Comparison of Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane and Five Faces of Oppression by Iris Marion Young - Book Report/Review Example

s the assignment was due Analytic critical reading and writing A thought that is ‘seeded’ into anauthor’s mind is outputted in his or hers work. That ‘seeding’ of thought could be initiated or influenced by the ‘system’, in which the author lives or lived. That is, the author observing the environment, happenings, culture, events etc, he/she faced or lived from his/her childhood will ‘interpret’ it in a written form or autobiography. So, autobiography or memoir will be constructed using his/hers life’s environments, happenings... as the subject matter. The author’s life from childhood could be filled with either happiness or sadness, and this factor will most times set the tone of his/hers work. In the memoirs, the author will discuss both the happy as well as the struggling phases of their life in detail. So, the author will spell out all his/her influences, positive and negative, and how it optimized or affected their lives. And the lives of South African personality, Mark Mathabane and American political scientist, Iris Marion Young is also composed of these influences. So, this paper will analyze and compare their works, Kaffir Boy and “Five Faces of Oppression” in an in-depth manner. Brief summary of both the works Mark Mathabanes autobiographical Kaffir Boy talks about his struggling life under the South African apartheid regime. It mainly focuses on the rough treatment, he and his fellow black Africans were subjected to in every aspect of their lives. Then the work changes track and ends on a positive note, with Mathabane escaping from the ghettos’ hardships and becoming a well-known tennis player. He also puts focus on the other young black children like him who have been subjected to, a lot of racist attacks. “Five Faces of Oppression” is the title of the essay written by Iris Marion Young in which, Young does a systematic analysis of oppression and gives different definitions to oppression. While analyzing the activity of oppression, she identifies five faces of oppression namely exploitation, marginality, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence (Young). In this five faces of oppression, the first three is correlated to the economic factors based on Marxism, while the last two go beyond the border of economic factors. Young’s definition of “oppression” Young tries to define oppression in three different ways, and each time she is able to establish a “clear account of the meaning of the concept of oppression”. While focusing on the oppression faced by certain groups in her home country of United States, Young interprets oppression differently. Firstly, she says that the concept of oppression cannot be defined clearly and perfectly, “I do not think the concept of oppression can be strictly defined, that is, corralled within one clear boundary” (Young), but goes on to give three different definitions. The first definition arises, when she talks about the marginalized groups found in United States’ society like women, blacks, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, poor people, physically or mentally disabled people etc, etc. Young states that even though all these groups are not oppressed in a same way or same degree, she confirms the known fact that “all oppressed people share some inhibition of their ability to develop and exercise their capacities and express their needs, thoughts and feelings” (Young). “Inhibition” in the sense, the oppressed people will not get a chance to develop their ability or show their capacities, and even if they get the opportunity, number of factors and ‘persons’ will impede their moves. So, this first definition of Young establishes a “clear account of the meaning of the concept of oppression”. Secondly, Young tries to give a common and traditional definition to oppression. That is, she focuses on the traditional usage, which is retained and followed by most people, and where "oppression" means the exercise of tyranny. That is, according to Young, when a strong force or individuals ‘trample’ on the rights, power, opportunities, paths etc, etc of weak or subdued lot, it can be constituted as oppression. Young also uses many examples to put more stress on this definition, by including the South African anti-apartheid regime and thereby establishing the concept of oppression. Finally, Young gives a new definition to the concept of oppression by interpreting oppression from a third point of view, by not including the oppressed and the tyrannical powers. That is, as new events kept on happening with the passage of each decade, new groups or persons indulged in oppressions of the weak, directly or indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly. They could have committed oppressive acts not with the intention to do so, but could have contributed to that act. So, Young focuses on the role of the “well intentioned liberal society”, who doesn’t do enough to control the oppression. “As New left social movements of the 1960s and 70s, however shifted the meaning of the concept. In its new usage, oppression designates the disadvantage and injustice some people suffer not because a tyrannical power intends to keep them down, but because of the everyday practices of a well intentioned liberal society” (Young). This shows the fact that people by not curbing the oppressive activities of the tyrannical powers or by not equipping and supporting the oppressed to fight against the oppressors, are indirectly and unknowingly contributing to oppression. This happens in many countries, where certain groups while trying to remain aloof indirectly contribute to the worsening of the situation. So, this definition of Young also establishes a “clear account of the meaning of the concept of oppression”. Mathabane’s experience in South Africa and Young’s definition of oppression. Before 1991, South Africa had no semblance of democracy like it