Mandisa wonders what has caused the unrest (Dramatic Irony)
When Mandisa is piecing together what happened in her district on her way home through gossip and rumor, she hones in on a discussion of a bridge: "The description fitted two bridges. Did he know what he was talking about?...My mind turns to my children...Were they home?" (29). This is an example of dramatic irony because we know that Mandisa will soon learn that it is in fact the bridge near her home that is implicated, and not only is her son not home, he won't be coming home for a long time.
Mandisa hopes for her future (Dramatic Irony)
When Mandisa is younger, she helps her mother with her small ginger-beer business. As she does, she gets praised by her mother's customers: "I would keep a very good house when I grew up, they said, making me beam from ear to ear, as the compliments soaked through the marrow in my bones" (40). This is an example of dramatic irony because while a young Mandisa takes these compliments seriously and eagerly imagines her future life, the move to Guguletu, which we know will soon happen, will ensure that she would have to work long days in Cape Town and would not be able to run a home of her own as she hopes.
Rumor of relocation (Dramatic Irony)
After a while, the rumors of mass migration became more of a joke than anything else: "Our parents laughed at the absurdity of the rumor of the removal of Africans, all Africans, to a common area set aside only for them" (42). This is an example of dramatic irony because, as readers, we are aware of how seriously the rumor should be taken.
Mxolisi's good deed (Situational Irony)
When we learn about a good deed performed by Mxolisi, it defies our expectations about the man: "But Mxolisi is not a bad boy... Why, only two weeks ago, did he not risk his life saving a girl from a group of men who wanted to rape her?" (60). We fully expect Mxolisi to be a bad person, and Mandisa hasn't worked to show her son's positive traits up to this point.
