In the last days of apartheid in South Africa an all out tribal war raged in the black townships. A brutal African war that claimed the lives of over 20 000 people over a period of 4 years. It was the bloodiest period in South Africa’s history and remained largely hidden from the view of the South African white community and especially the rest of the world due to strict laws silencing the local and foreign media.
This is the autobiography of a police special unit section commander who was on the ground at the coal face of a bloody and violent conflict. Sacrificial mutilations, symbolic acts of murder and violence and widespread suffering of the township folk were witnessed first hand by Sergeant Nick Howarth, who tells his story in a clear graphic manner that will have you glued to your book from beginning to end.
Sergeant Howarth joined the Internal Stability Division of the South African Police Force in 1986 as a 17 year old high school graduate and was thrust into this dark world of savagery and violence that no young man, or any human should need to experience.
It is a story of bloodshed, crazy politics and endurance through a surreal world that most people don’t even see in nightmares. A world where no sexual gender, age, colour, race, religion or language was immune to the “life is cheap” attitude of the township combatants of the African National Congress (ANC) lead by Nelson Mandela, and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) led by Prince Mangosutho Buthalezi.
The ANC being made up of mainly Xhoza speaking tribesmen and the IFP being mainly Zulu speaking tribesmen. Both were in a struggle for the power being given up by the apartheid governments National Party who were slowly backing out of power and rule of South Africa. It was a power struggle like no other, unique in it’s content.
Bombs, massacres, murdering of women and children, courage, cowardice, heart ache, defeat and victory were the order of the day and became part of Howarth’s life as he watched himself drift slowly into the dark depths of hell and tried not to blink an eye.
Howarth spent 9 years of his young life in the political hands of those who led the country into an all out civil war. 9 years that changed his life forever and left scars that not even time can heal.
This is a story that has never been told before and is so incredible it is hard to believe that this actually happened.
With the books first edition in paperback becoming a bestseller an e book was the logical next step. This book is not for the faint hearted.