Child of the Soil is the autobiography of a South African freedom fighter in the 1980s. Mphahlele starts from the beginning, his childhood in the village of Manaleng which if I understand correctly is along a chain that stretches from the Western Cape to Natal. His childhood memories are the best part of the book. Stories of his family, his grandmother, his initiation into manhood and then his refusal to take part in the second stage, his brief conversion with religion which he gives up after finding out about an affair between a fellow church member he is secretly in love with and another person. It is at this point that his politicalaisation begins and he eventually runs away to join the freedom fighters. At first he joins up with the ANC for no other reason than that is who he comes across first but eventually joins the PAC.

The remainder of the book focuses on his life as a commander with the PAC. It is a strange life as they seem to spend all of the time moving from place to place, country to country, training, hiding or quarelling amongst themselves or with others such as the ANC. But nobody ever seems to do any “freedom fighting” rather there is a lot of politicising and manouvering of individuals and various groups. I suppose the most I can say is it gives a good insight into what the PAC and ANC were doing behind doors in the 1980s which was basically trying to build up constituencies around the country.