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.