A legacy of pain

Lucy wants death-obsessed Mbali to go for therapy, but she’ll need the courage to confront her own past too.

- NKOSAZANA NGWADLA

Mbali (Ditebogo Ledwaba) has been in a dark place since the Holy House incident in April when the church was torched with its members inside. The teen is haunted by thoughts of death, and she’s become violent and aggressive. She’s just not the Mbali everyone knows and loves. Her mom Lucy (Manaka Ranaka) thinks that a sangoma might be able to help Mbali get out of the trap her past has created. She also suggests Mbali starts seeing psychologist Dr Langa Hlophe (Maxwell Dichi), but when Lucy starts doing sessions with Dr Langa herself, she uncovers her own childhood traumas and her troubled relationship with her mother Gog’Flo (Ivy Nkutha).

HEAL THE MOM, HEAL THE CHILD

Lucy realises that in order to become better at parenting Mbali, she needs to heal from her own scars; scars she didn’t realise were there. “This story is a look into motherhood. How Lucy was raised is affecting the way she is raising Mbali. Therapy reveals that Lucy felt neglected by Gog’Flo while she was a live-in domestic worker for a white family. Lucy also felt judged and misunderstood by her mother, much as Mbali is feeling with her now,” Manaka explains.