Kaffir Boy

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Kaffir Boy

• By Mark Mathabane

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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
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Facts about Mark Mathabane

• Born on October 8, 1960 in Alexandra, South
  Africa
• Birth name is Johannes Mathabane
• Fathers name was Jackson Mathabane
• Mothers 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
  persons 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.

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Growing up in Alexandra

• Alexandra was a one-square-mile ghetto outside of
  Johannesburg.
• Over 150,000 people lived in Alexandra in the
  1960s
• 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.

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The book Kaffir Boy

• 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.

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Mark s Family

• 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