Analysis Of Mark Mathabane's Kaffir Boy

Every person in the world at some point struggles to find their sense of belonging and identity. In Mark Mathabane’s Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa, Mark Mathabane strives to grasp his individual identity. Under the Apartheid regime in South Africa, Mark Mathabane is born into extreme poverty in the township of Alexandra. Mark’s childhood is filled with hunger, brutal violence, and abuse. However through seeking an education and perseverance Mark is able to try to find who he is and his place in the world. Although Mark has already been identification by the logic of Apartheid, He creates his own identity by using his childhood lessons, his family’s teachings, his religious status, and his intellect.

In the eyes of Mark’s parents, identity should be strongly related to the ideology of tribalism and tradition. However Mark endeavors in accepting his parents’ contrasting ethics. In the Venda traditions of Mark’s father, an offspring is expected to be brought up to respecting the rituals, laws, and way of life of Venda. Marks says:

My father existed under the illusion, formed as much by a strange innate pride as by a blindness to everything but his own will, that someday all white people would disappear from South Africa and black people would revert to their old ways. To prepare for this eventuality, he ruled the house strictly according to tribal law, tolerating no deviance, particularly from his children. At the same time that he was force-feeding us tribalism we were learning other ways of life, modern ways, from mingling with children whose parents had shed their tribal cloth and embraced Western culture. (31-32)

Mark’s differs from his father’s way of thinking because he ...

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...ried by black citizens”. However changes come when he begins he schooling, to be able to make a way out of his unfortunate situation. Though he loathes school at first, he later begins to love the idea of obtaining an education. When Mark’s grandmother begins to work for a generous white family, the Smiths, many other doors and opportunities are opened for Mark. After the Smiths send a tennis racket to Mark, he begins to train, to hopefully develop a possible escape. He develops a passion for tennis and starts to illegally play against whites. Although he is putting himself at detrimental risk, this opportunity gives Mark the ability ease into the association with whites. Through playing tennis, Mark is able to realize and equality

As Mark moves towards his adult years, his journey towards finding his selfhood begins to see a light at the end of the tunnel.