Mark Mathabane

Mark Mathabane ( born October 18, 1960 as John Mathabane in Alexandra, South Africa) is a South African writer, tennis player and teacher.

Mark Mathabane grew up as a black kid on in the township of Alexandra in Johannesburg. As a child he suffered mainly the poverty of his family, but also under apartheid. When his grandmother, a teacher, received a used tennis racket from their employers for him, he started with this sport, who helped him to escape the misery of Alexandra. He moved to the USA, as blacks and whites were then assimilated already legally. There he wrote the autobiography Kaffir Boy. He used the pen name Mark Mathabane to avoid potential problems with the government his parents. A second volume, Kaffir Boy in America, describes his life in the United States.

His sister Miriam moved to her brother over to the U.S. and there wrote her own autobiography, My heart was in Africa, in which she describes the further history of the family in South Africa.

Mark Mathabane is married; the couple has a daughter and two sons.

Works

• Kaffir Boy ( dt: Kaffir Boy: a life in apartheid )
• Kaffir Boy in America: An Encounter with Apartheid
• African Women: Three Generations
• Love in Black and White: The Triumph of Love over Prejudice and Taboo
• Ubuntu
• Miriam 's Song
• Deadly Memory
• The Last Liberal