Krys's review
Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography--The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa
by Mark Mathabane
Krys's review
Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography--The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa by Mark Mathabane
Krys's review
rating:
Kaffir Boy follows the story of Johannes Mathabane and his family while living in a ghetto of Alexandria. The detailed descriptions of the inhuman circumstances and the daily humiliation the natives are subjected to, particularly in the form of pass books, Influx Control laws, and the degrading stereotyping of natives as an inferior race, make this a powerful and disturbing book. Mathabane's own attempts to understand why and how the Africaans could subjugate an entire nation of natives, as well as his struggle to see white people as individuals rather than as a demonized race, is moving and educational. My only complaint? He can be a little self-justifying at times as an autobiography can be, especially about his minimal participation in the post-Soweto rebellions and in the ANC-led movements, but who can blame him? It's an amazing journey that he narrates, and a little smugness is only natural, considering where the man is and what he's been through.
