He saw his country taken over by white settlers, his people turned into second class citizens. He himself was called everything from savage murderer to Communist tool, and suffered years of prison and seeming defeat. Yet today he heads a free and independent Kenya, and those who once attacked him see him as perhaps the greatest force for progress on a continent swept by the winds of change.

Filled with a reverence for his tribal heritage, young Kenyatta nonetheless educated himself for the future. He might have enjoyed a scholarly career in England; instead he returned to Kenya to lead his people's struggle for "Uhuru," or freedom. Caught between the arrogance of the British and the violent extremism of the Mau Mau rebels, he refused to side with either. And after the colonial government had exhausted itself in battling the rising tide of nationalism, he was given the near-impossible task of governing his bitterly divided nation.

As he sought to solve his country's problems, Kenyatta changed the world's image of himself to that of great African statesmen of stability, reasonableness and skillful leadership. He has largely ended tribal and racial strife in Kenya and has proved to be a shield, not a sword, for the whites who feared him. This African shepherd boy, son of a tribal farmer, grandson of a rainmaking magician, rose to become the sophisticated head of his nation and an important influence in shaping a new Africa.

From the book