In this spellbinding autobiography, Bevin Magama is
unflinching in his account of his journey to adulthood.
As a child, violence was the norm. As a young man, he
joined the Zimbabwean military. He became an
intelligence officer in Mugabe's regime, serving in
clandestine operations in guerilla wars in the Congo
while raising a family back home. He skilfully played
this dangerous game until, one day, he was given orders
that forced him to run. Set against the backdrop of
Mugabe's rise to power and reign of terror, Vicious
weaves together Magama's personal recollections with
traditional African folklore. "The contents of this book
are true events that have shaped and moulded me into the
man I am. Some names of people have been changed to
protect their privacy. What drove me to write this book
is a quest for peace after a life caught up in a vicious
cycle of violence. I look back and realise I had the
freedom to be my own judge and choose either forgiveness
or hatred. In my world, I picked up a habit, an
addiction to living dangerously and recklessly. Like a
cocaine addict, I needed something that gave me kicks. A
myriad of addictions came my way. From childhood, I
loved the buzz I got from choosing punch-ups instead of
handshakes. As I grew older, hormones running wild, I
added womanising to my basket of addictions. Whilst
flirting with self-destruction, I honed the art of
seduction and deception. Throughout my own missteps in
the twists and turns of a vicious life, one thing
remained a constant - the art of storytelling. Evolving
with each cycle, setting pace to the parameters of my
life, the world of stories became my comfort zone to
which I would escape to before returning to my
addictions. This is my story..." Bevin Magama
|
|