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Andre Zietsman is a wealthy South African and fellow tennis player. Mathabane meets Andre shortly after Andre returns from university in America. Although as an Afrikaner, Andre was raised to believe that black people are subordinate to white people, his experiences in America shift his paradigms—he learns to recognize black people as equals. As Andre and Mathabane discuss Andre’s change of heart, the conversations not only fuel Mathabane’s desire to go to America but enlighten him to the way Afrikaners are socially conditioned to be racists and white supremacists. Later on, when Mathabane needs a job, Andre gives him a connection at Barclays Bank.
Andre Zietsman Quotes in Kaffir Boy
The Kaffir Boy quotes below are all either spoken by Andre Zietsman or refer to Andre Zietsman. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 47 Quotes
If four years of attending college in America had awakened Andre to the brutal reality of how wrong his race was in subjugating blacks […] then I had hope that some day the rest of his race could similarly awaken—if they wanted to.
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Andre Zietsman Character Timeline in Kaffir Boy
The timeline below shows where the character Andre Zietsman appears in Kaffir Boy. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 46
Scaramouche introduces Mathabane to Andre Zietsman, a white tennis player from South African who has just returned from a tennis...
(full context)
Chapter 47
Mathabane’s friendship with Andre deepens. Andre’s four years in America showed him how awful apartheid truly is, and Mathabane...
(full context)
Chapter 51
...that he won’t improve his game without good competition from elite white players. With Scaramouche, Andre, and Wilfred’s support, Mathabane decides to apply for membership at the Wanderer’s Club. When he...
(full context)
Chapter 52
...won’t need a passbook, but come February he has neither a letter nor a job. Andre arranges for Mathabane to play on an all-white, top-level junior tennis squad. At first Mathabane...
(full context)
Chapter 53
Mathabane mentions to Andre that he’s looking for work, and Andre connects him with Barclays Bank, where his father...
(full context)
