#Chapter 6 study guide answers full#

When they are sure that Mxolisi is nowhere on the property, they beat up Lunga, 'because, as they said, he should have known his brother's whereabouts' (64). They destroy Lunga and Mxolisi's hokkie so thoroughly that it will have to be rebuilt from scratch. They pull the house apart-knocking down walls, taking down the ceiling and pulling floorboards up. 'Had the police been searching for a needle,' writes Mandisa, 'they could not have been more meticulous' (64). 'Where is he?' The policemen demand, and Mandisa, stalling by asking which of her sons they mean, receives a slap to the face. Someone grabs Mandisa by the neck and dumps her onto the floor of the dining room, where Dwadwa, Siziwe, and Lunga sit.

It is chaos: 'Boots hammer the floor, boots kick at what furniture there is in the house, sending things crashing against walls, colliding with each other and clattering onto the floor' (63). The police flood into the bedroom as Mandisa leaves it, shoving her to the side and removing Siziwe from the bed. Mandisa has lost sight of her husband in the commotion. Soon after relief comes worry-what does it mean that they are there? The police are not exactly comforting presences in the community: 'The police are no security to us in Guguletu. Although they are wrecking the home, Mandisa is relieved to see that they are, at least, actually policemen. 'We said open up an hour ago!' they yell, 'What'ah you trying to hide?' (62). Mandisa silences her daughter and goes to meet the policemen. Siziwe begins to scream, sure the intruders were coming to kill them. They break down the back door right as Dwadwa goes to unlock it, and the police flood into the home. It's clear that it is the police, and Mandisa worries that something has happened to Mxolisi, although 'in the back of my mind I know that the police wouldn't come like this, in the middle of the night, to tell us about something happening to Mxolisi' (61). Mandisa quiets her daughter and then heads with Dwadwa to the door. She is terrified, whimpering and 'shaking like a leaf' (60). Siziwe in the same moment runs in to her parents' room and gets into bed with her mother. While the sudden onslaught freezes Mandisa, Dwadwa jumps out of bed and dresses. The police bang on every surface available-door, wall, and window. There is banging on the door, and 'at once, the whole yard is alive and clamorous' (60).

#Chapter 6 study guide answers full#

The silence is full of possibilities, and Mandisa becomes afraid. She watches the people approach the home silently in her imagination, hoping that it is her son, but 'the only answer to my frantic questions is an eerie silence that blankets the pre-dawn air, pushing the walls of the house ever inward' (60). just a young person taken up with this business of politics' (60). Her heart leaps-is it her son? Has he stolen a car? No, she reassures herself, ' Mxolisi is not a bad boy. It is the muffled sound of a car door being shut carefully. She hears a sound and recognizes it to be the noise that woke her up just moments before. He says that it is his long days loading cargo on and off ships that make him into such a good sleeper, but Mandisa knows she works just as hard. She gets up out of bed and marvels at how soundly her husband Dwadwa sleeps. But for a moment, everything seems peaceful. Her eyes 'smart as though I'd spent the night cooking over an open fire in a windowless hut - using wood that I'd left out in the rain' (59). She is exhausted, and her muscles ache as if she's been 'standing on head throughout the night' (59). She does not remember when she fell asleep, but either way, she is wide awake now. In the dark, Mandisa stares at the smoke emitted from her extinguished candle and stares at her ceiling. The night passes, and Mandisa hears her husband snore. It is 4 AM, and Mandisa doesn't know what has awakened her. In this short chapter, Mandisa's home is raided by the police in the middle of the night.