Kaffir Boy

Kaffir Boy

By Mark Mathabane

None of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin. This fact of nature offers no clue to the

character or quality of the person underneath.--- Marian Anderson

None of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin. This fact of nature offers no clue to the

character or quality of the person underneath.--- Marian Anderson

• Born on October 8, 1960 in Alexandra, South Africa

• Birth name is Johannes Mathabane• Father’s name was Jackson Mathabane• Mother’s Name was Magdalene Mathabane• Father emigrated from the tribal reserves in

South Africa to Alexandra looking for work• Mother forced him to go to school, even though

his father beat her for it• His grandmother took him to work (a white

person’s house) one day, and this changed his life• He learned how to play tennis, and was the first

black person from South Africa to play in an International tournament.

• He came to America in 1978 on a tennis scholarship.

Facts about Mark Mathabane

• Alexandra was a one-square-mile ghetto outside of Johannesburg.

• Over 150,000 people lived in Alexandra in the 1960’s

• Johannes’ house was a 15 by 15 square shack• Johannes and his six siblings slept under the

kitchen table on cardboard until he was 10.• Currently, the township covers 3.1 square

miles, has 470,000 people, and over 20,000 shacks.

Growing up in Alexandra

• Kaffir is of Arabic origin, means infidel, and is the equivalent of the term nigger in America

• The book was published in 1986 in America

• Johannes changed his first name to Mark to protect his family still in South Africa

• Oprah read the book and had Mark and his family on her show to promote the book in 1986.

• It is on the list of the most banned books in the U.S.

The book Kaffir Boy

• Married Gail in 1987; wrote a book called Love in Black and White about inter-racial marriages

• Has three children: Bianca, Nathan, and Stanley• Moved from Kernersville, NC to Portland,

Oregon in 2004

Mark ‘s Family