Since his release from prison in 1990, Nelson Mandela has emerged as the world's most potent moral leader since Gandhi. The foster son of a Tembu chief, Mandela grew up straddling two worlds: the traditional culture of his tribe and the hostile reality of a white-dominated nation-state. His pivotal role in the anti-apartheid movement led to a life underground and imprisonment for his political beliefs and activities. A triumphant sequence of events then followed which climaxed in April 1994, with the appointment of Mandela not only as the first-ever black South African president, but as the first man to govern a democratic, multi-racial South African society. This work is Mandela's own account of his and his country's epic journey. Abridged and illuminated with dramatic photographs, this deluxe edition chronicles the man, his land and his people.