In addition to this, his father was arrested for being unemployed, even though he was in the process of trying to get a permit to find another job after being laid off. .
Passbooks were not the only way that whites kept blacks down. When Mathabane and his mother went to obtain documents so he could attend school, they were sent on a wild goose hunt that only ended with the help of a kind white woman. Without her help Mark never would have been able to attend school. The whites used the fact that most blacks could not read and made it nearly impossible for them to keep their books in order. They could never read the documents to tell which ones were needed. Blacks would spend days standing in long lines only to be sent home again, and in the process they would lose their jobs because they missed work. As a boy, Mark would help the people who could not read get the documents they needed to keep their books in order. He also helped them keep in touch with their families by writing and reading letters for them. .
The schools described in the book were also a way to keep control of blacks. While white children went to the best schools money could build, black children were sent to rundown buildings with not enough teachers, books, and other supplies. Many children could not afford to even go to school, and the ones who could were taught how to be good servants to whites. By doing this, the whites made sure that blacks could not become too educated, because if that happened they may start fighting for an end to Apartheid. By keeping the black masses uneducated they were able to more easily keep control. .
Mark was one of the lucky ones who was naturally gifted and was able to afford schooling. After graduating at the top of his class throughout school, Mark was offered a comparatively high paying job with a company called "Simba Chips." If he had taken this job he would have become part of the black "middle class," which enjoyed a much higher standard of living than most of the blacks.
In his autobiography, Kaffir Boy, Mark Mathabane demonstrates the hardships of growing up in the black ghetto of Alexandra in South Africa during the 1960s and 1970s. ... The word kaffir comes from Arabic origin and means "infidel". ... Members of the African Bantu-speaking peoples were often called "kaffirs". ... Kaffir Boy can be related to postcolonialism. ...
Kaffir boy was an extremely honest tale of what life was like during apartheid. Apartheid was a system designed by Holland settlers to separate the native Africans from their settlers. They conformed them into small ghettos or tribal reserves which where unpractical and unsanitary. Although man...
"Struggle For Education" In "Kaffir Boy", Mark "Johannes" Mathabane's mother strives to send him to school. She does not let anything get in the way of her ambition. Even though her husband disapproves, she will not let anything get in her way, but now her desires for her son to be educated are stro...
Experience is Not Always Better The novel The Power on One written by Bryce Courtenay tells a story of the experiences and the hardships that a boy named Peekay must face. ... It was only a kaffir, a dirty stinking yellow man, why you hitting a white man over a kaffir?" ... Peekay helps the "kaffirs". ...
Frikkie is a white boy who has a Dutch descent while Tengo is a native black African boy. ... On the farm, he used to play with a white boy named Frikkie at his age. The white boy was the farm owner's nephew. ... At the same time, the madam came in and told Frikkie's sister in a sharp voice, "you should never let a kaffir boy into your room again!" Afterward, Tengo felt extremely angry and then he realized that there was a line between him and the white boy that must not be crossed. ...
There is a very rude red headed girl at the party who is incredibly disrespectful to Old Ezekiel (the eldest member of the Kaffir People) by calling him "boy" when he is actually much older than her. ...
During the unfair treatment a young boy endured, he had to decide if the value of friendship can overcome extreme tensions risen by a unfavorable system. ... Tengo was a black boy who laborer on the farm of Frikkie's uncle. ... He was accustomed to privileges, such as freedom and schooling, and did not have to encounter the poverty and afflictions of Kaffirs (the black boys). ...
In a way, "Kaffir-town- could represent an African scheme, and this realization is not lost on Roy when John's arrest means a return trip to Edinburgh: "Edinburgh to me represented serfdom. I realized that it was exactly the same situation as Johannesburg; the only difference was that the Kaffirs were white and called schemies or draftpaks- (Welsh 80). ... His assault of the boy seems to be South Africa/Uncle Gordon's influence in all of this. ...
They take away books that they feel Nyasha should not be reading, forces their daughter to eat when she says that she is not hungry, and even uses violence to reprimand her for staying out too late with a boy. ... Nyasha pretends to be a settler and insults her father by calling him a "good boy, a good munt. A bloody good kaffir" (Dangarembga 200). The use of the term "boy", which implies the bottom of social hierarchy, shows that black African men are perceived to be inferior and forced to be obedient to the white settlers. ...