A biography of Nelson Mandela, who spent twenty-seven years in jail for his political beliefs, focusing on his fight against apartheid, South Africa's system of segregation and oppression based on color.

The story of South Africa in the 1940s, a land divided by racial injustice, and of Stephen Kumalo, a Zulu Christian pastor, and his son, Absalom, who has been accused of murdering a white man.

"A biracial girl living in post-apartheid South Africa is determined to unveil the mystery of her white mother's hidden past"-- When Amandla wakes up on her fifteenth birthday, she knows it's going to be one of her mother's difficult days. Her mother has had another vision. This one involves Amandla wearing a bedsheet loosely stitched as a dress. An outfit, her mother says, is certain to bring Amandla's father back home, as if he were the prince...

In 1994, having been released from his long imprisonment, Nelson Mandela is elected as the first president of post-apartheid South Africa. Racial tension runs high, even in the president's offices, and especially among the members of his half black, half Afrikaner security team. As hosts of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, South Africa's low ranked national team, the Springboks, have a berth in the tournament. Mandela begins makeing public appearances supporting...