Kaffir Boy: the True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa - Mark Mathabane - 1986
Introduction
In Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa, Mark Mathabane presents the remarkable story of his childhood and his rise to prominence as a journalist, lecturer, and humanitarian. Mathabane grew up in the terrifying shantytowns of Alexandra, outside of Johannesburg, South Africa. In these urban slums, he witnessed and survived the most repressive period of apartheid, the South African government's system of legalized racism. On a page of explanation before the narrative begins, Mathabane tells the reader, "In South Africa [the word Kaffir] is used disparagingly by most whites to refer to blacks. It is the equivalent of the term nigger. I was called a 'Kaffir' many times."
Kaffir Boy tells the story of his life under apartheid, as well as how he escaped South Africa to attend an American university, leaving his family behind. Mathabane's unwavering honesty is the book's main strength. One section, "The Road to Alexandra," offers a particularly relentless depiction of brutality and squalor. From the first page, Mathabane shows his readers the devastating personal costs of institutionalized racism: destroyed families, demolished personal pride, psychological pain, and ceaseless physical suffering.
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