Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography--A Gripping Account of a Young Black Man's Journey to Adulthood During Apartheid in South Africa

Amazon Customer: I read this 25 years ago and just bought it again for my kids. Excellently written, illuminating, beautifully narrated, so important.

Germany on Sep 26, 2023

E. Fry: I read this book many years ago and is resonated with me. Perhaps because I was born in the same year as the author. I bought this for my mother in law and hope to read it again when she is done.

United States on Jan 27, 2023

HMB: As a former South African - now living in Canada for 40 + years - I grew up in this era. Kaffir Boy opened my eyes to a state of country that I did not realize excited to this rotten degree. We were always kind and wonderful to our staff. This amazing fellow enured extraordinary odds and prevailed against a foul and evil system. Incredibly moving story. Highly recommended. The shrieking, yapping BLM brigade could learn a thing or two from this amazing man.

Canada on Dec 04, 2020

Jo Robinson: This was not an easy read. I did a lot of research into apartheid when I wrote one of my own books, and just reading about some of the history of some of the things that were done to black people hurts badly. But even though you cringe in shame for the insanely barbaric doings of other whites, you can never feel the shame of millions of people for being classified as sub-human because of the colour of their skin. This book does a good job of getting you a little closer to that feeling than the any of the history books I’ve read.
I grew up smack bang in the middle of apartheid. Where even little white children expected “respect” from adult black people. I always found it weird how many people suddenly had stories about their black “friends” during the struggle after having seen very few real white activists when the abuse was actually happening. But even though I saw a lot of the torment, I have never had a clue how bad it really was in the townships until I read this book.
I found myself staring at some of the sentences in utter horror and disbelief. And shame. Lots and lots of shame. The fact that Mark managed to escape and share his life with the world highlights...

United States on Aug 13, 2020

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Spain on Dec 21, 2018

Amazon Customer: Coming of age in a racially charged country where division and or discrimination are the norms, and constitute parts of the law of the land is an emotionally disturbing or distressing process for anybody, let alone a young man. Whether it is about colonialism and Fascism/Nazism as "Disciples of Fortune" succinctly portrays; whether it is about slavery as depicted in "Uncle Tom's Cabin", nobody should be made to grow up feeling or knowing that society or let alone his government of the system considers him or her, or the group he or she comes from as undesirables. However, Mark Mathabane ups our insight into the most advanced form of state discrimination, which was first literalized by "Cry The Beloved Country" by the masterly crafted "Kaffir Boy", his powerful autobiography that takes us through his shocking but revealing life in a system that traumatizes those it is designed to subjugate, an injurious process whose effects could take generations to undo. The ugliness of Apartheid South Africa is brought to the reader through the story of this simple victim who refused to see himself as one, and it is written in a strong voice, clearness, and humaneness that is truly enriching....

United States on Aug 20, 2017

Amazon Customer: Excellent. Gives everyone an insight to the years in sa when we were brainwashed and largely unaware of what our brothers were going through in the townships. A sad story that needed to be told. A good read

Australia on Apr 18, 2016

Reader: This is an essential read for black and white of every country . Beautifully written by a brave, erudite man (against all odds) who bore with dignity the degradation, humiliation, physical and emotional suffering of himself, his family, his nation and country of a most brutal system which began only a few years after the exposure of the horrors of the holocaust.

This is a truthful, harrowing, heartbreaking account of the impact of apartheid South Africa, institutionalised brutality, on ordinary peoples lives . It must have been unbelievably difficult to live through, write about and relive and not become disaffected. Will South Africa ever recover from its shameful past? Thank you Mark Mathabane for documenting your experience and allowing the world to be your witness.

United Kingdom on Feb 19, 2014

Robert V. Rose, retired education researcher: I just finished reading this book and found it very interesting.

Mathabane grew up in a black ghetto in South Africa. The writing is not terribly good, but the author's first language was not English; he had to struggle to learn it, so I guess we can forgive him on that score.

This autobiography, written in 1986, tells of how the author grew up in a slum, but became good enough at playing tennis to get a scholarship to, and to graduate from Dowling College, in Oakdale, eastern Long Island, New York.

The book is filled with a constant stream of obvious exaggerations about the horror of growing up in apartheid South Africa.

But since the author grew up under apartheid, I think any excesses can be excused.

The author emphasizes the hatred South African blacks hold against both whites and the other blacks that go along with apartheid for personally reasons.

I think that getting to understand this is the most valuable part of reading the book.

United States on Apr 21, 2013

Stryder7: 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...

United States on Nov 25, 2011