Award-winning writer Mark Mathabane will present the keynote address during Wittenberg’s 161st Commencement Exercises, Saturday, May 13. The author of The New York Times’ bestselling autobiography Kaffir Boy and several other books celebrating the power of knowledge, the world’s common humanity and the resiliency of the human spirit, Mathabane has touched the hearts of millions with his words.

Born of destitute parents whose $10-a-week wage could not pay the rent for their shack or put food on the table, Mathabane spent the first 18 years of his life as the eldest of seven children in a one-square-mile ghetto that was home to more than 200,000 blacks in South Africa. Tennis became Mathabane’s passport to freedom, and in 1978, with the help of 1972 Wimbledon champion Stan Smith, Mathabane left South Africa to attend an American university on a scholarship. In 1983 he graduated cum laude with a degree in economics from Dowling College in Oakdale, N.Y.

After studies at the Poynter Media Institute and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Mathabane completed the manuscript of Kaffir Boy, which later won the prestigious Christopher Award, climbed to No. 3 on The New York Times’ bestseller’s list and secured the No. 1 spot on The Washington Post’s bestseller list. The book has been translated into several languages and is currently used in classrooms around the United States.

he American Library Association also has included it on its list of “Outstanding Books for the College-Bound.” Mathabane has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Today, CNN, NPR and numerous other national TV and radio programs. His provocative articles have also appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, U.S. News & World Report and USA Today. In addition, he has been featured in Time, Newsweek and People magazines. A sought-after lecturer, he was nominated for Speaker of the Year by the National Association for Campus Activities.