The book was written in 1985, when apartheid was still in force in South Africa. One of the consequences of this was that many adults were forced to work a long way away from where their children lived, in jobs such as domestic service and mining. The movements of black people were controlled, who had to get permission to live in a certain city, so it wasn't easy to move around or go back home. Naledi and Tiro and their sister, Dinea, live with their aunt and grandmother and have always accepted that this is the way things are; however much they might miss their mother (and their father, who worked in the mines, but has died previous to the beginning of the story), she has to go away and work so that she can send them money for food, school, etc. Their trip to Johannesburg, however, opens up their eyes to some of the injustices people face, and also that there are people who want to change things.
At that time many people in England were largely unaware of the prejudices and ill treatment faced every day by the black population of South Africa, and this book was written partly to raise awareness of this among British children. I think it does this well, touching on issues such as the separation of parents and children, black people not being able to move around freely, children bring brought up to be servants; but in a way that is quite child appropriate. It is also a good story, about the determination and courage of the two children, and discovering things about themselves/the world around them. And despite the subject matter, it is a hopeful story; it ends with Toledi's determination that she is going to start finding out what she can do to speak out against what is happening, and with the hope that things can change (as, indeed, they did).
I found the author's afterword interesting, too. She writes that, growing up, she never really thought about the injustice that was going on around her, because she was never taught to question it; it was just how things were. Despite being half Jewish herself and very aware of what had gone on in Europe during WW2 and what might have happened to her had she lived there, it never occurred to her that similar things might be going on around her. It wasn't until she went to university that she became aware of this, and started campaigning to change things.
Interestingly, although Naledi and Tiro have a very different existence to the author, this is also a journey they go on (as well as the literal journey). Living in an all-black, rural area, the children are sheltered from some of the worst injustices that go on, and they accept things - such as their mother having to work in Johannesburg, so that they are not able to see her very often - as just the way things are. It is only when they go to the city and talk to some people there that Toledi realises that things are really bad and that this is wrong. So in a way, this is similar to what the author went through.
It's a very short book (only 80 pages) but I though it was a good read. It covers some of the issues, without becoming overburdened by them, and it is overall a hopeful story. Even though the policy of apartheid has now, thankfully, come to an end, it is still worth reading as a portrait of things that people went through, and of course, many of the issues are still relevant today.
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