Mark Mathabane

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

Mark Mathabane grew up as a black boy in the township of Alexandra near Johannesburg . As a child he mainly suffered from the poverty of his family, but also from apartheid . When his grandmother, a gardener, received a used tennis racket for him from her employers, he started playing this sport, which helped him escape the misery of Alexandra. He moved to the USA because black and white people were already legally equated there. There he wrote the autobiography Kaffern-Boy . He used the pseudonym Mark Mathabane to spare his parents from possible problems with the government. A second volume, Kaffern Boy in America , describes his life in the United States.

His sister Miriam moved to live with her brother in the USA, where she wrote her own autobiography My Heart Stayed in Africa , in which she describes the further history of the family in South Africa.

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

Works

  • Kaffir Boy (German: Kaffern-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

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Mathabane, Mark
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mathabane, Johannes (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African author, tennis player and teacher
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Alexandra