'' Burger 's Daughter '' details a group of white anti-apartheid activists in South Africa seeking to overthrow the South African government . It is set in the mid-1970s , and follows the life of Rosa , the title character , as she comes to terms with her father Lionel Burger 's legacy as an activist in the South African Communist Party ( SACP ) . The perspective shifts between Rosa 's internal monologue ( often directed towards her father or her lover Conrad ) , and the omniscient narrator . The novel is rooted in the history of the anti-apartheid struggle and references to actual events and people from that period , including Nelson Mandela and the 1976 Soweto uprising
Soweto uprising
Soweto uprising
Burger's Daughter