Kaffir Boy: Part II

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. admonish
    scold or reprimand; take to task
    A few managed to break loose and make a mad dash for freedom, only to be recaptured in no time, admonished or whipped, or both, and ordered to march again.
  2. ruefully
    in a manner expressing pain or sorrow
    “Poor woman,” Granny said ruefully.
  3. mores
    the conventions embodying the fundamental values of a group
    Most times, many tribal women questioned her sanity in daring to question well-established mores.
  4. scoff
    laugh at with contempt and derision
    But my mother did not seem to care; she would always scoff at her opponents and call them fools in letting their husbands enslave them completely.
  5. pretext
    a fictitious reason that conceals the real reason
    It just about shattered every defense mechanism and every pretext I had against going to school.
  6. din
    a loud, harsh, or strident noise
    His words were immediately drowned by the din from the throng of about two thousand schoolchildren, many of whom—those on their first day at school—screamed and cried and begged for their parents to come and take them home.
  7. bedlam
    a state of extreme confusion and disorder
    The bedlam continued for some time till a young girl, who couldn’t have been more than sixteen, appeared at the door and attempted to jostle her way through the jungle of screaming black children, to the front of the hall.
  8. ambivalent
    uncertain or unable to decide about what course to follow
    My attitude toward school grew more ambivalent.
  9. inducement
    a positive motivational influence
    One boy my age whom I had befriended on the first day of school had a father, a store owner who daily gave him one rand as an inducement to going to school and working hard.
  10. akimbo
    with hands on hips and elbows extending outward
    I looked at him, or rather, beyond him and at the blackboard mounted on the red-bricked wall, as he stood akimbo next to the cupboard where he kept his array of canes.
  11. enrapture
    hold spellbound
    Throughout the week, on street corners, in stores, at shebeens all over the neighbourhood, the talk was about the fight, and black people everywhere were enraptured by Ali’s feats.
  12. pugilism
    boxing with bare hands
    I began bombarding the boy with questions concerning pugilism: it seemed so different from the way we fought in the street—it was cleaner.
  13. parry
    impede the movement of
    “Stop! Stop! Stop, please,” I bawled, trying in vain to parry the blows, staggering about in a fog.
  14. august
    profoundly honored
    As I went about the township throughout that long, grief-stricken afternoon, rumours began filtering into my always inquisitive ears that the black man being mourned was a preacher and a leader of august stature in America, and that he had been assassinated by a white man.
  15. foment
    try to stir up
    In short, the suffering of black people continued on the increase, and I continued getting the feeling that we, blacks of Alexandra, were like animals, quarantined inside a cage—by the white man—fomenting ignorance and death—and that there was nothing we could do about it but await, each, our violent end.
  16. precipitate
    bring about abruptly
    One late Friday evening when I was nearing the end of my tenth year an event occurred that precipitated the greatest crisis of my childhood: I was an eyewitness to a murder.
  17. pittance
    an inadequate payment
    As it was payday, all along the streets I met black men hurrying, hurrying, hurrying, the pittances of an eight days’ week in sweatshops jingling in their deep pockets.
  18. tarry
    leave slowly and hesitantly
    The tsotsis didn’t chase after him immediately, tarrying a while to rummage through the packages he had dropped.
  19. ensconce
    fix firmly
    In a matter of minutes the six shadowy figures had accomplished their dastardly act and were heading for the shadows of the eerie moonlit night, the spoils of their foray ensconced between their murdering paws, their bloodshot eyes gleaming and their teeth grinning like those of cannibals after a kill.
  20. limpid
    clear and bright
    For a long time I remained stock-still in the tall grass, in the limpid night, scarcely breathing, watching the naked, mutilated, lifeless body contorted on the ground, in a pool of blood.
  21. bate
    moderate or restrain; lessen the force of
    With bated breath, I tried to gasp out what I had seen, but only managed to utter unintelligible, guttural sounds.
  22. grisly
    shockingly repellent; inspiring horror
    Then it all came back, the witnessing of the grisly murder. I luridly recapitulated everything I had seen.
  23. brackish
    slightly salty
    My sensitivity to the world around me made me soak all its suffering like a sponge soaking brackish water.
  24. furtively
    in a secretive manner
    Soon comic books became the joy of my life, and everywhere I went I took one with me: to the river, to a soccer game, to the lavatory, to sleep, to the store and to school, where I would hide it under the desk, reading it furtively when the teacher was busy at the blackboard, and getting caned each time I was found out.
  25. salvo
    an outburst resembling the discharge of firearms
    I hung my head in shame, expecting a salvo of laughter.
  26. fete
    an elaborate party, often outdoors
    The host raked in money from nonmembers as well, who paid cash for liquor and stockvel plates during the fete.
  27. complacently
    in a self-satisfied manner
    “If that’s what you want,” my father said complacently, “then let’s work together. We both want the same things.”
  28. stymie
    hinder or prevent the progress or accomplishment of
    Confronted with my mother’s resolve, my father appeared stymied.
  29. impetuous
    characterized by undue haste and lack of thought
    Turning and facing her, I said, impetuously, “How can I go! How can I go!
  30. capitulate
    surrender under agreed conditions
    “Over my dead body will he throw it away,” my mother declared. I capitulated.
  31. postulate
    maintain or assert
    “Stop saying that rubbish, you naughty boy,” Mrs. Smith said angrily as she entered the room just in time to catch the tail end of her son’s knowledge of black people’s intelligence, as postulated by the doctrine of apartheid.
  32. ingratiate
    gain favor with somebody by deliberate efforts
    I reasoned that if I somehow kept improving my English and ingratiated Mrs. Smith by the fact, then possibly she would give me more books like Treasure Island each time Granny took me along.
  33. exonerate
    pronounce not guilty of criminal charges
    Jarvas demanded, in a tone suggesting that he normally let his knife do the talking, but was doing me a favour by giving me a chance to exonerate myself.
  34. exhort
    spur on or encourage especially by cheers and shouts
    Teachers exhorted us to be like him, to lift ourselves from poverty by our bootstraps.
  35. stupor
    a state of being half-awake
    Granny dragged me—I was in some sort of stupor—by the neck back to the black bus stop.
  36. segregation
    a social system that provides different facilities for minority groups
    Thus my consciousness was awakened to the pervasiveness of “petty apartheid,” and everywhere I went in the white world, I was met by visible and invisible guards of racial segregation.
  37. epithet
    a defamatory or abusive word or phrase
    Sensing that we were talking about them, but not understanding what we were saying, the frustrated white boys strung one “bloody Kaffir” epithet after another.
  38. extol
    praise, glorify, or honor
    He disparaged education, I extolled it; he burned my books at every opportunity, I bought more; he abused my mother, I tried to help her; he believed all that the white man said about him, I did not; he lived for the moment, I for the future, uncertain as it was.
  39. yoke
    an oppressive power
    Years of watching him suffer under the double yoke of apartheid and tribalism convinced me that his was a hopeless case, so long as he persisted in clinging to tribal beliefs and letting the white man define his manhood.
  40. anachronism
    a person who seems to be displaced in time
    Failure to tear away that veil had turned my father into an anachronism.
Created on Mon Dec 07 19:52:44 EST 2015 (updated Mon Sep 17 16:18:28 EDT 2018)

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