"Where is my own father?"- Studying the Missing Father and the Abusive Paternal Government in Mother to Mother.

Colonisation and apartheid in South Africa have left deep-rooted trauma in people, especially the black youth. Writer Sindiwe Magona explores the aftermath of apartheid in her novel Mother to Mother (1998), tracing familial and generational tragedies. This article, while exploring the consequences of apartheid, focuses on the role of the absent father and the abusive government in the context of the text. Set around the event of the murder of anti-apartheid activist Amy Biehl in 1993 in Gugulethu, this article investigates the politically volatile environment which impacted black youth psychologically and gives particular attention to the effects of abandonment by a father in the formative years of a child. Therefore, this article explores the nuances of apartheid which impacted the young people to perpetrate further violence, incited by the unjust and racially biased government and the abandonment of fathers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]