Mark Mathabane was born on October 18, 1960. The oldest child of seven, Mathabane grew up in extreme poverty in a black township outside Johannesburg, South Africa. Childhood in the poverty-stricken ghetto was difficult. Mathabane's love of books—strongly encouraged by his illiterate but devoted mother—and his dreams of becoming a famous tennis player kept him going. At the age of 18, with the help of former Wimbledon champion Stan Smith, Mathabane left South Africa to attend American University in Washington, DC, on a tennis scholarship. Mathabane is the author of several books, including African Women, but he is best known for Kaffir Boy, an autobiography that tells his story of growing up under apartheid in South Africa.