≫ Read Gratis Kaffir Boy An AutobiographyThe True Story of a Black Youth Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa Mark Mathabane 9780684848280 Books

Kaffir Boy An AutobiographyThe True Story of a Black Youth Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa Mark Mathabane 9780684848280 Books

Download As PDF : Kaffir Boy An AutobiographyThe True Story of a Black Youth Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa Mark Mathabane 9780684848280 Books

Kaffir Boy An AutobiographyThe True Story of a Black Youth Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa Mark Mathabane 9780684848280 Books

Being a privileged, white, senior-citizen South African, this book resonates painfully, on many levels. It's not an autobiography in the classic sense. No child could have such a memory for very early-life detail - and many complex conversations are obviously constructed to make (valid) points.
This e-version, disappointingly, is *riddled* with spelling errors and typos. Positively screaming for a good editor.

Is it a worthwhile read? Definitely. Because the struggles of 'ordinary' black South Africans during Apartheid, have not been sufficiently documented in our literature. The suffering caused by draconian, official, bureaucratic demands alone, was horrifying. Crippling poverty and hunger, aside. 

The author is an excellent raconteur. I see that several other books followed this. I may well be tempted. 
   


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Kaffir Boy An AutobiographyThe True Story of a Black Youth Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa Mark Mathabane 9780684848280 Books Reviews

I read this as part of my study abroad to South Africa. I did not even know such a thing as Apartheid existed until I read this book. What startled me most is that Apartheid had only collapsed in 1994.

It was altogether disturbing yet interesting to learn about a child's life so marred by hardship. Mark Mathabane grows up living in a true ghetto. By comparison to the U.S., a ghetto here would seem like paradise to a South African under Apartheid. As such, there is many truly disgusting scenarios that the author went through as a child.

For those interested in what life was like during Apartheid, I would strongly recommend this book for it gives the most brutally honest point of view from the black majority of South Africa.
I have been to South Africa 2 times and Namibia 1 time. This book really gave me perspective on what I saw there. The country is beautiful and the people are more so. I better understand the gulf between blacks and white. I wish I had an answer to how to bridge the gulf but without a doubt education must be part of the solution.
Mark Mathabane was born and raised in the unbelievable, hopeless poverty of one of South Africa's all black, rat and gang infested towns, Alexandra. As one of the children born in an area where de-humanizing police raids -a lot of times led by people of their own race, was a standard, almost nightly thing, he measured his life in days -not years.

He writes as Johannes -the narrator and main character of the story. With the courage he learns from his mother and the education she fought for, he helps to look after and feed his younger siblings. Then with the help of his grandmother he overcomes the unimaginable rules and laws set for the `blacks', to earn a living in the `white' community. Eventually he meets up with a tennis star who helps him work towards a scholarship to an American University. This is where this part of the story basically ends.

We all need to read about the unbelievable situations that some of our fellow humans live in -and who survive to grow and live a `normal' life.

It is a testament to the author's tenacity that he lived to tell this story.

You will not easily forget this book and you will be looking forward to reading the next one.
In my fifties, I thought I've learned about survival and hope (I'm Jewish...The Holocaust and everything about IT taught me almost more than I could bare).Yet, Kaffir Boy is a book I find myself thinking about and referring to almost weekly. It is my daughter's favorite book. It took me a while to ask her why. One day, she ordered it for me. It is My favorite book now. We both have recommended this inspirational story to many, many people.
I am really enjoying this novel so far and so are my students. We are reading it as an English Department. This is only day two of our reading and most of the students are asking to take the novel home. I only have a class set, but have directed those who can afford it to go to for used copies. I will try to update this as we progress with the novel.
I chose this book to read after backpacking through South Africa for a month with my boyfriend. We are an interracial couple. We both noticed an unsettling amount of segregation still happening in the towns and countryside we travelled through. I realized that I didn't really understand the true impact of apartheid laws and decided I should do some research. This book definitely provided some insight and I'm looking forward to learning more. We did enjoy our time in South Africa, it's simply beautiful, and we met a lot of great people, but there is still work to be done on human rights issues. The author had so many hurdles to jump through to accomplish his dreams. He's truly an inspiring fellow.
The main message! My teenage daughter was assigned to read this in school, so at her suggestion I went ahead and read it with her. I was familiar with apartheid in the academic sense, but reading a first hand account really slams the message home. Authoritarian states love using violence and pointless cruelty to enforce their rule.
My only real complaint is that Mathabane is an exception to the rule, an outstanding athlete and academic he managed to escape and give us this story. Not exactly a flaw in the author. He does have a tendency towards long exposition dumps in the form of conversations that are wildly implausible. It gets the message across. Anyway highly recommended.
Being a privileged, white, senior-citizen South African, this book resonates painfully, on many levels. It's not an autobiography in the classic sense. No child could have such a memory for very early-life detail - and many complex conversations are obviously constructed to make (valid) points.
This e-version, disappointingly, is *riddled* with spelling errors and typos. Positively screaming for a good editor.

Is it a worthwhile read? Definitely. Because the struggles of 'ordinary' black South Africans during Apartheid, have not been sufficiently documented in our literature. The suffering caused by draconian, official, bureaucratic demands alone, was horrifying. Crippling poverty and hunger, aside. 

The author is an excellent raconteur. I see that several other books followed this. I may well be tempted.