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Peter Godwin

The Fear: The Last Days of Robert Mugabe Hardcover – 1 Oct. 2010

by Peter Godwin (Author)

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In mid-2008, after thirty years of increasingly tyrannical rule, Robert Mugabe, the eighty-four-year-old ruler of Zimbabwe, met his politburo. He had just lost an election. But instead of conceding power, he was persuaded to launch a brutal campaign of terror to cower his citizens. Journalist and author Peter Godwin was one of the few observers to slip into the country and bear witness to the terrifying period that Zimbabweans call, simply, the Fear. Following on from his compelling and moving memoirs, Mukiwa and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, this is a personal journey through the country Peter Godwin grew up in and knows so well a landscape and a people, grotesquely altered, laid waste by a raging despot. At considerable risk, he travels widely to see the torture bases, the burned villages, the death squads, the opposition leaders in hiding, the last white farmers, the churchmen and the diplomats putting their own lives on the line to stop the carnage. Told with Godwin's brilliant eye for character and natural story-telling gifts, this dark story of Africa's corruption and violence is populated by extraordinary characters whose lives have been shaped by the Fear.

Print length

368 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Picador
Publication date

1 Oct. 2010
Reading age

18 years and up
Dimensions

16.2 x 3.2 x 24 cm
ISBN-10

9780330507769
ISBN-13

978-0330507769
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Review

'Godwin is an energetic reporter who gets into the action at the key points.' --Sunday Times

'Godwin has become the pre-eminent chronicler of his country's tragic past decade... Godwin himself took considerable risks by reporting illegally from Zimbabwe during that period and at one point had to flee the country, but he has excellent connections and a remarkable ability to be in the right place at the right time. He is also a compelling writer who leavens the horror with an endless array of colourful characters, wry insights and amusing anecdotes.' --The Times

'Powerful, shocking and deeply personal memoir' --Daily Mail

'Robert Mugabe brings out the best in Peter Godwin, lawyer by training, journalist by profession, and writer by vocation... The Fear is a riveting account of an evil regime that festers at the heart of southern Africa.' --Literary Review

'Peter Godwin's latest book is the most powerful indictment of Robert Mugabe's regime yet written, marking out the author as one of the sharpest observers of modern Africa. He is tough but sympathetic, aghast at the horror yet still hopeful that Africa's resilient, long-suffering people will somehow win through against the gangsters led by Mr Mugabe who refuse to give up power.' --Economist

'Godwin's book is a brave, sensitive and observant account of Zimbabwe's tragedy, exposing the cruelty of Mugabe's regime and the remarkable courage of those who have defied it.' --Financial Times

'Godwin went across the country, visiting white farmers, terrified opposition leaders in hiding and even blood diamond miners who came within an ace of making him yet another victim of the ill-fated stones. His book is a beautifully written chronicle of his journey through his ravaged but still achingly beautiful homeland, detailing not just the tragedy of Mugabe's reign but also the hope and determination of the brave folk, including the remaining handful of white farmers, who still struggle on.' --Independent

'His book is a beautifully written chronicle of his journey through his ravaged but still beautiful homeland' --Independent

'Peter Godwin' s passionate and courageous memoir catalogues Zimbabwe's descent into horror with such vivid detail that the squeamish reader would do well to look away now... But this is not just a book about the savagery of Mugabe's goons. It is a testament to the courage and resilience of my fellow countrymen and women. Far from cowering in terror before the machetes and penises of the so-called war vets and youth brigades, Godwin's heroes refuse to back down. Again and again they find ways to resist. This remarkable courage runs a thread of hope through the book . . . Godwin, who was himself arrested in an Anglican church, successfully straddles the many divides in Zimbabwe today - between urban and rural, black and white, rich and poor - to give a well-balanced picture, with exquisite attention to detail, of the reality of life in Zimbabwe today.' --Guardian

'How Mugabe has done it - achieved victory in defeat - is a great story brilliantly told by Zimbabwean-born journalist Peter Godwin . . . Godwin has a great eye for details, and writes pithy descriptions of some principal characters.' --Mail on Sunday

About the Author

Peter Godwin is an award winning author and journalist. Born and raised in Zimbabwe, he studied law and international relations at Cambridge and Oxford. He worked as a foreign correspondent in Africa and Eastern Europe for The Sunday Times of London. He was founding presenter and writer of Assignment/Correspondent, BBC TV's premier foreign affairs program. He now lives in Manhattan and contributes regularly to National Geographic, New York Times Magazine, and BBC Radio, among others.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0330507761
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador; First Edition (1 Oct. 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780330507769
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0330507769
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.2 x 3.2 x 24 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 485,141 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 63 in History of Zimbabwe
- 231 in History of Southern Africa
- 418 in African Historical Biographies

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4.4 213 ratings

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Peter Godwin

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Peter Godwin is the award winning author of The Fear, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, and Mukiwa, all published by Picador. He writes for various publications including the New York Times magazine, National Geographic and Vanity Fair. He lives in Manhattan.

