Mark Mathabane (born Johannes Mathabane, 18 October 1960) is a South African author, lecturer, and a former collegiate tennis player and college professor.
Personal Information: Surname pronounced "Mot-ta- bon- ee"; born Johannes Mathabane in 1960 in Alexandra, South Africa; changed name to Mark, 1976; immigrated to the United States, 1978; son of Jackson (a laborer) and Magdelene (a washerwoman; maiden name, Mabaso) Mathabane; married Gail Ernsberger (a writer), 1987; children: Bianca, Nathan.
Education: Attended Limestone College, 1978, St. Louis University, 1979, and Quincy College, 1981; Dowling College, B.A., 1983; graduate studies at Columbia University, 1984.
Career: Writer and lecturer, 1985--. Contributor to the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and other newspapers and magazines.
Mark Mathabane touched the hearts of millions with his sensational autobiography, Kaffir Boy. Telling the true story of his coming of age under apartheid in South Africa, the book won a prestigious Christopher Award, rose to No. 3 on The New York Times bestsellers list and to No. 1 on the Washington Post bestsellers list, and was translated into several languages. Today, the book is used in classrooms across the U.S. and is on the American Library Association's List of "Outstanding Books for the College-Bound."
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. Mathabane's 1986 memoir, Kaffir Boy, "catapulted him to celebrity and respect as a voice for oppressed blacks," according to Lisa Anderson in the Chicago Tribune. InKaffir Boy, the author recounts his childhood in the squalid black township of Alexandra and his determination not to accept the boundaries set for him by the white minority government of South Africa. In subsequent books, Kaffir Boy in America and Love in Black and White, Mathabane offers his perspective