Mark Mathabane

KAFFIR BOY (a library sale find) has been sitting on my bookshelf for several years, and now I've finally read it. It was a major bestseller in 1986 when it was first published, mainly for its graphic content, I suspect. Because author Mathabane was unflinching in his depiction of the squalid ghetto where he grew up, the eldest of several children in apartheid South Africa where whites ruled with an iron fist to keep the native blacks "in their place." "Kaffir" is the South African equivalent of the n-word, and I was indeed often reminded of the works of Richard Wright, Dick Gregory and James Baldwin, all of whom I read back in my college days. While I absolutely admire Mathabane for what he endured, and how he persevered in his studies (in ill-equipped, substandard schools) and managed to "escape" to the United States on a tennis scholarship, I often felt buried in redundant descriptions of the horrors and indignities of apartheid, and felt some scrupulous editing could have made this an even better book. Googling Mathabane, I found he is now a US citizen and has written a few more books, but for now I'm kinda on the fence as to whether I'll read them. But I am glad I read this one - a real eye-opener on the apartheid system, something that played a prominent part in a favorite Graham Greene novel, THE HUMAN FACTOR. This was a good book though, if a little too long, and I will recommend it highly, especially to anyone curious about the apartheid era.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (más)

Mark Mathabane gives the reader a vivid account of being a black man in South Africa and America. Unfortunately, the experiences are much the same in both countries. This latest book by Mathabane describes what needs to be done to bring racial healing between blacks and whites. The first part of the book describes ten obstacles to racial healing. The second half of the book outlines the ten principles of Ubuntu, an African philosophy emphasizing the bond connecting all humanity. Mathabane recognizes that racial biases are held by both blacks and whites. Racial healing and peace requires practicing empathy, compromise, learning, nonviolence, change, forgiveness, restorative justice, love, spirituality, and hope. Mathabane provides examples of each of these principles put into practice. He explains what the Ubuntu principles are but does not provide a how-to guide to their implementation. His book does provide the inspiration to take action on closing the racial divide.… (más)

The true story of a black youth's coming of age in apartheid South Africa. Mark was raised as the eldest child of a very poor family in the shanties of Alexandra, South Africa. He describes the extreme poverty and crazy life under apartheid- when you never knew when the cops would come to cleanse the neighborhood of people for some infraction and haul them off to jail. Mark's father was a gambler and alcoholic who rarely provided for his family- especially once his wife got a job. Mark's mom and grandmother did all they could to gather the money it took to send him to school Luckily Mark always come out at the top of his class and he ended up going to college in the U.S.… (más)