has now. For many decades or even centuries, the white rulers of South Africa formed an apartheid government and oppressed the native black Africans in whatever ways possible. Even though, the black Africans were the majority, the minority white rulers due to imperialist history and by using financial resources and arms, subjugated the Africans and oppressed all them including the children. Mark Mathabane is one such child, who faced a lot of oppression from the white rulers during his childhood years at one of the most backward and dangerous ghettos called Alexandria, situated near Johannesburg. “The Alexandra of my childhood and youth was a shantytown of mostly shacks, few decent houses, lots of gutters and lots of under paved, potholed streets” (Mathabane). So, oppression is seen in different stages of Mathabane’s childhood thus covering the “oppression” definition given by the American political scientist, Iris Marion Young. Before concentrating on the oppressive acts of White rulers, we can look at the oppression Mark Mathabane (or Johannes Mathabane – his original name given by his family) suffered in the hands of his father. That is, his father being an addicted drunkard always squanders the money on gambling and drinking, giving little to the family. Because of this problematic situation, Mathabane along with her mother has to search for food all day, foregoing the important activity of education. That is, if his father had performed his role correctly, there will be no need for him to skip schools. So, in a way his father ‘oppressed’ and inhibited Mark from developing his abilities and exercising his capacities, thus following Young’s first definition of “oppression”. Also, his father’s act of inoculating tribal beliefs to prevent him from getting education will also come under the same Young’s first definition, which is inhibiting the right of the child to get the education. When Mark Mathabane and his family lived in a two-room shack in squalor without drinking water, electricity etc, oppression came in different forms. The first form of oppression came through the brutal acts of Peri-Urban, an Apartheid police force in South Africa. This dangerous police will raid the ghettos very often under one pretext or another and will cause innumerable problems and pains to the inhabitants. That is, Peri-urban will raid the ghettos including the one in which Mathabane stayed, and will ask for the Blacks specific passbooks, which the African Blacks are supposed to carry all the time. And, if they found that the Blacks doesn’t have the passbook or if they haven’t updated it, the white oppressors will beat them badly or even kill them. Even though, Mathabane was not beaten up for passbook related issues, he faced a lot of threats mainly because he is black - a subjugated lot who can be trampled by the whites. This experience of Mathabane comes under the second definition of Young, which talks about a strong force or individuals who ‘trample’ on the rights, power, opportunities, paths etc, etc of weak or subdued. Even when these dominative and brutal acts are carried out by the government and the government officials like the police force against the harmless people, the majority of the white citizens did not take any steps or initiatives to stop this oppression. Actually, many white citizens supported their government’s oppressive activities, while the others did not take any steps or initiatives to stop this repressive behavior. So, they remained biased spectators supporting the crime that was taking place. “More than 90 percent of white South Africans go through a lifetime without seeing firsthand the inhuman conditions under which we have to survive” (Mathabane). This act of the majority of white population comes under the third definition of Young. That is, as Mark Mathabane and other Blacks did not get support from the majority of the white population, they indirectly and knowingly or unknowingly contributed to the oppression. Apart from the white population, a section of the black population also comes under this definition because of their biased attitude towards Mathabane’s tennis career. That is, as Mathabane is a tennis player, he participated in many white community organized tennis tournaments purely to improve his tennis skills. This caused the black tennis congregation to ban him from playing tennis under their affiliation. This act of the fellow black people against Mathabane also constitutes oppression fulfilling the first definition of Young. That is, his wish to improve his ability was restricted. So, this experience of Mathabane and its relation to the Young’s definition covers all the spectrum of oppression. Summarization of Young’s definitions and its application to Mathabane’s experience Iris Marion Young after viewing various forms of oppressions that happened in United States earlier and still which are happening now, tried to interpret oppression with different meanings. Firstly, she defines operation as kind of inhibition, which prevents the oppressed people the chance to develop their ability or show their capacities. Then Young interprets oppression differently and gives the traditional definition. That is, she defines it as a strong force which will ‘trample’ the rights, power, opportunities, paths etc, etc of weak and the subdued. Finally, she picks up the third parties to the oppression and defines “oppression” from their perspective. In this case, the unconnected third party will not take any steps to stop the oppressive behavior of the oppressors. All these three definitions of oppression apply itself to Mathabane’s experience. As Mark Mathabane in his work Kaffir Boy gives the readers an in-depth look at the physical and psychological oppression caused by the white rulers, one can clearly see how the three definitions and its application comes out. Works Cited Mathabane, Mark. Kaffir Boy. New York: Penguin Group, 1989. Young, Marion. “Five Faces of Oppression”. The Philosophical Forum. (Summer) 1988. Read More