Some of you may know that the sequel to my first novel, The Unravelling, is set to be published by the end of November 2024. The sequel is titled A Moment of Madness.
It took me quite some time to settle on a name for the sequel — in fact, I’d written at least half the book before deciding on one. I thought you may be interested in learning how that name came into being.
One of the book’s central plots explores the Gukurahundi campaign — Mugabe’s five-year mission, led by the infamous North Korean-trained 5th Brigade, supposedly aimed at eliminating armed Ndebele dissidents. However, this campaign quickly escalated beyond targeting actual dissidents to systematically terrorising innocent Ndebele citizens in Matabeleland and parts of the Midlands, especially those supporting ZAPU, the main opposition party to Mugabe’s ZANU-PF. Widely regarded as a genocidal operation, the campaign resulted in the deaths of an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Ndebeles.
In my research for the book, I was surprised to find a quote in which Mugabe described the campaign as a moment of madness. Yet, this fleeting reflection does not in any way absolve him of culpability. As the campaign’s architect, Mugabe ordered the 5th Brigade’s training and deployment against the Ndebele and allowed the brutal campaign to continue unchecked for five long years, despite countless reports of unwarranted atrocities against innocent Zimbabwean citizens.
And what drove his moment of madness? Simply put — Mugabe’s relentless pursuit of absolute power in Zimbabwe required him eliminating ZAPU as both a political and military threat.
If you’d like to learn more about the book, you can find more information on the relevant page of my website – https://www.authormichaelchalk.com/published-books-a-moment-of-madness.
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