Racial Inequality

Tengo is a black boy in South Africa whose family works on a white man's farm. Tengo plays with the farmer's nephew. As a small child, Tengo sees nothing wrong with this relationship or the way his family lives. However, as Tengo grows older, he begins to see differences in his life as compared with Frikkie's life. Frikkie is allowed to attend school for free while Tengo would have to pay. Frikkie has tea in the big house while Tengo eats his leftovers out in the yard. Frikkie has a large house with a room of his own, but Tengo lives in a dirt floored hut that he shares with four other members of his family.

The older Tengo gets, the more he realizes that the blacks in his country are not treated fairly. The blacks in the cities must carry passes and they must have jobs...