Background

Mark Mathabane was born Johannes Mathabane, on October 18, 1960, in Alexandra, South Africa, to Jackson Mathabane and Magdelene Mabaso Mathabane. Mathabane immigrated to the United States, and became a U.S. citizen.

Education

In 1978, Mathabane attended Limestone College, and then he entered the St. Louis University in 1979. In 1981, he attended Quincy College. In 1983, Mathabane received Bachelor of Arts at Dowling College. He also attended Columbia University in 1984.

Career

Mark Mathabane escaped a life of poverty and terror in South Africa and, recalling that life in print, has become a bestselling author in the United States. During the Soweto riots of 1976, Mathabane took the name of the South African government. Inspired by the autobiographies of Richard Wright and Claude Brown, Mathabane began to write his own. Initially published by Macmillan in 1986, Kaffir Boy became a nation-wide bestseller, selling more than two hundred thousand copies by 1989. It is the story of his first eighteen years, growing up under apartheid.

He was the speaker for the 2001 Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Award and has appeared on numerous television shows. Mathabane has published five other works of nonfiction. Now, he is the director of multicultural education at the Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon.

Achievements

• Mathabane is most commonly known for his work Kaffir Boy, that was published in 1986. Its translation into seven languages has secured Mathabane's reputation not only as a writer but also as a humanist and public speaker. Recipient of both the 1986 Christopher Award and a 1996-1997 White House Fellowship, Mathabane helped design President Clinton's education initiatives. His fifth book, Miriam's Song, was short-listed for the 2001 Alan Paton award.

Works

More photos

• audiobook

  • The Lessons of Ubuntu: How an African Philosophy Can Inspire Racial Healing in America

    (In The Lessons of Ubuntu: How an African Philosophy Can I...)

    1999
  • Kaffir Boy: Growing Out of Apartheid 1987

• book

  • African Women: Three Generations

    (In African Women, the author of the highly acclaimed and ...)

    1994
  • Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa

    (Mark Mathabane was weaned on devastating poverty and scho...)

    1986
  • Love in Black and White: The Triumph of Love over Prejudice and Taboo

    (Love in Black and White is the dramatic, revealing and ri...)

    1992
  • Kaffir Boy in America 1989

Views

Quotations: “There was a time when I thought that if life meant unending suffering and pain, there was no use living. At 10 years old, I contemplated suicide. What kept me going was my discovery of books. In the world of books I could travel around the world, go to the moon, do great things. That made it worthwhile to live another day.”

Membership

Mathabane is a member of the Authors Guild.

Personality

As a child, Mathabane saw his parents victimized repeatedly by the barbaric South African system of apartheid. He witnessed violence, suffered malnutrition, and endured humiliation, emerging from a ruinous environment only because he dedicated himself to receiving an education.

Mathabane quickly discovered that life in America could pose its own problems. A dedicated student, he was shocked by the drug and alcohol use among his classmates. Their lackadaisical attitude toward schoolwork ran counter to his own ambitious plan of study, and soon he found himself at odds with the college’s tennis coach over the amount of time he spent with his books. Worse, he found that he had left apartheid behind only to find a subtler form of segregation at work in the United States. White and black students did not socialize or sit together at his college. They pursued different agendas and seemed to distrust one another. Mathabane challenged this system by talking to white and black students and by defending the liberal arts curriculum that leaned heavily toward white male authors.

Television talk show host Oprah Winfrey bought a paperback copy of Kaffir Boy and was so moved by the story that she invited Mathabane to appear on her show. She also flew Mathabane’s mother and siblings to the United States for a reunion - he had not seen his family in nearly a decade and faced possible arrest if he dared enter South Africa. The television show provided further publicity for Mathabane’s book, and soon it was on the bestseller lists. Encouraged by its reception, Mathabane moved on to other projects.

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  tennis

Connections

Mathabane married Gail Emsberger in 1987. They have three children.

Father:

Jackson Mathabane

Mother:

Magdalene Mathabane

Wife:

Gail Emsberger

Son:

Stanley Mathabane

Born in 1994.

Daughter:

Bianca Mathabane

Born in 1989.

Son:

Nathan Mathabane

Born in 1991.

References

• Africa Today
  1996