Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa, by Mark Mathabane (used)

Second-hand copy — condition: very good.

Kaffir Boy is Mark Mathabane's autobiography of growing up under apartheid in the township of Alexandra — the classic story of life in apartheid South Africa. Raised in severe poverty, where gang violence and police raids were part of daily life, Mathabane started school because his mother insisted on it, and rose to the top of his class despite frequent punishment over unpaid fees and missing supplies. Second-hand comics and novels that his grandmother brought home from the white family she worked for improved his English and drew him into tennis, and with the help of Stan Smith he won a tennis scholarship to an American college, leaving for the United States in 1978. The publisher presents it as a triumph of the human spirit over hatred and degradation. The book won the Christopher Award and reached number one on the Washington Post bestseller list.

Mark Mathabane grew up in Alexandra township in South Africa and left for the United States in 1978. He is also the author of Kaffir Boy in America, Love in Black and White and African Women: Three Generations.

Plume (New American Library), New York, 1987. Paperback reprint of the 1986 Macmillan hardcover; first Plume printing March 1987. 354 pages. ISBN 9780452259430.