By: Kevin Norwood on June 23, 2017
Mark Mathabane in his autobiography Kaffir Boy gives a clear picture of what life under apartheid is truly like for those who are on the lowest level of humanity. In his words, he was a “fourth class citizen.” The struggle of what faced human beings because of other human’s desire for control and power is…
By: Geoff Lee on June 23, 2017
What an inspirational story. From the slums of a South African township to a college scholarship. From abject poverty and apartheid to academia and America. This is a story of redemption and hope out of a seemingly hopeless hovel of an existence. Some of the things that stood out to me as I read the…
By: Katy Drage Lines on June 23, 2017
An old Turkana man agrees to wed his daughter, Kaiikeny, to a friend, as his third wife. Kaiikeny’s new husband agrees on the bride price (two hundred goats, dozens of donkeys and sheep, and ten camels). Kaiikeny then participates in the akinyonyo, a women-only celebration in her new husband’s emachar (brand, clan), initiating her out…
By: Jason Kennedy on June 23, 2017
I have to admit, I was never really familiar with apartheid. Sure, I had heard the word and even heard about Nelson Mandela, but it was something far in my rearview mirror. I am not sure why. It is probably the closest thing to Nazis Germany and the Holocaust that my generation has seen. Maybe…
By: Chip Stapleton on June 23, 2017
Kaffir Boy is Mark Mathabane’s autobiographical story of his growing up and coming of age under Apartheid in Alexandra, South Africa. It doesn’t quite feel right to say this was a ‘good’ book or that I enjoyed reading it (in a similar way, that I didn’t enjoy watching Schindler’s list). But it is certainly a powerful story…
By: Kristin Hamilton on June 23, 2017
My heart hurts. That’s the thought that keeps rolling through my mind as I try to figure out how to put my feelings about Kaffir Boy, Mark Mathabane’s autobiography, down on paper. It hurts because Mathabane’s description of coming of age in South Africa’s apartheid once again shines a light on just how cruel human…
By: Stu Cocanougher on June 22, 2017
A few weeks ago, as I looked at the list of readings for my Doctor of Ministry program, I saw that a book was available in audio form. The book was Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane. Upon downloading it, I saw that the book was a daunting 18 hours and 33 minutes in…
By: Phil Goldsberry on June 22, 2017
Introduction In 2000, I invited a young South African, Brendon, to live with us and work for our church. Together, we worked from New York and he from Johannesburg, to get a “religious workers visa”. I had met this young man through Youth for Christ. He was traveling with a South African YFC group that…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on June 22, 2017
This week we read a book that was not an academic account of the historical events that occured during the Apartheid in South Africa. We have been reading books from theologians who have fever and passion about shifting the narrative back to its origins. The origin of our Christian faith which belongs now and has…
By: Jim Sabella on June 22, 2017
“In South Africa there’s a saying that to be black is to be at the end of the line when anything of significance is to be had. So these people [living in Alexandra] were considered and treated as the dregs of society, aliens in a land of their birth.”(1) As I read the painful accounts…
By: Marc Andresen on June 22, 2017
“There is a death far worse than physical death, and that is the death of the mind and soul…” [1] This is a poignant summary of the fascinating yet overwhelming book, Kaffir Boy, written by Mark (Johannes) Mathabane. It is a powerfully moving book, in part, because it shows the devastating impact of bad leadership.…
By: Aaron Peterson on June 22, 2017
Kaffir Boy is the sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes hopeful, autobiography of Mark Mathabane who grew up in the horrendous environment of apartheid in South Africa. One theme throughout the story is religion. At first Mark’s mother becomes a Christian for the material perks being a Christian offers to blacks in South Africa. This part reminded me…
By: Katy Drage Lines on June 22, 2017
THE WHITE & THE BLACK While I’m gone, white mother, kill the fattened oxen And feed your dear ones well, prime meat and curds Overspilling so the dogs too lap the juice, And still enough is left to throw a surplus To your close kin across the seas. And you, black mother, hold…
By: Garfield Harvey on June 22, 2017
“One of the apartheid’s chief aims was the elimination of competition between black and white, invariably to the benefit of whites.”[1] Therefore the government designated land for both groups but the whites reaped the benefits because they received the lands with natural wealth. The blacks had to settle for the poorer lands, which was also…
By: Rose Anding on June 22, 2017
Introduction Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa is authored by Mark Mathabane. The playwright narrates how he was brought up in overwhelming poverty and received education in cruel boulevards and the most distressed ghetto of South Africa, where bloody gang battles and midnight police incursions…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on June 21, 2017
There were two perspectives I came from as I read “Kaffir Boy”: #1- Professionally, as a therapist, understanding the emotionally damaging effects of living in an oppressive state and the power of compassion. #2- Personally, viewing my first experiences of overt discrimination and my ethnic friendships. #1- Professionally, understanding the effects … To live…
By: Pablo Morales on June 21, 2017
Author Mark (Johannes) Mathabane wrote his autobiography in 1986 in order to give people a window into the atrocities of Apartheid. The book Kaffir Boy describes life in the segregated township of Alexandra through the eyes of a child who eventually escapes the suffocating claws of poverty and segregation through the pursuit of education. Through his love for tennis, Johannes eventually gets…
By: Lynda Gittens on June 21, 2017
KAFFIR BOY young students in Soweto, South Africa (Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Mission trip) People moving out, people moving in. Why, because of the color of their skin. Run, run, run but you sure can’t hide. Segregation, determination, demonstration, integration, Aggravation, humiliation, obligation to our nation. Ball of confusion. Oh yeah, that’s what…
By: Mary Walker on June 21, 2017
I had to believe in myself and not allow apartheid to define my humanity.[1] Mark Mathabane The delusion lies in the fact that no matter how well we think we know the Other, we still judge from within the imprisoning framework of our own limited cultural criteria, we still speak within the cliché of the…
By: Kevin Norwood on June 21, 2017
London Advance 2016 Visual Ethnography by Kevin Norwood for Dr. Jason Clark London Arriving in London was a refreshing time. We stayed in one of my favorite parts of all of London. Kensington is beautiful and the gardens are so detailed and manicured. Gathering back with friends that may…
