Kaffir Boy in America

This is a sequel to KAFFIR BOY, a best-selling account of Mathabane’s youth in a black township in South Africa. It deals with his life in America as a student, writer, and outspoken opponent of apartheid. Like many sequels, this one lacks the power of the original.

KAFFIR BOY vividly details the horrors of growing up black in a society premised on radical racial discrimination; its wrenching story virtually grabs the reader by the throat. The sequel, in which the author describes both his trials and successes in coping with and ultimately taking advantage of American mobility, pales in comparison. Still, this work does nicely describe the author’s ambivalence toward the United States — both America’s lure and its continuing racial problems.