The following article appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on February 4, 2004, page F1

South African: Youths ignore past
Fall of apartheid taken for granted, writer says
by Sheila M. Poole, Staff

A decade after the end of apartheid, Mark Mathabane wonders if a younger generation of black South Africans fully realizes what the struggle was all about.

Mathabane, the South African-born author of the best seller "Kaffir Boy," said the racist system instituted by the country's white minority is like a "distant dream" to many youths. 

Today, black South Africans have access to schools and careers and the seats of government. And while that is promising, it's also given many a false sense of security that they "have arrived," he said.

He said they sometimes shun tradition and feel ashamed speaking a tribal language, which they associate with inferiority. That scares him.

Mathabane, 42, who now lives in Portland, Ore., with his wife and children, said there was nothing shameful about having been oppressed. "Strength comes from oppression," he said. 

Mathabane chronicled his life under apartheid in "Kaffir Boy." The book is used in many schools across the United States. He has spent the last few years writing and lecturing, often emphasizing the importance of education. He believes young people have a responsibility to be part of the global community, especially at a time when relations between nations and religions are deeply strained and, in some cases, ruptured.

"In times like these, people tend to be insular and insecure and they may not really recognize the importance of just reaching out and connecting oneself to other human beings," he said in a telephone interview.

Mathabane grew up in Alexandra, the cramped township near Johannesburg that was home to more than 200,000 people. He was the oldest of seven children and the first to receive an education. His parents made about $10 a week, rarely enough to provide housing and food.

At 18, he was offered a new life when Stan Smith, the U.S. tennis professional and a former Wimbledon champion, arranged a tennis scholarship for him to study in the United States. 

Mathabane lived for a time in North Carolina, where his mother and some of his siblings still reside, before moving to Portland. But the ties to his homeland are still strong and he visits South Africa often.

He said too many blacks in his native land are still marginalized, that with much of the wealth still concentrated in hands of whites, "economic apartheid" remains a reality despite political freedom.

Mathabane applauded those blacks who have made it. But he said some of them have done little to help those still trapped in poverty. He also took to task African-Americans who moved to South Africa when apartheid ended. In many cases, he said, they have failed to culturally integrate with South African blacks or learn indigenous languages such as Zulu, Xhosa or Sotho.

"These are the languages that can bring about that kinship," he said. "It's not English. You don't go to Africa -- where there's a multiplicity of languages and cultures -- and behave like an English person."

"If you're going to confine yourself to the suburbs and socialize with those Africans who have become Westernized, you get a very distorted picture of what Africa is about," he said.

Copyright 2004 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution