Mother to Mother

Chapter 7 marks the beginning of an extended flashback. Mandisa's mother had hoped that she and her brother would be able to use their education to avoid lives of poverty, but, Mandisa says, "the year [1972] had its plans too" (88). She notes that it began ominously, with an argument over her best friend Nono's decision to date Khaya, Mandisa's older brother.

Not long afterwards, Mandisa is out running errands when she runs into Stella, an old friend from Blouvlei. The two girls chat, and Mandisa notices that Stella seems to have grown up a lot since their last meeting; she's wearing a bra, and now smokes. Stella fills Mandisa in on what has been happening to their old acquaintances—one girl is pregnant, and a family friend, Sis' Lulu, has died, along with one of her twin babies.

Mandisa tells Nono about her encounter with Stella, and the two become friends again. In the meantime, Mandisa's mother has become extremely paranoid that she will become pregnant; when Mandisa began menstruating, her mother forbade her from letting a boy "come anywhere near" her, and eventually began making Mandisa strip naked to inspect her for signs of penetration (94). Mandisa, however, has begun seeing a boy named