The Midnight Intruder: Surviving Gwedu

She was eleven years old when the hand came over her mouth. In a rural Zambian village, the night drums warn of gwedu-men who enter girls' huts while they sleep. Thandiwe Banda wakes to a stranger's weight on her body, a whispered threat against her sister, and a choice: stay silent or fight.She bites. She screams. She survives. But survival is only the beginning. The village elders want her to forget. The man who attacked her hides behind a wall of silence. The law is two days' walk away.With the help of a teacher, a policewoman, and a woman in a blue vest who teaches girls that their bodies belong to them, Thandiwe becomes the voice her village tried to bury.The Midnight Intruder is a harrowing and hopeful novel about one girl's fight for justice-and the movement that grew from her courage. Inspired by real practices in rural Zambia.

Pages: 206, Paperback, Independently published