In Sindiwe Magona's Mother to Mother, the old cliché put yourself in my shoes takes an interesting and unheard of twist. It is an excellent novel that gives impelling testimony of history as a basis for the actions of youth. In the story she is the mother of an accused murderer speaking to the mother of the victim. She tries to explain her and her son's history so the mother of the victim could understand why or how her son would kill her daughter. At a glance you would think what! Or how dare she! But because Magona goes into such depth of her peoples' background and uses first person throughout the novel, you will find yourself empathizing with the trials of her people.

This book is riveting. The mother-daughter relationship is powerful. The mother-son relationship is heart wrenching and warming. I felt the pain of blacks in South Africa. The understandable rage of teens in an oppressive environment is so clearly described. The human spirit that helps people survive even the most miserable conditions is a thread through this book as well. This book is a powerful read. I feel like I have been given a window on the human condition.

Ms Magona explains without any excuses why Mxolisi is a murderer. As a mother during apartheid the possibilities for Mandisa, Mxolisi's mother to direct her son's future did not exist. Mxolisi grew up in an enviroment where whites equal sorrow, death, distraction, poverty to name but a few. He never got the oppurtunity to grow up knowing that there are people like Amy Biehl. There are people who do look at blacks, as human beings. No mother comes from the hospital with a murderer in her arms. Every child deserves a chance, read the book to find out what Mxolisi's chances were. The book will take you on a tour of South Africa, it's past, and the possibilities of the future.

It's great! If you want to learn this graet language that book is for you. Well written, good coursebook. Every unit contains dialogue, vocabulary for everyday conversation, even idiomatic exspressions. Tha pack contains also two cassettes with pronunciation guide and dialogues from the book (of course with mother tongue speakers). So if you want to teach yourself this beautiful language you have to buy it. But remember that Xhosa is a tone langage so if you just want to speak a new language so maybe you should start from, for example, Teach Yourself Swahili from the same publisher (it's even better! ). And if you need to know Xhosa buy also Teach Yourself Zulu and you will find it very useful, because both, Zulu and Xhosa are Bantu languages so you will find many similarities.

It's great! If you want to learn this graet language that book is for you. Well written, good coursebook. Every unit contains dialogue, vocabulary for everyday conversation, even idiomatic exspressions. Tha pack contains also two cassettes with pronunciation guide and dialogues from the book (of course with mother tongue speakers). So if you want to teach yourself this beautiful language you have to buy it. But remember that Xhosa is a tone langage so if you just want to speak a new language so maybe you should start from, for example, Teach Yourself Swahili from the same publisher (it's even better! ). And if you need to know Xhosa buy also Teach Yourself Zulu and you will find it very useful, because both, Zulu and Xhosa are Bantu languages so you will find many similarities.

If you grew up in the rural outskirts of South Africa, you'll definitely enjoy this one! It is so real, it felt as if I was reading about my life. The way she writes keeps one turning the pages...btw this was my first book to read right to the last page!

I love a book that can make me laugh out loud. In fact, in my opinion, the best books you can buy are the ones that bring a smile to your face. So when I opened the book, 'Push-Push!And Other Stories'and looked at the first page, my heart fell. The first sentence in this book reads,"There has been an accident!" When I read those lines, I knew at once that I was in for a tragic ride, and I was right! In her collection of ten short stories, Sindiwe Magona paints a sad but colorful picture of Africa and the reality of how the aftermath of Apartheid left its mark on the culture of the people who live there.
There are of course, many strengths that add to the efficiency of the way the stories are written. Although it is unclear as to whether or not any of the characters in the stories are completely fictional, Ms. Magona writes so richly that one cannot help but feel as if they are there in the stories among such tragic characters as Lunga in 'The Hand That Kills', or Zama in 'A Drowning In Cala'.
Her stories are extremely descriptive in that they invite you to share in the pain and disbelief that is reflected in each story. For example, a grieving mother in her first story, "She wailed,'Where is my son?'she asked;tears marring her sight" (Sandiles wife in 'A Drowning in Cala'). The despair was evident in almost every page I read. From the situations of Africans in Africa, to the reality of their 'new' lives in America, their uncertainty as to how to live outside of Apartheid was represented. "The full brunt of the 'benevolence' of a government that had painstakingly 'sheltered' me, was only then beginning to unfold." ( narrator in 'House-Hunting Unlike Soweto').
This book also served in educating me about some of the customs and traditions that shape the lives of many Africans. For example, though the African woman is often times seen as a second class citizen, she often plays a very important part in the lives of those around her. "Mama never worked...however the engine that drove our family, kept it going, relentlessly so, was mother" (daughter in 'Push-Push!'). In fact, throughout this book, an image of the natural beauty and rock-hard strength that is the African woman, becomes quite common and lends to Ms. Magona's rich story-telling.
Ms. Magona also stays true to her character portrayals. As a black woman who also likes to write, I myself know how hard it can be to create flaws in the characters who are born under your pen, especially if the characters are a reflection of you and your culture. It can be tempting to focus on the good characteristics and omit the ones that might make the reader dislike the character, but Ms. Magona doesn't hold back the undesirable qualities in the characters in her stories, eventhough they are mostly African. She seeks to teach the reader about the rises and falls that make up the very heart of the African people, flaws and all.
Even so, despite the many strengths of this book, I felt that it only merited three stars because of the insurmountable sadness that this book left with me. Apartheid was a horrifying stain on the history of Africa that will never completely fade away, but did it rob this country of amusement and happiness?! It couldn't have, or else how did the African people survive? More of the lighter side of Africa should have been represented in this book. If not a lot, then at least a little. It interests me to know how the African people were able to smile after all the oppression, death and unfairness was lifted from their heads. How were they able to laugh? Those details were left from the pages of this book which almost, in my opinion, gave it an air of imbalance. There are always two sides to a coin, the lighter side and the darker side, and in the book 'Push-Push!And Other Stories', it feels as though we were robbed of that lighter side.
Another weakness demonstrated in this book was the disjointedness of the book as a whole. The scene went from rural Capetown to New York city, and these sudden changes sometimes left me confused as to where and who the character was. But this may be considered an interesting aspect of the book among other readers. I did find it interesting how Ms. Magona demonstrated how Apartheid touched all Africans, rich, poor, young and old. It enabled us to take a look into the lives of all the people who were affected by the unfathomable cruelty that was Apartheid.
In conclusion, I don't recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a light-hearted and extremely informative story about the lives of African people. This book is everything but light-hearted, and it doesn't teach any facts about Apartheid or its aftermath. Even so, I do recommend this book to all those who want to take a peek into the lives of people they might otherwise never get to meet. It is always interesting to learn about different customs, traditions, and histories. Even if that history is weathered with hardship....and soaked with tears.