Kaffir Boy: Part I

by Mark Mathabane
Growing up in South Africa under apartheid, Mark Mathabane and his siblings struggled to survive in an impoverished ghetto. In this memoir, he describes how education and a talent for tennis helped him to escape the poverty and violence of his childhood.

Here are links to our lists for the autobiography: Part I, Part II, Part III
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. enclave
    an enclosed territory that is culturally distinct
    It is the only such pit in an enclave of spacious, fresh-aired, verdant white suburbs sporting such melodious names as Northcliff, Rosebank, Lower Houghton, Bramley, Killarney and Edenvale.
  2. indenture
    a contract binding one party into the service of another
    Indians first came to South Africa in 1860, as indentured servants, to work the sugarcane fields of Natal.
  3. dregs
    sediment that has settled at the bottom of a liquid
    In South Africa there’s a saying that to be black is to be at the end of the line when anything of significance is to be had. So these people were considered and treated as the dregs of society, aliens in the land of their birth.
  4. truncheon
    a short stout club used primarily by police officers
    Will the two fat black policemen with sjamboks and truncheons burst open the door again?
  5. tenuous
    having thin consistency
    As she neared it, my year-old brother, George, who slept with my mother and father on the only bed in the house, started screaming, piercing the tenuous stillness of the house.
  6. plaintively
    in a manner expressing sorrow
    “She’s at work, nkosi,” my father said plaintively.
  7. contrite
    feeling or expressing pain or sorrow
    He seemed uncharacteristically powerless and contrite, a far cry from the tough, resolute and absolute ruler of the house I knew him to be, the father whose words were law.
  8. manacle
    confine or restrain with or as if with handcuffs
    I watched impassively as they led him through the front door, his head bowed, his hands manacled, his self-esteem drained, his manhood sapped.
  9. supplication
    a prayer asking God's help as part of a religious service
    I then uttered the supplication my mother had taught me. “Ancestors! Ancestors! Guide me to whatever I’m looking for, wherever it may lie!”
  10. itinerant
    traveling from place to place to work
    On Tuesdays itinerant butchers continued coming by with their donkey or pushcarts, peddling heavy bones with scraps of meat on them, muhodu (cattle’s lungs), pig’s knuckles, giblets and chitlings.
  11. nemesis
    a personal foe or rival that cannot be easily defeated
    Trying to focus the conversation on rituals, my nemesis, I said, after a thoughtful pause, “Is that why Papa insists that we do rituals?”
  12. appalling
    causing shock, dismay, or horror
    Participation in my father’s rituals sometimes led to the most appalling scenes, which invariably made me the laughingstock of my friends, who thought that my father, in his ritual garb, was the most hilarious thing they had ever seen since natives in Tarzan movies.
  13. belligerent
    characteristic of an enemy or one eager to fight
    One weekday afternoon while my mother was out hunting for food and money to pay rent, and Florah, George and I were left alone in the house, two tall, powerful, belligerent Zulu men, armed with spears and pangas (machetes), burst into the house and demanded to see my father.
  14. emaciated
    very thin, especially from disease or hunger or cold
    A few weeks later George and Florah came down with a mysterious illness, which left them emaciated and lethargic, their stomachs so distended that I thought they would burst.
  15. portent
    a sign of something about to happen
    Little was I aware that that first bleak Christmas was a portent for many similar ones to come.
  16. viand
    a choice or delicious dish
    My mother carried the brown package to a clearing where several men, women and children sat underneath a blazing sun; some rested, tired from digging; others munched hungrily at dug-up sandwiches and other viands.
  17. rebuff
    reject outright and bluntly
    My father listened, and afterward reflected deeply, seemingly trying to find a way to rebuff my mother’s claims.
  18. relegate
    assign to a lower position
    I wanted to relegate Christianity to the level of folklore, so I could deal with its fantastic claims about the nature of man and sin.
  19. abattoir
    a building where animals are butchered
    And then there was the blood from “Mr. Green,” the local abattoir on First Avenue.
  20. tacitly
    by unexpressed agreement
    As I sat listening to my mother and father argue, I tacitly agreed with my father: there was no way the two religions could exist side by side in the house.
  21. latent
    not presently active
    As for my mother, despite openly and proudly calling herself a Christian, her tribal beliefs continued as strong as ever, latently when things seemed to be going right, and actively when things were going wrong.
