into these new townships, massive, cramped, and unable to host all of them. People were left homeless, and many children were left without school. Parents were forced to work tirelessly, commuting to the cities in order to work for white people. The children, without a community to rely on and resentful of the government, grew more and more militant in this bleak new reality. By the time Mxolisi is born, the situation has ripened and worsened, until the eruption of violence became inevitable.