Samuel's parents and young sister, innocent bystanders during an uprising, are killed by South African police. Samuel is sent to live with his uncle, a tribal chief in the Bantu homeland, while his brother vows to join the African National Congress armed struggle and avenge his family's deaths. In the h omeland, Samuel discovers he can run faster than anyone and before long begins to train under his English-educated uncle. Years later, after the end of Apartheid, Samuel is selected as the token black South African athlete to run in the Olympics. President Nelson Mandela is there when he wins his gold medal, and Samuel dedicates it to 'a very special man... I was running for the President. I was running for my country.'



This is a fictional story, not a biography. It follows one man's struggle for freedom in Apartheid South Africa during the years before Nelson Mandela's release from prison. Many of the events portrayed actually happened. The characters, however, are entirely fictional.

The book is inspired in part by Josiah Thugwane, the first black South African to win an Olympic gold medal. It is dedicated to all South Africans, black and white, who fought to bring justice and freedom to their country.