Mine Boy by Peter Abrahams illustrates in beautiful and haunting prose the oppression that black citizens of South Africa faced in the years before apartheid. The country's white minority has imposed its power on black South Africans in several ways, the most significant of which are succinctly listed by Nelson Mandela in his book No Easy Walk to Freedom. According to Mandela, the most serious issues included “the grinding poverty of the people, low wages, acute shortage of land, inhumane exploitation and the entire policy of white domination” (Mandela 21). Indeed, the violence imposed by white police officers, the exploitation of black labor, and the cultural narrative that defined “whiteness” as desirable contributed to the nation's injustice. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The first mode of oppression is also one of the most important in twentieth-century South Africa. Johannesburg's whites, particularly those in the city's police force, constantly abused their power by oppressing others with violence. In Mine Boy, one of Xuma's first experiences upon arriving in town is with an officer at the Malay Camp's Saturday market. Without warning, a police van arrives and everyone at the market scatters as officers run through the crowd with batons raised. When an officer approaches Xuma, Xuma stands still, confident that he has done nothing that warrants an attack. However, the officer “raised his staff and struck it down with force” (Abraham 16). The city police do what is necessary to assert their power, and the most effective way to do this is through brute force. This novel is not the only work to illustrate this abuse of power: a scene from the 1987 film "Cry Freedom" depicts the Soweto riots in east London, South Africa, in which over 700 schoolchildren were killed by police for demonstrating in protest against the education system during apartheid. The police on site reacted with immediate violence, killing and wounding hundreds and razing the community (Briley). Here the film connects to Mine Boy: both represent cases where the South African police instilled terror in communities through oppression with violence. The second type of oppression that South African leaders impose on others in Mine Boy is ideological. It is the mentality that being white is desirable, or a goal to work towards, and being black is being inferior. Steve Biko, while on the court in "Cry Freedom", describes the mentality as such: "You start to feel that something is not right with you... something in your darkness" (Briley). There are many characters in Mine Boy who fall victim to this mentality. The “swankies,” for example, at the Malay Camp market, dress like whites, wearing purple suits and black ties. These assimilation efforts are in vain, however, as their appearances are not enough to prevent them from fleeing when the police arrive at the market (Abraham 15). Eliza, perhaps the most complex and fascinating character in Mine Boy, drives herself crazy with the desire to be like white people. “I want white people's things,” he tells Xuma. “I want to be like the white people and go where they go and do the things they do” (Abraham 60). “It is the madness of the city that is in me,” she admits later (Abrahams 126) – a madness so great that it ultimately drives her out of the city. Eliza isn't great for having this mindset. Indeed, colonization is designed so that the colonized feel the innate desire to assimilate with their oppressors. In his book The Colonizer and the Colonized, Albert Memmi writesof a colonized person: “Being a creature of oppression, he is destined to be a creature of need” (Memmi 119), and that these desires will become so overwhelming that they fill the oppressed person with self-hatred and shame. This is the exact situation Eliza faces. Her shame is so all-consuming that she doesn't allow herself to be with Xuma, the man she loves. Oppression does not have to be tangible to be real; the form of oppression most relevant to the plot of Mine Boy may be this ideological one. Another form of oppression in Mine Boy is the exploitation of black physical labor. Xuma arrives in Johannesburg with the intention of working in the gold mines, the work available to the city's black men. Xuma is representative of the waves of people who flocked to South African cities in the twentieth century to find work. Like him, they came and did strenuous work, such as in the mines, in unsafe conditions. At the end of Mine Boy, despite warning from Xuma and other miners, it is revealed that the mine's managers have neglected to maintain it properly. The rotten beams collapse, crushing Johannes and Chris, who try to hold them up to save the other miners (Abrahams 180). Immediately after the accident, managers try to insist that the next shift of workers go into the mines to repair the beams. The white men in charge have no respect for the lives lost or the danger the work environment poses to employees. Modern South Africa is built on the labor of men such as gold miners. In fact, the only reason South African officials allowed black immigrants to remain in the cities was for their jobs. “The history of South Africa's modern economy began in mining,” writes Wilmot G. James in his book The State of Apartheid (James 75). Africans were tolerated in the cities because of the labor they provided to the economy. Their populations were controlled by the police, who regularly stopped blacks on the street, demanding to see their “pass books,” or government-approved documents proving that a person has legal residency in the city (James 82). The booklet appears in Mine Boy, when a policeman asks to see Xuma's pass while Xuma is trying to help Dr. Mimi with an injured man. Despite the chaos around them, the officer says to Xuma: “Where is your pass? Let me see it” (Abraham 73). He takes the time to examine it before returning it to Xuma - everything about the interaction is arbitrary. Why is Xuma the only one controlled? Why now, when Xuma is clearly trying to help an injured man? The South African government and police forces worked together to oppress the country's black population, ensuring that the only way black men could legally live in the cities was if they performed the menial jobs necessary to grow the country's economy . the exploitation of black labor is the poverty that affects the communities of these workers. According to South African History Online, in 1940s South Africa, 86.8% of “'non-Europeans' in urban areas lived below the subsistence threshold” (“History of Women's Struggle in South Africa”). Poverty was one of the greatest oppressions faced by black and brown people in the country. Malay Camp serves to exemplify poor black communities in South African cities. “A row of streets crossing another row of streets,” describes Abrahams of the Malay Camp. “Mostly narrow streets. Mostly dirty streets” (Abrahams 77). The community is compact, typical of the time: one of the oppressions listed by Nelson Mandela is "the serious shortage of land". Outwardly, it looks like Malay Camp is the worst place it can be.. 1974.