Godwin, Peter - When A Crocodile Eats The Sun
10:53am Thursday 26th April 2007
FROM the brilliant Zimbabwe-born author and journalist Peter Godwin, When A Crocodile Eats The Sun is the hotly anticipated follow-up to Mukiwa: A White Boy In Africa, and it certainly doesn't disappoint.
Tinged with memories of a magical childhood in Africa, the systematic decimation of Zimbabwe is a subject close to Godwin's heart, and makes this book an extraordinarily powerful and emotional memoir of a country whose suffering has been largely forgotten - or indeed ignored - by the rest of the world.
The Zulus have an ancient belief that solar eclipses only occur when a crocodile eats the sun, but it also works as a perfect metaphor to describe the terrifying descent into darkness which has all-but enveloped Zimbabwe since Robert Mugabe was elected as President in 1980.
Following 15 years of minority rule under Ian Smith, Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party initially represented high hopes for a completely new political and social landscape for all of the people living in the former Rhodesia.
However, the horrifying realities of Mugabe's new regime were soon made apparent to all Zimbabweans, regardless of creed or colour, and what was once touted as the breadbasket' of Africa quickly went into free-fall with daily incidents of brutality and intimidation becoming as commonplace as chronic food shortages and hyper-inflation.
Through the lives of his incredibly resilient and brave parents, Godwin provides a truly personal snapshot on what life is really like for ordinary Zimbabweans fighting to survive while Mugabe and his decorated thugs indiscriminately run their country into the ground.
Currently living between Manhattan with his young family and Zimbabwe where his mother faces life as a recent widow, Godwin's unconcealed passion and despair at the country's decline only make When A Crocodile Eats The Sun all the more poignant.
The reason why the world continues to ignore the plight of a nation at breaking point is one question that Godwin cannot answer - but then who can?