Khulu Radebe already had had a full life before discovering at the age of 50 that he was a king. As a teenager, he teamed with other Alexandra Township youth to carry out the 1976 uprisings just prior to the Soweto rising. Arrested and sent to Robben Island, he was one of the youngest prisoners there.

He served six years on the island with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki, amongst others. After returning to Alex, he helped organise the township during the 1986 Six Days War. He joined the armed struggle, repeatedly dodging death from the enemy and fellow MK soldiers in Angola, and later travelled the globe as a drummer for the ANC’s Amandla Cultural Ensemble. At age 50, and proving a midwife’s prediction correct, Khulu Radebe learned about his royal roots.

He was informed that he was ruler of the AmaHlubi people of the Embo Nation, a nation that stretches along the east coast of Africa. In chronicling Radebe’s extraordinary life and times, this landmark biography tells, in a humane, vivid and deeply political way, of the revolutionary path for freedom in South Africa, and the role traditional leaders can play in shaping the nation’s future.

Gripping and original, Comrade King makes a powerful contribution to understanding South Africa’s past and present at a critical moment in the nation’s history.