Kaffir Boy, An Autobiography

After our trip to South Africa last year, I vowed that I would learn more about this fascinating country - or rather, about the numerous countries it encompasses.

Little did I know at the time that it would be hard to find books about South Africa or written by South African authors on their country! Luckily, among many photography books depicting the indeniable beauties of the land and its people, I found Kaffir Boy, by Mark Mathabane, "The true story of a black youth's coming of age in apartheid South Africa".  The young boy takes us through Alexandra, on of the country's vast townships, and unveils the hardships lived by its inhabitants on a daily basis under the apartheid regime and its ruthless rules. Poverty, inaccessible education, violence, police raids and humiliating administrative mazes combine to depict a daily inferno. 

As you read, the images are easily conjured up by the boy's (author's) vivid storytelling - and they are not rosy.  At the same time, it is not unusual to stumble across events or descriptions that remind us of our own Western world - the book is the perfect eye-opener showing that the names of regimes may change over the years, the political trends too, but that some twisted ideologies die hard or are easily converted into better looking ones, only to be just as devastating for the human being in more subtle ways than one can imagine.

Let us hang on to the positive side of this memoir since the final message is one of hope: with courage, helped by a brave mother, the boy's spirit - the human spirit - can lift itself and vanquish hatred and humiliation. As usual, education plays a central role and even prior to education, family ties and especially motherly love and obstination trigger change and progress. In this sense, the book relates what can easily be defined as a story with a universal scope.

Credits: here