Africa Will Always Break Your Heart
by
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The only other type of people than us that existed was ducktails. Ducktails did not cut their hair. They greased it down with bryllcream and combed it into a little ducktail at the back. They wore leather jackets and always carried knives. They wore very tight stovepipe jeans that took them hours to put on. They also drove around on motorcycles and beat up innocent people. They were all dagga (cannabis) smokers and were the scum of the white population. They were different to us. We had to avoid them and avoid becoming like them. I remember walking to a café in Irene a few years later and seeing my first real ducktail buying cigarettes. In awe of being so close to danger, I ogled him for a long time. He had the slicked down hair, a leather jacket with chains and studs and wore stovepipe jeans. I tried to look for the bulge of his flick knife in his back pocket, but could not detect any. The fact that he left on a bicycle and was most probably a wannabe that could not afford his own motorcycle did not diminish the “peril” I had been in. I remember talking about this incident for days.
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About the Book
Hugo does not pull his punches. His opinion on an Emmy award winning documentary about his life reflects this: "In my opinion submitting this material as a ‘documentary’ was equivalent to trying to sell a rodent's rectum to a blind man as a wedding ring. It should be stripped of its awards and be exposed for what it is; a very clever manipulation of half-truths as told by an inebriate trying to please. I will not rest until I have appealed to whatever board that awarded this hogwash an Emmy. You clearly do not know me very well. In the process I would not mind ‘hitting the bottle’ hard one more time. I suggest that a behavioural expert should observe me before, during and after consumption of alcohol and then make a finding as to which ‘character’ is to be found in the recorded matter." Hugo takes one on a wild roller-coaster ride from the first page to the last in this his first book Africa Will Break Your Heart. In a frank manner he addresses all the ‘holy cows’ of his upbringing and adult life. From sexual taboos to cold blooded executions. He as merciless to those around him as he is to himself. All the authority figures of his life gets exposed for what they are — abusers of power. He goes a long way in explaining the mindset of the white population that supported Apartheid. For those of you that want a better understanding of this enigma, this book is a must. Set against the background of the years of Apartheid, war, reform initiatives and finally democratic elections in South Africa. This is a story of one man’s perception of home life and all the bizarre political and military happenings around him. Mathilda Evertsson
About the Author
Gerrie Hugo was born on April 1st 1956 in