And They Didn't Die, An Analysis

Jezile, the protagonist of Lauretta Ngcobo's novel And They Didn't Die, represents how rural black women's sense of motherhood charges their political mobilization. And They Didn't Die follows a community of women who care for their children, their land, and their cattle, through periods of drought, famine, while their husbands labour in distant mines and cities. During this time in South African history, known as the Apartheid Era, the women begin to see that in order to improve life, they need to begin taking initiative by making choices, uniting their strength and helping each other. As this novel brings us through times of "struggle" and unbearable conditions from Jezile's early married life of the 50's into the descendents lives of the 80's, Jezile is representative of rural (Zulu) black women's experience just as a typical woman with typical problems amongst other black women at the time, while simultaneously shedding light upon the indomitable spirit as the oppressed people.

To Jezile, pregnancy is not only crucial to identifying herself in her community; it motivates her with the will to fight to build a family that would last for generations. Since children are the single way women can retain positions in the community, the need for children in a country where couples are separated places tremendous pressure on young women to conceive, give birth, and sustain the community. Through Jezile, Ngcobo expresses women's concerns about their husbands leaving to work in the city and fears of abandonment if they fail to produce children for their husbands. In order to enhance Jezile's crisis of possible barrenness, Ngcobo uses a simile to describe the problem as a "mole" on her body; something permanent and imperviou...

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...ength to carry on as a mother earns the readers admiration, as countless blacks mothers in Apartheid South Africa did.

In "And They Didn't Die," Lauretta Ngcobo gives us a glimpse of the life of a rural South African woman during the Apartheid era, and conveys to us how their sense of motherhood motivates them to fight back against the unjust laws that had permeated their country. We see that despite poverty and political persecution, South African women asked questions, and supported one another through all sorts of suffering, ultimately having a long lasting and far-reaching effect on the future cultural climate of South Africa. With a simple but deep love for their children and support from one another, South African mothers who had and were viewed as nothing became heroes in the battle against segregation and inequality between races in Apartheid South Africa.