Kaffir Boy, Mark Mathabane
Kaffir Boy, Mark Mathabane
5 Rating(s)
List: $33.95 | Sale: $23.77
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Kaffir Boy
The True Story of a Black Youths Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa

Author: Mark Mathabane

Narrator: Mark Mathabane

Unabridged: 18 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/28/2012

Synopsis

The classic story of life in apartheid South Africa. Mark Mathabane was weaned on devastating poverty and schooled in the cruel streets of South Africa's most desperate ghetto, where bloody gang wars and midnight police raids were his rites of passage. Like every other child born in the hopelessness of apartheid, he learned to measure his life in days, not years. Yet Mark Mathabane, armed only with the courage of his family and a hard-won education, raised himself up from the squalor and humiliation to win a scholarship to an American university. This extraordinary memoir of life under apartheid is a triumph of the human spirit over hatred and unspeakable degradation, for Mark Mathabane did what no physically and psychologically battered "Kaffir" from the rat-infested alleys of Alexandra was supposed to do-he escaped to tell about it. "Like...Claude Brown's Manchild in the Promised Land...In every way as important and exciting."-Washington Post

About Mark Mathabane

Mark Mathabane is the author of Kaffir Boy, and his articles on race and education have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, People, and other major publications. He has also been featured on numerous radio and TV shows, including Oprah, NPR’s Fresh Air, CNN, NBC’s Today, and Charlie Rose. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his family.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Liz on December 03, 2013

Wow-this is an eye opening book. Mark Mathabane writes of his life as a Black boy in South Africa during Apartheid. I had no idea what went on during that era (and sadly some of what went on then, is probably still happening now). i found this book listed on a list of books that people want to ban........more

Goodreads review by Natalie on August 08, 2012

It is always hard to write a fair review about a book where you've fallen out with the protagonist, who, by the end of the book, I found mildly irritating and preachy. I am in two minds about this book which on the one hand I found insightful and revealing, but on the other, tediously introspective......more

Goodreads review by Pamela on September 03, 2016

I picked this book off of the free shelf at the library and got exactly what I expected: An introspective look into black life during apartheid. While interesting, if you know anything about apartheid, the information will not come as a surprise. It's uplifting to think that this man made it out so......more

Goodreads review by Thomas on September 08, 2014

I'm going to South Africa next week and so I'm preparing myself with a variety of ''you must read'' books about the country. After reading a history of apartheid, this book gave it a human perspective for me. Reading this book showed me how all those damnable laws that happened at the top of the eli......more

Goodreads review by Joanna on May 10, 2018

This book is one of my favorites. I fell in love with Mark Mathabane; I fell in love with his resilience, his strength, his continuous belief in himself as a black man, and his struggle against the disgusting system of Apartheid in South Africa. Throughout the book, Mark refuses to believe what the......more

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