Tsotsi Character Analysis

Tsotsi (David)

Tsotsi, Tsotsi’s protagonist, is a young Black man in South Africa under apartheid. He leads a gang, whose other members are Boston, Butcher, and Die Aap. At the novel’s beginning… read analysis of Tsotsi (David)

The Baby

The baby is a Black male infant. His frightened, desperate mother hides the baby in a shoebox, shoves the shoebox at Tsotsi, and runs away after Tsotsi waylays her—seemingly with the intent of raping… read analysis of The Baby

Boston

Boston—whose full name is Walter “Boston” Nguza—is a member of Tsotsi’s gang, which also includes Butcher and Die Aap. As a child and young man, Boston was small and studious with glasses. While… read analysis of Boston

Miriam Ngidi

Miriam Ngidi is an 18-year-old mother of an infant son who gets her water from a public tap down the street from Tsotsi’s room. During her pregnancy, her husband Simon, who was participating in… read analysis of Miriam Ngidi

Morris Tshabalala

Morris Tshabalala is a beggar who plies his trade around a street intersection called Terminal Place. He lost his legs in a gold mining accident, for which he blames white South Africans, who under apartheid… read analysis of Morris Tshabalala

Die Aap

Die Aap is a member of Tsotsi’s gang, which also includes Boston and Butcher. “Die Aap” means “monkey” in Afrikaans (the language of South Africa’s white minority Afrikaner population), a stereotyped and offensive… read analysis of Die Aap

Butcher

Butcher is a member of Tsotsi’s gang, which also includes Boston and Die Aap. Tsotsi recruited Butcher for his gang because of Butcher’s skill at violence, for which Butcher is nicknamed. Toward the… read analysis of Butcher

Isaiah

Isaiah, an elderly Black man, takes care of the church garden and rings the church bells for the Church of Christ the Redeemer in the Black township. His immediate supervisor is the racist, condescending… read analysis of Isaiah

David’s Mother (Tondi)

Tondi is the mother of David (i.e., Tsotsi when he is 10 years old). She is a comforting presence who likes to hum and sing. She takes care of David and shares the family’s food… read analysis of David’s Mother (Tondi)

Elderly Woman

The elderly woman lives with David and David’s mother (Tondi), though she does not seem to be related to them. David esteems the elderly woman because he notices that adults esteem her and because… read analysis of Elderly Woman

Gumboot Dhlamini

Gumboot Dhlamini works in the mines near Johannesburg and lives in one of its townships. He came to Johannesburg from far away in South Africa, where he lived with his pregnant wife, to make… read analysis of Gumboot Dhlamini

Rev. Henry Ransome

Rev. Henry Ransome is a white priest who presides over a church in the Black township, the Church of Christ the Redeemer. Early in the novel, he serves at Gumboot Dhlamini’s funeral but… read analysis of Rev. Henry Ransome

Marty

Marty runs the shebeen where Boston drank when he first began his criminal career with Johnboy Lethetwa. Marty liked that Boston had manners, and they became romantically involved. Their relationship ended, however, after Boston’s… read analysis of Marty

Soekie

Soekie is a 50-something woman who runs a shebeen that Tsotsi and his gang frequent. Though she is “coloured”—that is, mixed race, which was its own legal classification under apartheid—she lives in the Black… read analysis of Soekie

Petah

Petah is a member of the homeless child gang that David joins after his mother’s arrest. Petah invites David to sleep in the same pipe as him, discourages David from leaving the gang when David… read analysis of Petah

Miss Marriot

Miss Marriot is Isaiah the church gardener’s racist white supervisor. Her condescension and disrespect toward Isaiah—for example, she calls him a “naughty boy” even though he is elderly—indicate that while apartheid harms Black South Africans’… read analysis of Miss Marriot

Cassim

Cassim is an Indian shopkeeper whose shop Tsotsi enters hoping to buy milk for the baby. Cassim, suspecting Tsotsi is a gang member, is terrified. He tricks Tsotsi into leaving the store by giving… read analysis of Cassim

Minor Characters

Johnboy Lethetwa

Johnboy Lethetwa was Boston’s partner in a pass and permit forgery business until the police arrested him, at which point Boston joined another gang. The pass and permit forgery business illustrates how unjust, prejudicial apartheid laws drive Black South Africans to commit crimes.

Tsotsi

Athol Fugard

Tsotsi Characters