Attempts to Ban Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane, Teaching Students about Apartheid South Africa

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Attempts to Ban Kaffir Boy

Though Kaffir Boy has won many awards, is popular among students and is on the American Library Association's list of "Outstanding Books for the College Bound," sometimes a parent will ask that the book be removed from the class reading list or banned entirely.

Why would anyone want to ban Kaffir Boy?
One scene in the book vividly describes hungry boys who are so desperate for food that they prostitute themselves to men at a worker's hostel. Some parents complain that the scene is too graphic. Most of these parents have not read the book. They have read only this one passage after hearing their student or other students discuss it. One parent asserted that the scene "promotes homosexuality," which cannot be farther from the truth. In the scene, Johannes senses something is very wrong and runs away before any of the men can grab him, which sends an instructive message to young people on how to react in dangerous or threatening situations.

How do schools respond to these complaints?
The response from principals, school boards and superintendents has varied. Some go ahead and ban Kaffir Boy, believing it is better to appease outspoken parents than to rock the boat. Others take Kaffir Boy off the "required" reading list and place it on the "suggested" reading list. One district voted to tape over certain sentences so that students couldn't read them. Most have stood up to parents and insisted that Kaffir Boy remain in the curriculum because it is, in many cases, the first book a student ever reads cover to cover.

My students love Kaffir Boy. What should I do if my school district considers banning it?

If you'd like to go before a committee to argue in favor of keeping Kaffir Boy in the curriculum, you might want to read an article Mark wrote for the Washington Post in response to a school district's attempts to censor it.

Another option is to have your school order the international edition of Kaffir Boy, in which that particular scene has been revised by the author to make it appropriate for middle school audiences. The only differences between the Simon & Schuster domestic version of Kaffir Boy and the New Millennium Books international edition of Kaffir Boy are the appearance of cover and the content of that particular scene.

I didn't realize there was a version of Kaffir Boy that had been revised. Where can I get it?

The book buyer at your school can contact New Millennium Books by calling 503-203-7946 or by emailing gem@mathabane.com. New Millennium books offers a school discount of 20 percent plus free shipping. If you would first like to see the revised passage, please send your name to gem@mathabane.com and ask for either a "pdf" of the passage, which can be emailed to you and opened with Adobe Reader, or a hard copy of the passage, which can be mailed to you via first-class mail (please include your mailing address in your email.)


Simon & Schuster Version	New Millennium Edition

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