"Why should anyone write about me? I'm not an important person. I'm not a rich businessman. I'm not from a politically famous or royal family." Jacob Zuma as told to biographer Jeremy Gordin. But of course Zuma has been at the epicentre of South African politics, and his life has spilt almost daily onto the pages of South Africa's newspapers. Often embattled, always controversial, Zuma rose to take control of the ANC in Polokwane last year, unseating President Thabo Mbeki. Now, he appears destined to become the next president of South Africa. In this unauthorised biography, veteran journalist Jeremy Gordin takes the reader beyond the daily and weekly reporting to capture something of the man: his ambitions; the political roller-coaster on which he has been riding and his travails in his quest to become the next president of South Africa. In addition, award-winning writer Gordin covers Zuma's early life as a herd boy, his adult life as a mem-ber of the ANC, his incarceration on Robben Island, his time in exile, and the transitional years of the early 1990s. But the main focus of the story remains the recent past Zuma's alleged corruption in the Arms Deal, his trial for rape, and his rise to power.