OR#4 Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane

Who are the main characters of your book? Describe their personality and what seems to motivate them.

Mark’s father-
The only male figure in Mark’s life, but his strict ways push Mark away. Being born in a tribal reserve, he forces the beliefs of his ancestors from the reserve on his family. Most families who moved to the cities from the reserves leave those beliefs behind and switch to a more modernized way of thinking, but he wants nothing more than for his children to fully believe what he believed as a child and therefore grow up just like him. His highly conservative ways clash with his wife occasionally. When she tries to convince him to convert to Christianity, he refuses to listen and she tells him that she is going to be baptized anyway, he exclaims that she is not being the obedient wife that he bought (52). This fully proves his conservative nature. His motivation is to make money so he can provide a better life for his family, although he does this in the wrong ways, like gambling and drinking to forget how bad he life is.

Mark’s mother-
She too grew up on a tribal reserve, but unlike her husband, she does not desire to live a strictly tribal life. She wants to embrace some of the new modern cultural things. For instance Christianity, she wants to convert and praise both the Christian God and the tribal gods (but mostly the Christian God). Although she is eventually baptized, she still follows a few tribal beliefs like voodoo and witches. These beliefs cause her to be very superstitious, for example when Mark begins begging for food, she orders him to stop because the people who he gets food from are witches giving him poison food (98). Also, she is an excellent storyteller and often her stories are the only entertainment for her children. Her motivation seems to be to give her children the best life they can possibly have by keeping them healthy, and doing whatever it takes to give them a brighter future.

Mark Mathabane (Johannes)-
In his childhood he is a very curious and suspicious boy. He does not understand a lot of things and is very suspicious. For instance when he notices his mother’s stomach getting big because she is pregnant, he accuses her of eating too much, thinking she is hiding food from him and his siblings (41). Johannes sees his parents’ constant struggle to support the family in the midst of the apartheid and dreads the thought that one day he will be forced to grow up and do the same. He does not want to end up like his parents; he wants better things for his life. He does not want to constantly be condemned by the corrupt government of his South African home. He has big dreams of going away to America and doing big things far beyond expectations, which he eventually does.

OR#3 Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane

How is this novel similar to other pieces of literature (poems, novels, films) that we have studied in class?

In the novel Kaffir Boy, the relationship between the defenseless black subjects of South Africa and the overbearing power of the white government, shares similarities between the citizens and the powerful mob in the film On the Water Front.
In the film On the Water Front, the mob ruthlessly kills their enemies and go unpunished. There is absolutely nothing anyone else can do about it because if they speak up, they are killed by the mob before they even have the chance to testify in court. Almost everyone chooses to keep their mouths shut and preserve their lives rather than speak and put themselves in mortal danger. The citizens are defenseless against the mob, because it has gained so much power. Everyone knows who is responsible for the killings, but nobody can do anything about it. obviously this system is unfair because the mob can basically kill whoever they want to, whenever they want to and nobody will do anything about it.
Similarly, the citizens of South Africa during the aparthied are defensless against the white government. If anyone tries to rebel, full permission is given to the police to kill them. They are forced to live in crappy broken down shacks while white people live in large extravagent homes, just like the mobsters live rich, lavish lives without lifting a finger, while the workers on the waterfront work all day for a peeny. The blacks in South Africa shut their mouths and accept apartheid because there are not enough of them who have the means or the guts to say anything. In Kaffir Boy, as a child Mathabane spoke to his mother about building a big house when he grows up and makes alot of money, but she enlightens him that the law states that black people cannot own houses, but live in poorly made shacks (93). Mathabane is unable to grasp the reason why black people cannot own houses when white people can because it's not fair, but his mother simply tells him to accept it and stop asking questions. Laws like these are so unbelieveable unfair that a mere child can point it out. Unfortunately, when he does point it out, he is told to shut his mouth because nothing can be done. This leads him to understand the connection between the entirely different but connected worlds of blacks and whites, and their "dependancey like master and slave" (94).
In the novel Kaffir Boy, the white government controls everything having to do with the lives of the blacks. They prevent them from getting good jobs with good pay, from owning houses and prevents some from even seeing their families. In the film On the Water Front, the mob controls who lives and who dies and large businesses where they can promote their friends and family to higher positions. The power of these two institutions is immeasurable and it's victims are powerless to protect themselves.

OR#2 Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane

What are the major struggles and conflicts that your characters encounter? How do the characters face the conflicts and how does going through these conflicts help the characters to learn more about themselves?

