Mark Mathabane's Kaffir Boy

488 Words2 Pages
Mark Mathabane uses his book, Kaffir Boy, to show the world his personal insight in South Africa to try and bring an end to the Human Rights violations occurring under Apartheid. Kaffir Boy has three sections in the book, Road to Alexandra, Passport to Knowledge, and Passport to Freedom. During the Road to Alexandra, he talks the police raids in the middle of the night. In the book he depicted the time when they came into his house and beat him to an extreme, at a young age, to find where his parents were and he still would not tell them. They then found the father and arrested him for his passbook not being in order, but they could not find his mother. So Mark and his family had to learn how to survive without a working man in the house. They…show more content…
The mother had to wait until the last minute to take her to the doctor which made the situation really difficult. Later on towards the end of this section they encounter more problems like when his father is arrested again. Although, his mother tries to get Mark’s paper for school lined up which is very essential and leads to the second section, Passport to knowledge. The second section then starts off with an important line, “Education will open door where none seems to exist” (Mathabane 123). This explains how there are no opportunities for the black people because they are uneducated; however, his mother believes that if her children are educated then they will be open to opportunities and a better life. However, his father disagrees completely because he thought it would be the trait of a white man and he did not want pass down anything that involved the white men to his grandchildren because of how they were treated. This leads into the third section Passport to freedom. During this section, Mark talks about his trip with his grandmother to the white household, where she works. He explains when he is traveling on the bus how he sees the difference in the
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