Mxolisi is a victim of circumstance in an apartheid ridden South Africa?

Mandisa's oldest son and the murderer of Amy Biehl. At the time of the novel, Mxolisi is 20 years old. He is part of a generation of millions of children in South Africa who rebelled against ineffectual schooling and spent their time fighting against the oppressive apartheid government.

Mxolisi stays up all night, roaming the streets in with a group of other boys. He is fiercely intelligent, loyal to others, and very caring and demonstrative to his mother. At the worst of times he is disobedient and a bully to his siblings, at the best, he is a protective and politically active leader.

· Mxolisi grew up in the apartheid era, which demanded conformity to its repressive laws – authoritarian rule impacted negatively on the lives of black South Africans. Politically they were denied a voice, socially marginalization took place and economically they were dispossessed. · This set up a violent reaction against the white government. Anger becomes an appropriate response. Mxolisi and many others are filled with a burning hatred in their hearts for the oppressor. · It is the “resentment of three hundred years” of authoritarian rule that caused him to block his ears so that he would not hear Amy’s pitiful cries for help as he attacked and killed her. · Acts of sheer brutality are perpetrated against black South Africans, who become their hapless victims. · Mxolisi refuses to buckle under the system and becomes an activist, with whites as his targeted victims. · The government uses forceful means to uphold apartheid – Mxolisi and others respond in like manner in an effort to destroy it. · Schools are boycotted, institutions attacked and “One settler! One bullet!” becomes the rallying call for protestors. · Irony is that a black South African should become a perpetrator of retaliatory violence, having himself, been a victim of violence. · Mxolisi now becomes the perpetrator of violence as he was the victim of apartheid violence and brutality. · His first encounter with violence occurs when he is four years old. Two young boys to whom Mxolisi is devoted are killed by police, their hiding place being pointed out by Mxolisi. The terror of the incident remained in his memory, never to be forgotten. Much later in Std 5 he is given a hiding by his teacher for not paying school fees. He knows he is the victim of unfair treatment perpetrated by a teacher, a figure of authority. He leaves school to become involved in student politics. This sets him on a path of violent action in protest against institutionalized abuse and abrogation of civil duties. · Mxolisi was a rebellious teenager who set his own agenda. Parental control is shunted aside and Mandisa feared for her son’s safety and the consequences of his actions. · Mxolisi’s involvement in Amy’s death proves her right. · Amy’s death was not the result of any personally held grudge against her, but because all whites are regarded as the enemy, and therefore vulnerable to attack. · She became the innocent victim of a perpetrator who has one, himself been a victim. The responsibility for what Mxolisi did and what Amy suffered, lies almost solely with the apartheid system. · Mxolisi once saved a girl from becoming the victim of rape · His resistance to apartheid and his defence of a young girl, both seem to endorse his commitment to the cause of justice, despite his having to resort to violence in the end.

THE FOLLOWING CAN ALSO BE MENTIONED. · Amy’s goodness had blinded her to the animosity of some of those for whom she bore such compassion. What was a white girl doing in Gugulethu, a place where only black people live, in the late afternoon. · She was naïve to think no one would hurt her · Mxsoli’s bitterness led to her death. · Mxsoli was only an agent, executing the long-simmering dark desires of his race. · Burning hatred possessed his being.