Mathabance

Differences between children and their parents have been going on since the beginning of time. In "My Father's Tribal Rule", Mark Mathabane and his father are , in short, at each others throats. Throughout the duration of the story, you feel as though you can feel the tension rising between the two. To understand the conflict that is presented in the title, you have to know that Mathabanes father grew up in a tribe doing the rituals that were past down to him while he was living their just like his dad before him and so on.

Knowing full well as to what his father might do, Mark decides to speak out at dinner, his father has preached to him many times that it is disrespectful to do so. His father sternfully says to him " That's never done in my house!" as he rises from his seat to ensure his authority is respected. He immediately knows that he's made a grave mistake, sensing he is about to get whipped, he leaves his food hot on the table, into the protection of his mothers arms where he hopes to escape the wrath of his seeming to be "ten foot" father.

This is discriptive, maybe in not such harsh cases, of the many conflicts that plauge