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Kaffir Boy

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Kaffir Boy
Miriam's Song
African Women
Love in Black & White
Deadly Memory
The Last Liberal

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Kaffir Boy
Ubuntu
Kaffir Boy in America
Miriam's Song
African Women
Love in Black & White
Deadly Memory
The Last Liberal

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Kaffir Boy
Kaffir Boy in America
African Women

Love in Black & White

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Author's Bio

 

MARK MATHABANE'S

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Mark Mathabane touched the hearts of millions with his sensational autobiography, Kaffir Boy. Telling the true story of his coming of age under apartheid in South Africa, the book made the New York Times and Washington Post bestseller lists and was translated into several languages. Today, the book is used in classrooms across the U.S.

biographical info Born of destitute parents whose $10-a-week wage could not pay the rent for their shack or put food on the table, Mathabane spent the first 18 years of his life as the eldest of seven children in a one-square-mile ghetto that was home to more than 200,000 blacks.

Mathabane did what no physically and psychologically battered "Kaffir" from the mean streets of Alexandra was supposed to do -- he escaped to tell about it. Tennis was Mathabane's passport to freedom. In 1978, with the help of 1972 Wimbledon champion Stan Smith, Mathabane left South Africa to attend an American university on scholarship.


Mark and his family on the Oprah Winfrey Show

He has appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "Today," CNN," NPR, "The Charlie Rose Show," "Larry King," and numerous TV and radio programs across the country. His provocative articles have appeared in The New York Times, Newsday and U.S. News & World Report. He has been featured in Time, Newsweek and People magazines. A sought-after lecturer, he was nominated for Speaker of the Year by the National Association for Campus Activities.

Mark's fourth book, African Women: Three Generations, describes the struggles, relationships and triumphs of three South African women who were heroines in Kaffir Boy -- his grandmother, mother and sister Florah.

In September 1997, Mark completed a one-year assignment as a White House Fellow at the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., where he helped implement several education initiatives.

His latest work of non-fiction, Miriam's Song, published by Simon & Schuster, tells the true story of a young South African girl growing up amid the turmoil and violence that preceded the end of apartheid and Nelson Mandela's election. His first work of fiction, Ubuntu, is a thriller set against the politically and racially tense backdrop of post-apartheid South Africa. He's currently working on his next work of fiction, The Last Liberal.


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