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In his new book, Africa Will Always Break Your Heart, author Gerrie Hugo shares his first-hand story of racism, corruption and hate during the period before the first ever South African democratic elections.
This book is about paying the ultimate price when speaking out against crimes against humanity committed in the name of Apartheid. And who better to tell the story than someone who was part of the system?
Hugo’s military career began during the Apartheid era. The Government’s propaganda led the white South African to believe that the “Red Peril” wanted to take control over the country. Hugo and many, many others believed that the Communists using the country’s black population as pawns, was the real enemy.
The author joined the army at the age of 17, one of the first to invade Angola.
Hugo tells of the violent hell he survived as a young soldier. For more than 16 years, he fought for Apartheid to save his beloved country from the Communistic onslaught.
In 1991 the negotiations leading up to a democratic South Africa was well under way. Hugo had by then advanced to Colonel. When realizing that the Generals were planning to sabotage the reform-process Hugo lost his blinkers. The real enemy was not some abstract “Red Peril”, but found within the very system he served; the military.
Knowing the consequences would be grave, he took his story to international media. His former brothers-in-arms retaliated swiftly and relentlessly. A price was put out on his head and Hugo was forced to live on the run for many years.
“In Africa, controversy can get you killed,” he says.
This brutally honest, taboo-breaking book bares the hidden shame, fear and guilt causing racism and violence to still plague South Africa. Hugo’s inspirational story proves that it is never too late to change; no matter how deeply entrenched in evil. Through his dark sense of humour, Hugo provides truth and realism to the terrible events obscured from newscasts during Apartheid. .
Millions of people all over the world who were engaged in the Anti-Apartheid Movement are given a chance to a deeper understanding of what happened behind the scenes. How innocence got molded into hate with the most horrifying of consequences
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