In 'Chain of Fire' Beverly Naidoo tells the story of a young girl's increasing involvement in the struggle of black South Africans to survive under apartheid: the political system that segregated black South Africans and other peoples of 'coloured' descent from white South Africans. But it was not until 1990 that a gradual dismantling of apartheid began followed by the release of Nelson Mandela who had been sentenced to life imprisonment since 1964 as an activist for the ANC (African National Congress).