This is the story of how a young Xhosa herdboy, growing up among the green hills of the Eastern Cape, became the first black president of South Africa. As he studied and became a lawyer in Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela saw more and more how unfair the laws of the country were to black people, and how they suffered because of it. And the worst of it was, they had no power to set it right because black people were not allowed to vote for a government of their choice. So Tata Mandela decided to give all his time and strength to fight the government's big plan called apartheid. Apartheid meant that black and white people were kept apart and that the best of everything was for white people only. Soon, his actions got him into trouble, and he was locked up for 27 years. But when he got out of there, everything had changed, and he was made the first-ever president of all the people of the land, black and white. He became a hero for all in South Africa and the world over, and this book tells his story.