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The following article appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
on February 4, 2004, page F1
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
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