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AK

The fourth installment in Godwin's writing on Rhodesia / Zimbabwe - and a sad first hand account of the state violence of 2008

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 May 2013

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In his fourth book on Zimbabwe (after Rhodesians Never Die: Change on White Rhodesia, C.1970-1980: The Impact of War and Political Change on White Rhodesia, C.1970-80 (State and Democracy Series) , Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun ) Peter Godwin covers the post election violence in 2008 and the 'birth' of the Government of National Unity (GNU).

If you have read any of his previous books (not necessary for the full appreciation of this book but still helpful), you will largely know what to expect style-wise; what you get in this book, though, is a much more chilling account - simply in line with the enormous rise in state sponsored violence and 'politicide' unleashed by Mugabe, after he effectively lost the 2008 election.

The violence meticulously chronicled by Peter Godwin (who was on the ground in Zimbabwe over most of the period) is unembellished but still nothing for the fainthearted. The book contains countless first hand examples of Mugabe's henchmen unleashing 'The Fear' amongst people who possibly (with few questions asked) voted for MDC instead of ZANU-PF and both the severity of the examples and their multitude is sickening.

Naturally - given the topic and the fact that all of the author's relatives moved out of Zimbabwe by 2008 - the personal element is somewhat less pronounced than in Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa or When a Crocodile Eats the Sun but this does not make the book completely different in style or tenor to the earlier two.

The story told is one of unimaginable terror and is likely to fill readers with either sadness or rage but the author also shows some rays of hope - the people of Zimbabwe have refused to be completely cowed by the state organized violence and one can only hope that their sacrifice leads to a better future ahead. The international response has been largely muted and ineffective, even if some of the local ambassadors do lots to try and ameliorate at least some of the excesses.

In summary, I find the book an important account of a 'conflict' often forgotten about by mainstream media, and anyone interested in the region would do well to read it.

2 people found this helpful

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Clouds Hill

Mugabe The Tyrant Lives On

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 February 2013

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The title of this book displays, in retrospect, wishful thinking as the tyrant lives on, several years after the book was written, supported by his cronies and the military.

Peter Godwin has written another excellent account of the travails endured by this beautiful country and its courageous people. In some respects this is not a book for the fainthearted, given its subject matter. It is a chronicle of a nation's suffering and should be required reading for all government officials everywhere and the International Criminal Court. Mugabe and his henchmen should be made to atone for their crimes and not offered a deal to go quietly.

I agree with all of the positive reviews set out in the front and back of the Picador Edition in the UK and in particular the words attributed to the writer for NPR: "In the hands of a less talented writer, The Fear could have become too painful to read. But while Godwin spares us nothing, he writes with such compassion, poetry and ironic humor that you cannot put his book down....It makes each and everyone one of us a witness".

Read it.

I have one very trivial quibble in the context of a book that I would recommmend to everyone. It's over the use of one word in the book, repeated a couple of times; the word "guerilla" used to describe those involved in the Civil War 30 years ago. I fought in that war, along with Peter Godwin, and in my day they were known as "terrorists". Understandably, in the times that we live in now and with reconcilation on both sides being key to progress towards peace, the latter term now seems out of place, but let's not forget that many of the guerillas involved in liberation from white rule committed some pretty heinous deeds along the way.

I look forward to Mr Godwin's next book but only hope and pray that any such account details the passage of President Bob from this world to the next.

4 people found this helpful

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Harty

Everybody should read this book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 January 2014

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With a number of Zimbabwean relatives and having spent considerable time there throughout the 90s I witnessed the run up to some of the events described. This political genocide, and have no doubt, this is exactly what Mugabe has perpetrated, has not been significantly reported in the UK as there has been, and still is, a total ban on UK jounalists visiting Zim. Peter Godwin took significant risks in researching this book and his account is devastatingly sad and often horrific. We Westerners 'excuse' African despotic dictators through a kind of embarrassment over the British Empire. Rhodesia, however, was not a British Colony, did not have aparteid and in many respects gave wealth prosperity, security and safety to the native population. When Rhodesia became Zimbabwe Robert and Sally Mugabe were relatively moderate in government and the farming and tourism that was the basis of the national wealth continued to run pretty well. I don't know if it is coincidental with the departure of Sally, but since taking on his new wife Mugabe appears to have gone completely mad. Since then he has stolen much of the wealth of his nation, whilst systematically destroying the fabric that created that wealth. Back in 94 his personal fortune probably equalled Zimbabwe's national debt (work that one out).
The horrors that he has perpetrated since should have inspired international intervention, but have not done so! Why? Many say that it is simply because Zim has no oil. So, we sit back and accept the genocide, one of the greatest national attrocities since the Nazis were in power?
I have travelled in this once beautiful country. Visted the glorious places that are made waste. Talked to the happy, gentle, kind Zimbabweans who are now oppresses by torture and violence.
I feel that this is one of the greatest tragedies of the modern world. Read this book and be ashamed......

8 people found this helpful

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The Fear: The Last Days of Robert Mugabe Hardcover – 1 Oct. 2010

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