“Struggle For Education”

In “Kaffir Boy”, Mark “Johannes” Mathabane’s mother strives to send him to school. She does not let anything get in the way of her ambition. Even though her husband disapproves, she will not let anything get in her way, but now her desires for her son to be educated are stronger. Her courage speaks louder than the consequences she will face with her husband. It seems as though her husband is dealing with a great amount of jealously. A jealously that will decipher Johannes’s decision about school.

“Did you hear what that woman said!” “Do you want the same to happen to you?” A statement and question raised by his mother to show Johannes the importance of an education. “They finally did. But what a battle it was, it took me nearly a year to get all them papers together.” Since it took his mother so long to get everything together there was no way she was going to let everything she worked so hard for go down the drain. Even though Johannes’s mother and father were from different tribes, that did not stop her from putting her son in school.

“Your father and I fought today because I took you to school this morning.” Johannes’s mother expresses her courage throughout the story. “He had told me not to, and when I told him that I had, he became very upset. He was drunk. We started arguing, and one thing let to another.” She shows her courage by disobeying her husband’s orders. Unlike her husband, she wants Johannes to have a future and getting an education is the only way for a future. Being beaten was the consequence of disobeying her husband, but the beating how no effect for Johannes’s mother wanted to see her son succeed in the world.

Johannes’s father seems to be jealous that his own son may have a chance to be educated. He says, “he doesn’t have money to wasted paying for you to get what he calls an useless white man’s education.” It seems that he does not understand that school will keep Johannes off the streets. He, himself being uneducated seems to be the result of not comprehending how valuable an education is. Johannes is extremely upset with his father because he beat his mother, and is also upset since his own father does not want him to be educated.

Johannes sees school differently after he learns that his mother has always wanted to go to school. Also, her courage and ambition out weighs his father’s jealously. Johannes makes a decision that will forever affect him. After, he realizes all the trouble and hard work his mother went through, he promises his mother that he will forever go to school.

Word Count: 460