Kaffir Boy
Living life every day in fear of the race that controls one's country, results in an unhappy life style. In the autobiography, Kaffir Boy, by Mark Mathabane, a true story about a South African boy informs others of the life he lived and the damage it created. Throughout the autobiography Johannes and his family struggle to deal with apartheid because it affected their family, their education they received and their daily lives. Apartheid in South Africa strongly affected families. First, apartheid greatly destroyed the family in South Africa. Many families split apart because of apartheid. The fathers from tribal families would move to Alexandra to make money to send back to their wife and children at the tribal reserves for support, which separated the members of the family. Many tribal families only saw their husband/father only ever once in awhile usually to deliver money. If apartheid did not have such ridiculous rules then the families would stick together and not have to suffer. Death took the lives of many because parents could not afford enough food and clean water to keep themselves and their children in good health since they could not get high paying jobs. Due to apartheid and keeping p
I would be playing when suddenly my head would feel light, my knees would wobble, my vision would dim and blur and down I would come like a log" (37). Just without a little piece of paper they not allowed to do anything; apartheid ruined the lives of black South Africans. Mark Mathabane tells a fully detailed story of the life of a young black South African boy dealing with apartheid in an autobiography. People could not afford protection and women usually had no choice in the matter unless they wanted to get a beating. Johannes received an education and rose above apartheid. He also needs to obtain papers so he can actually attend school. When one parent got caught with their papers out of order, it nearly seemed impossible to provide clothing, blankets, school uniforms, books, and school fees for the children. Mathabane writes, "The mere sight of police vans now had the power of blanking my mind, making me forget all I had learned, making me rely on my instincts, which invariably told me to flee, to cower, lest I end up face to face with a policeman and get flogged. Apartheid created problems in education just like it created problems for families of black South Africans. Apartheid caused black South Africans to live in a world of order, which caused them to rebel. But it did not matter, for the raids now launched incessantly into our neighborhood had an uncanny element of surprise. Johannes refused to go to school at first because he started hanging out with a gang of young boys who hated education and considered it a waste of time. Mathabane writes, "Each day we spent without food drove us closer and closer to starvation. The terror creator from the raids created such fear in the eyes of little children.
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