Mark Mathabane's Kaffir Boy-Apartheid In South Africa

Kaffir Boy Apartheid in South Africa refers to the time where blacks were stripped of their rights from 1948 to 1994. The minority whites in South Africa called for discrimination against non-whites and supremacy amongst themselves. Moreover, acts such as the Prohibition of Mixed Marriage Act, Population Registration Act, and others established a social order based on race. Mark Mathabane wrote Kaffir Boy as an autobiography. The title is a representation of the dehumanization that blacks experienced during the apartheid in South Africa. Moreover, the term “kaffir” is a racial slur that derived from the Islamic language meaning infidel, or heathen. In other words, it is the equivalent of calling a black person in America a “nigger.” Mathabane avoids the belittling of the apartheid …show more content…
It’s segregation period lasted from 1843 to 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was passed, cancelling the Jim Crow Law. Opposed the America however, South Africa was segregated much later when the Afrikaners were in a conflict with the British in 1948. Both South Africa and America upheld the white race as the superior above all others along with each nation receiving its own racial slurs to further belittle blacks. Although segregation was similar in both nations, they do have a major difference where are the segregation ended in America well before the apartheid in South Africa. The world decided to let the apartheid last longer in South Africa because as the superiors were getting guaranteed labor, the inferiors were getting guaranteed jobs. Even though anti-apartheid organizations had risen, it led to many being killed by police. One incident in particular occurred at Sharpeville in March 1960 where of a crowd of 5000 protestors, 69 were killed and several were injured. Other groups would seldom rise but one particularly mentioned by Mathabane was on account of the Soweto school riots in