The Promise

Believing oppression and suffering would stop, though, was optimistic. When Phae's friend Nyakane is beaten by Afrikaner police for rescuing a drowning white boy and administering CPR, Phae and his friends are fundamentally altered. Goal-directed discussions replace informal conversations. Meetings become organized and planned. Talks on incendiary bombs, firearms, and the black struggle for freedom overtake their light-hearted banter.

Remedying apartheid in the early 1950s was unlikely, however. Phae thus committed himself to the anti-apartheid weapon with the highest likelihood of success-education. Making his way to Pius XII University College, he is elected chairman of the local branch of the outlawed Pan African Congress. American politicians working in-country quickly take note, and Phae's future spirals toward activism.

With cultural, historical, and political context, The Promise is an in-depth portrait of the barbarism fathered by apartheid and how both Phae and some good-hearted, God-fearing Americans devoted their lives to a democratic, non-racial South Africa.