Mathabane Books & Lectures
Knowledge
is Power
Books
Bookstore
Lectures
Lecture
Home
Testimonials
Speaker Bio
Past Lectures
Book a Lecture
Schedule
Mark on Video
Photo Gallery
Students
Free Articles
Poet's Corner
Speeches
World News
Quotes
Teachers
Teaching
Tools
Ban Kaffir Boy?
Scholarship
About
Fund
Bovet School
Poem - Donors
Recipients
How to Give
Management
Other
Contact
Us
Refund
Policy
South African: Youths ignore past
Fall of apartheid taken for granted, writer says
by Sheila M. Poole, Staff
A decade after the end of apartheid, Mark Mathabane wonders if a younger generation of black South Africans fully realizes what the struggle was all about.
Mathabane, the South African-born author of the best seller "Kaffir Boy," said the racist system instituted by the country's white minority is like a "distant dream" to many youths.
Today, black South Africans have access to schools and careers and the seats of government. And while that is promising, it's also given many a false sense of security that they "have arrived," he said.
He said they sometimes shun tradition and feel ashamed speaking a tribal language, which they associate with inferiority. That scares him.
Mathabane, 42, who now lives in Portland, Ore., with his wife and children, said there was nothing shameful about having been oppressed. "Strength comes from oppression," he said.
Mathabane chronicled his life under apartheid in "Kaffir Boy."
The book is used in many schools across the United States. He has spent
the last few years writing and lecturing, often emphasizing the importance
of education. He believes young people have a responsibility to be part of
the global community, especially at a time when relations between nations
and religions are deeply strained and, in some cases, ruptured.
"In
times like these, people tend to be insular and insecure and they may not
really recognize the importance of just reaching out and connecting
oneself to other human beings," he said in a telephone interview.
Mathabane
grew up in Alexandra, the cramped township near Johannesburg that was home
to more than 200,000 people. He was the oldest of seven children and the
first to receive an education. His parents made about $10 a week, rarely
enough to provide housing and food.
At 18, he was offered a new life when Stan Smith, the U.S. tennis
professional and a former Wimbledon champion, arranged a tennis
scholarship for him to study in the United States.
Mathabane lived for a time in North
Carolina, where his mother and some of his siblings still reside, before
moving to Portland. But the ties to his homeland are still strong and he
visits South Africa often.
He said
too many blacks in his native land are still marginalized, that with much
of the wealth still concentrated in hands of whites, "economic
apartheid" remains a reality despite political freedom.
Mathabane
applauded those blacks who have made it. But he said some of them have
done little to help those still trapped in poverty. He also took to task
African-Americans who moved to South Africa when apartheid ended. In many
cases, he said, they have failed to culturally integrate with South
African blacks or learn indigenous languages such as Zulu, Xhosa or Sotho.
"These
are the languages that can bring about that kinship," he said.
"It's not English. You don't go to Africa -- where there's a
multiplicity of languages and cultures -- and behave like an English
person."
"If
you're going to confine yourself to the suburbs and socialize with those
Africans who have become Westernized, you get a very distorted picture of
what Africa is about," he said.
Copyright 2004 The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
top
of pageAll Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2003 Mathabane Books & Lectures
This site was last edited on
February 22, 2008 10:54 AM
Kaffir Boy
Kaffir
Boy Page
Back Cover
Preface
Chapter One
KB in America
KB
in A Page
Back Cover
Chapter One
Love in B&W
Love
in B&W
Dust Jacket
Reader Reviews
Preface
Mark's View
Gail's View
African
Women
AW
Home
Back Cover
Preface
Chapter One
Miriam's Song
Miriam's
Page
Dust
Jacket
Dedication
Preface
First Chapter
Reader Reviews