Mine Boy Book

I first read this book as a child and I re-read it last year. The book shows the way black South Africans lived in the predominantly black parts of the cities in the 1940s.

Under the oppressive cloud of apartheid, the rich urban culture of black people is explored in the book. Particularly the clash between the rural communism, represented by Xuma (the protagonist), and the urban individualism that black people had to adopt to survive the discrimination. Through Eliza, the love interest of Xuma, we see the conflict that existed in the black community - the desire for the higher living standards of white South Africans and the resentment for the way of life of the people who had stolen from and oppressed them for so long.

A major part of the book focuses on the exploitative practices of the mining industry, where the greed for profit drives the management of the mine to disregard all safety precautions.

This is certainly a must read for anyone with interest in apartheid and South Africa. Reading it, you feel the claustrophobia of the oppressive regime on black people and you feel terrible knowing that this regime was nowhere near ending at the time the novel was set.