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Kaffir Boy:
The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa
By: Mark Mathabane

Nykki Smalls
Independent Africa
April 23, 2008
Dr. Jackie Booker

After a careful analysis of this book, I have come to understand that the main thesis of Kaffir Boy, the autobiography of Mark Mathabane, a young black who grew up in Alexandra, a ghetto of South Africa, is one of identity. Throughout the book Mathebane finds himself asking what race, religion, country and class do I or should I belong to? Mathabane explains that he had to reject his parents' religious and tribal heritage and leave South Africa to survive the reality of apartheid, affirm his racial heritage, and individual identity as an independent human being. Yet despite the fact that he strips away many of the most noticeable elements of South African life, at the end of the book Mathabane claims he can never escape his culture or his country. The question of whether this is true becomes more......

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Approximate Word Count: 2010
Approximate Pages: 9 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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