Mark Mathabane faces very seroius struggles as a black growing up in apartheid Africa. Being black was basically a crime in the environment where mathabane and his family grew up. Unfair laws along with racist tendencies of the government, led to very serioius events in Mathabane's childhood that shaped his personality. First of all in his youth, Mathabane was forced to know how to survive without his parents in a dangerous situation. The police in Mahtabane's town were called the Peri-Urban and they constantly held raids to arrest any blacks with passbooks that were "out of order". Due to the fact that Mathabane's parents were illiterate and minimally educated, getting their passbooks in order was virtually impossible, and in order to escape arrest and the brutality of the police, his parent's were forced to flee and hide. They had to leave their children behind because they would be too hard to travel with and when the police entered the home of Mathabane, he (being the oldest child) was forced to deal with them. He would make up lies of his parents where abouts so the police would not suspect they were hiding in the house, and he would try to calm his brothers and sisters until the return of his parents. This created a deep rooted fear of white people and the police. Mathabane recalls, "The brutal encounter with the police had left indelible scars. The mere sight of police vans now had the power of blanking my mind" (28). The Peri-Urban constantly haunted him throughout his entire childhood, and caused a shadow of fear over his family all the time.
During several of these Peri-Urban invasions, Mathabane's father was arrested, either for not having his passbook in order or for being unemployed. He would be taken away for long periods of time, and the family would have no idea where he was or when he would return. Mathabane's fathers was the only source of income in his family becasue his mother didn't work, therefore with the absence of his father, starvation and eviction seemed to be unavoidable outcomes. The lack of money forced Mathabane and his family to resort to extreme lengths for obtaining food. First they began going to junk yards to dig through trash trying to find objects of value like food or furniture. Unfortunately after finding a dead baby girl in one of the packages they stopped digging through junk yards (47). Then they resorted to eating things like locust, black prickly worms called "sonjas" (similar to leeches), weeds, and blood bought from a slaughter house (62). Though Mathabane thought this food was exceedingly disgusting, hunger motivated him to digest such things. These circumstances caused Mathabane to no longer hate his father, because his presence meant food, and taught him to cope with his hunger struggles.

Outside Reading Post- Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane

How is the novel similar to other pieces of literature that we have studied in class?

The novel Kaffir Boy is very similar to the novel Black Boy in several ways. First of all, both the books are memoirs, written by black men growing up in a world where being black is almost a crime. The only real difference in plot between the two books is the author of Black Boy, Richard Wright, grew up in the American south and Mark Mathabane grew up in Africa. Both of the boys experienced major struggles while growing up having to do with the extreme racism they were forced to endure since birth. They both had to realize that during their childhood, they were not considered as good as white people.
In the midst of these major similarities between the novels, the men both had struggles with their family members specifically. Similar to Richard Wright in Black Boy, Mathabane develops a hatred towards his father figure. After Mathabane is punished by his father, he explains, "I told to my mother that I hated him and promised her I would kill him when I grew up"(33). In Black Boy, Wright hates his father for how he treated his family, and Mathabane too hated his father in his youth for treating him poorly. Secondly, both Wright and Mathabane rejected and disagreed with the beliefs and religion that were strongly supported by their family's. Wright rejects Christianity until he reaches a point where he can no longer refuse it without disgracing his family. Mathabane's family strongly believes in doing rituals of the tribal reserve that Mathabane's father grew up on, but he finds them pointless, and stupid. He still is forced to do them or suffer being severely punished by his father for not doing them (32). The rejection of these beliefes only stirred continuous problems in the midst of their families.
Both the men dealt with problems inside their own families, but those problems did not mount to the troubles both the men would suffer in the outside world, where they were seen as nothing. Whether they were called a "nigger" or a "kaffir" both men lived in an unfair society that did not see them as people, which motivated them to overcome these obstacles and make something of their lives.

Why do people write memoirs? What power is there in telling our own stories?

People write memoirs because in a memoir, people can share their life and experiences in an entirely different way. Instead of just telling people about their lives, memoirs allow the reader to experience the author's feelings and point of view instead of simply hearing it. The reader has the chance to become closer to the character and really understand better the things that character went through. In the novel Black Boy for example Wright shows the reader how racist the behavior was in the south during his lifetime. In a memoir the reader feels like they know Richard and can relate to him, so they are able to better understand the tragedy of how racist the south used to be. When Richard is mistreated, they reader feels how Richard feels and sympathizes, therefore they better comprehend the impact such racism had on his life.
The power in telling your own story is that it is all about you and you can tell the honest truth. It is your life and you decide how you want it to be portrayed. The power of telling your own story is that it is your personal story with your personal feelings and that makes it so much more meaningful and true. The writer has the power to affect people’s thinking simply by sharing their feelings with them and getting their story out to the public. In Black Boy, Richard Wright used this power to enlighten us about what it was like for him growing up, which caused me personally to think about how my life would have been like if I was growing up during that time, and how different things are now.

Blog post #2

One of the main things Richard hungers for is knowledge. He constantly reads books and asks question because he longs to learn new things and better understand the world around him. When he first starts school he has a desire to learn, and because of this desire he excelled and is able to skip a grade in only two weeks. Although Richard’s craving for intelligence is a good thing, it brought many negative effects because the white society around him does not want African-Americans to know anything. For instance when Richard starts working in the optical company, his intention was to gain knowledge of the optical trade. Unfortunately, he does not have the chance to learn anything and when he asks questions he is reprimanded. When Richard asks one of the men to learn something about the trade, the man exclaims, “This is a white man’s work around here” (188) cutting Richard off from any hopes of learning about such work. These white men who feel he is not worthy of knowledge eventually drive out Richard after bullying and torturing him.
Secondly, Richard has a thirst for bigger and better things. His main ambition for a long time is to move up north and make something of his life. He does whatever he has to do in order to save enough money. The problem with the strength of his desire to move away combined with his lack of income is that he resorts to illegal acts in order to achieve it. He makes most of his money from reselling tickets at the movie theatre, and stealing and reselling food from the local college storehouse. Though Richard doesn’t get caught he is later troubled by the wrong of his doings. A positive outcome of Richard’s wanting to move away is the fact that it gives him something to strive for. Richard does not just want to live his life being less than he is capable of being; he wants more. His life at home is unfulfilling and consumed with pain and loneliness. Richard’s hopes and dreams will lead him to do great things in the future and he will be happier with his life.