Throughout his book, Kaffir Boy, Mark Mathabane describes in intricate detail how the white South Africans controlled South Africa in the 1960's and 1970's. The racial tensions in South Africa during Apartheid were strained to the breaking point, with the whites having complete control over the black population. Although the blacks far out numbered the whites, the whites still maintained control. The white people of South Africa kept control in many different ways. From requiring that all adult citizens carry passbooks, to pitting black against black by using tribal natives as policemen, they kept Apartheid alive. These are just two of the many ways whites kept control of black South Africa. .
Apartheid was the system of complete segregation between whites and blacks. It is the most extreme form of segregation. Not only did the blacks have to use different bathrooms and go to different schools than whites, as they did in the United States, they were also forced to live in run down ghettos and they were, for the most part, only allowed to have menial jobs which paid very little. Mathabane illustrates this point by describing the jobs of his parents and other blacks that he knows. His grandmother, for instance, is a gardener for a rich white family. His mother did not get a job until Mark started school and she needed to help pay school expenses. She was unable to get a work permit so she had to find a job within Alexandria. She finally found one as the housekeeper of an Indian family. .
Passbooks were also an integral part of the white's control over the blacks. Passbooks were the black's identification and proof that they had paid all of their taxes, had permits to work, etc. Passbooks were almost impossible to keep in order and if you were caught with it out of order you could be arrested and put in jail, or sent to farms to work as a slave laborer. Mathabane illustrated the importance of the passbook by describing how his parents spent much of their money on bribes to the police men so they would not be arrested for their out of order passbooks.
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. ...
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. ...
