Mark Mathabane's Kaffir Boy

The Apartheid was initiated as a ploy for Europeans to better control the exploited populations for economic gain, as maintaining tension between the different racial classifications diverted attention from the Europeans as it fed hatred between groups. This assisted in minimizing unity between the exploited to rally against European control as it backhandedly induced “submission” for survival. One way of accomplishing this was by instilling laws that’d force segregation, classification, educational “requirements”, and economic purposes. The Population Registration Act of 1950 enacted, requiring segregation of Europeans from Afrikaans . Following shortly, the Group Areas Act of 1950 was enacted as a new form of legislation alongside the Population Registration Act. This detailed act separated tribes based on ethnics; consequently, further detailing segregation amongst the natives .

With both characters from each story, not knowing what to do now that their lives were changing, they clung to something to help them get by; education. In Education as a Weapon in the Hands of the Restless Poor, the teacher told the students, “Rich people learn the humanities in private schools and expensive

The apartheid of South Africa was a period of perpetual distress and nameless and tried faith in the general public who it unremittingly impacted.

Mark Mathabane grew up in the bad part of South Africa, his family was dirt poor with no money. He grew up learning that education was stupid and unnecessary. When he was around the age of 7 all the kids his age would steal and roam the streets. One quote from kaffir boy was, “Grown up in an environment where the value of an education was never emphasized,

In culture, society builds onto where one is grouped into and the lifestyles that they carry. In the book Kaffir Boy, people don't simply chose to be in a specific group. The groups in the book have to do with race, where the African Americans, refereed to as “blacks”, are the minorities, and the white are the higher ups. In the book, it states “The white man of South Africa certainly does not know me. He certainly does not know the conditions under which I was born and had to live for eighteen years.” The narrator is explaining how one cannot claim to understand how one is, unless they share the similar lifestyle, even if they claim to say that they're his blacks.. The lifestyle which he was grown up to is described as a ghetto, as stated, “Alexandra, where I was born and raised, or for that matter, into any other black ghetto of South Africa.”. The groups in the book are already decided, when and where one is born is the factor on which category they fall in.

I wrote my found poem based on Junior’s struggle of poverty and being poor. In the first stanza, I explain how Junior is poor with the quote, “I came from poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the first poor people” (Alexie 11). This shows how it is not Junior’s fault that he is poor, but also that it is not any Indian’s fault either. In the second stanza, I explain how Junior attempts to fit in. “To be something other than poor” (11). This line shows that in order for Junior wants to fit in or belong at Reardan, he can’t show his poverty, because he won’t be judged by “having a little money” or by “being middle class”.

Everybody, at one moment or another during their childhood, has wished to gain the responsibilities of an adult. However, most kids are held back by the childish part of themselves. They have to go through a coming of age cycle, that once completed, has matured them and made them evolve from their old-self. In Richard Wright’s autobiography Black Boy, we follow a young boy named Richard through his own journey to become a man, as we see him struggle and overcome obstacles. The author uses the motifs of hunger, discrimination, and religion to represent his quest and to emphasize on all the challenges life throws at him.

Alexie speaks about the problem of poverty by writing, “Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor” (11).

One characterization of poverty is the inability to meet the basic needs of the individual. One’s ability to succeed is drastically reduced when basic needs are not met. The diction of the poem largely contributes to the melancholic atmosphere as well as the idea of physical distress. When considering the communities of

Alienation has a big role throughout the Kaffir boy. It is defined as emotional isolation or dissociation from others. Johannes, along with all the young children who battle apartheid each and every day are constantly being put down and are isolated from the rest of the people in south Africa. They are even on some level totally alienated from their parents as well. Johannes had been living proof that it is in fact extremely hard to rise above the life style that has been made for these people. His mother had taken it on as her role to provide for her family many times, due to either his father being in prison or just being to arrogant to realize what was best for his family. On page 77 it tells us how

What kind of change would occur in one’s life if his or her parents made more or less money? How life would be different for them? Easier/Harder? In the book the “Rich Peoples School” it takes place in Botswana. Botswana is known as a single luxury country. “The Rich People’s School” reveals that money can identify a person and reveal how they are treated from any aspects of life even no matter where one is in the world or story.

In 1652 the Europeans established the refueling station in Cape Town, South Africa, the settlers had a positive relationship with the local tribes. As time passed the cordial relation turned sour. The nomadic people use to traveling around lost their land to the settlers. The settlers believing themselves superior to the African society cultivated a community, of nearly five decades, of apartheid: a system and philosophy dedicated to privileging Europeans and non-whites. This system originated from 1948-1992 . In 1965, where the book begins, Johannes, the antagonist of Kaffir Boy, was raised in apartheid South Africa. During this time period the Johannesburg Government had strict segregation law that separated the colored from the whites, Europeans. In Mark Mathabane’s autobiography he tries to recreate his childhood and youth in Alexandra, a black ghetto community of Johannesburg, South Africa. When Mark Mathabane started working on his autobiography his hometown had just been saved from being extinguished, already half of Alexandra had already demolished.

Africa: a continent that has gone through many hardships, but still is home to some of the strongest people, strongest morals, and strongest beliefs. Africa has been tested with so many trials, is strewn with poverty, and has been put through countless tribulations, but somehow manages to overcome all of it. The authors of these stories analyze these trials and how they overcame them. These stories showcase how Africa upholds well-armored values throughout their trials by examining their actions when fought with separation, exploring their strong religious beliefs, and analyzing how they value a better future. Africa was a separated, un-unified place, but valued, wanted, and acted to abolish this disunion.

In the first chapter of the book Keller emphasizes the continuing adversities the South African people had to endure. When minors in the city of Kimberly started uncovering valuable minerals this made it possible for the Afrikaners (white superiors) to easily entrap, and arraign the South Africans. Afrikaners are a group of South Africans who descended from mainly Dutch settlers and have traditionally dominated South Africa’s politics and agriculture. Also, the mines allowed the Afrikaners to take possession of the imminent profits and oppress the Africans. The Afrikaners collected a lot of resources from these mines, in which they sold to make money. In doing this the South Africans sink deeper into poverty. African people worked in these mines while the dominant whites would strip them of their rights and belongings forcing them into

Culture along with religion indoctrinates humans on what is right and wrong. Humans make decisions based on their culture and they believe their choice is correct. For example, the Aztecs used to carve out still-beating hearts from victims, as a necessary sacrifice to appease the gods. They believed without sacrifice, the gods would destroy their civilization. Understanding that the Aztecs literally thought the world would end if they did not sacrifice makes their actions conceivable, if not justified. This understanding must be applied to all cultures to understand their actions, including South Africa. In the 1950s, apartheid, a legal system of racial segregation, gained popularity and became part of the law. Through apartheid, blacks lived in deplorable conditions and in a society that hindered the development of black people. The control lay in the hands of the minority rule, whites. Compared to current society, these ideologies would be admonished and ignorant. Therefore, it is essential to have knowledge of apartheid in the South African culture in order to understand the relationship between Paulus Eysendyck and Thebedi.