  22. expediency
    the quality of being suited to the end in view
    Hers was a Christianity of expediency.
  23. subjugate
    make subservient; force to submit or subdue
    When the battles were won, however, instead of subjugating the conquered people as other tribes did, the Tsonga impis always allowed the vanquished to continue following their old beliefs, customs and tradition, and to worship their own gods, as long as they pledged to live in peace with, and to pay homage to, their conquerors.
  24. augury
    an event indicating important things to come
    There were dance songs, mimic songs and many others, which, she said, black people of long ago sang during harvest seasons, initiation ceremonies, burial ceremonies, witch hunts, auguries, ceremonies welcoming victorious warriors and other festivities and celebrations that formed the daily life of black people.
  25. sagacity
    the trait of having wisdom and good judgment
    I learned that sagacity and quick wits are necessary in avoiding dangerous situations; and that fatuity and shortsightedness make one go around in circles, seemingly unaware of the many opportunities for escape.
  26. reconciliation
    the reestablishment of cordial relations
    I learned to prefer peace to war, cleverness to stupidity, love to hate, sensitivity to stoicism, humility to pomposity, reconciliation to hostility, harmony to strife, patience to rashness, gregariousness to misanthropy, creation to annihilation.
  27. denigrate
    attack the good name and reputation of someone
    Unable to take the stench any longer, I left the house for the street corner, where I knew a group of boys would be assembled—as they always did on such a night—to sing ditties denigrating the shit-men.
  28. quagmire
    a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot
    Straggling, unpaved roads, which became treacherous quagmires with each infrequent rainfall, were the only means of getting from one village to another.
  29. circumscribe
    restrict or confine
    As I wandered in confusion among so quirky a people—a people whom my father told me were kin—I was awed by the narrowness of their lives, which were even more circumscribed than those of blacks in the cities, with whom they seemed to share nothing in common, except poverty and suffering.
  30. milieu
    the environmental condition
    Another thing that awed me was their almost total lack of information outside their milieu.
  31. pungent
    strong and sharp to the sense of taste or smell
    On the rugged walls of the cave hung bones and skins of various wild animals; bark, roots and leaves of various plants; bottles containing grey, cloudy brews, from which pungent vapors came; dead frogs, snakes and other reptiles.
  32. raze
    tear down so as to make flat with the ground
    We had little sleep each night, not knowing when the bulldozers would come to raze our home.
  33. odious
    extremely repulsive or unpleasant
    As a black boy, the odds were heavily stacked against my establishing a normal, stable family when I came of age, for the minute I left boyhood and became a man, I, too, would be required to possess the odious pass, which had to be in order at all times.
  34. macabre
    shockingly repellent; inspiring horror
    The chicken blood my father used to cordon the house with twice a year was a sacrifice to my ancestral spirits, without whose absolute support, advice and guidance our household would experience unprecedented hardships whose enormity would cause everyone to die a macabre death.
  35. indomitable
    impossible to subdue
    Granny, an indomitable matriarch, had single-handedly raised all of her children after her husband had deserted her for another woman.
  36. lithe
    moving and bending with ease
    She had a statuesque figure—tall, lithe and ebony-coloured—like a Masai woman, complete with tribal garbs and multiple anklets, beads, earrings and bracelets.
  37. rancor
    a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will
    At his saying that, everyone around the fire broke out laughing—a sort of sardonic laughter intended to convey deep-rooted rancor and hatred.
  38. inscrutable
    difficult or impossible to understand
    I tried, persistently but in vain, to reach out for his love and understanding, and each time he reciprocated by becoming more distant and inscrutable, more morose and frightening to me.
  39. wry
    humorously sarcastic or mocking
    “That’s a wild pickanniny you’ve got there,” the white man, smiling wryly, said to my mother as we reentered.
  40. doggedly
    with obstinate determination
    I simply grumbled, little realizing that my entire future had actually depended on that one piece of paper she had fought so long and so doggedly to secure.
Created on Mon Dec 07 17:50:00 EST 2015 (updated Mon Sep 17 16:18:03 EDT 2018)

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