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Kaffir Boy

The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa

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About this listen

The classic story of life in apartheid South Africa.

Mark Mathabane was weaned on devastating poverty and schooled in the cruel streets of South Africa’s most desperate ghetto, where bloody gang wars and midnight police raids were his rites of passage. Like every other child born in the hopelessness of apartheid, he learned to measure his life in days, not years. Yet Mark Mathabane, armed only with the courage of his family and a hard-won education, raised himself up from the squalor and humiliation to win a scholarship to an American university.

This extraordinary memoir of life under apartheid is a triumph of the human spirit over hatred and unspeakable degradation, for Mark Mathabane did what no physically and psychologically battered “Kaffir” from the rat-infested alleys of Alexandra was supposed to do - he escaped to tell about it.

Mark Mathabane was born and raised in the ghetto of Alexandra in South Africa. He is the author of Kaffir Boy, Kaffir Boy in America, Love in Black and White, African Women: Three Generations, Miriam’s Song, and The Proud Liberal. He lectures at schools and colleges nationwide on race relations, education, and our common humanity. He lives with his family in Portland, Oregon.

©1986 Mark Mathabane (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Africa Cultural & Regional Historical Parenting & Families Relationships World Social justice

Critic reviews

“Like…Claude Brown’s Manchild in the Promised Land.… In every way as important and exciting.” ( Washington Post)
“This is a rare look inside the festering adobe shanties of Alexandra, one of South Africa’s notorious black townships. Rare because it comes…from the heart of a passionate young African who grew up there.” ( Chicago Tribune)
“In this powerful account of growing up black in South Africa, a young writer makes us feel intensely the horrors of apartheid.” ( Publishers Weekly)
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The story of a boy and a nation who had darkness brought upon their world by a people, but whose total destruction was also prevented by the generosity of other people.

Great story, well told

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Amazing story/autobiography. Very hard to listen to at times, just because of how raw it was. Very informative

excellent first hand portrayal of the apartheid.

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Was taught about apartheid while in primary and secondary school in uganda. I have read Mandela's long walk to freedom and it gave a political view and to some extent a common man's view. This gave an account of the suffering of a common person starting at the bottom of the pyramid. Highly recommend this to anyone.

Deep illustration of apartheid

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lovely, amazing book about first hand account of living in south africa as a black family in the 80s

amazing must listin

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Mark, by reading his own story, gives this book so much passion and authenticity. A great insight into life during the apartheid era! My heart broke for him and his whole family, and for all those who had their freedom and humanity stripped from them, both then and now. Thank you Mark x

One of the most inspirational books ever, I was gripped to the very end,

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