Satanism: The Greatest Trick The Devil Ever Played

by Masimba Musodza

Zimbabwe’s own master of horror fiction takes on the reality of a subject that has gripped the hearts of millions in ways even his stories ever could, and fearlessly separates facts from fiction. For Masimba Musodza, the Devil’s greatest trick has not been to make people think he doesn’t exist, but rather that he does. Since then, it seems to him that the rest of his country has gone mad, caught up in a Satanic Panic that is as irrational and potentially destructive as any that has seized the U.S. and other Christian nations. The information presented here is based on Musodza’s own research. Much of it challenges what is being circulated in the mainstream media, and in the Christian and Rastafarian churches. While nothing like his works of fiction, this too is a book only for those who are not afraid…….

166 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 10, 2012

About the author

"Musodza knows the value of creating a cyclical story, but he also understands that themes and time can be cyclical, too. ...The malaise of the past becomes the terror of the present, and good men easily become bad when the situation demands. Musodza's skill is to foster empathy within the reader for Stanley, but also for the hitchhiker, and then to demolish the feelings for both. In the end, there are no winners, and yesterday's dog is tomorrow's master. And of course he wants his own dog, too." - Damian Kelleher, 2010

“‘When the Trees Were Enchanted’ by Masimba Musodza is, by any measure, an extraordinarily fine work of fiction.- Wendy Bousfield, FutureFires.net, 2016

Masimba Musodza’s characters live in a morally gray world where the debate about whether the ends justify the means rages on. Lots of little details that, upon a second or third reading, take on a deeper significance.- Alex Brown, Must-Read Speculative Short Fiction for October 2021, Tor.com

Masimba was born in Zimbabwe, but has lived much of his adult life in the UK, settling in the North East England town of Middlesbrough. He has published over 40 pieces of short fiction, mostly on the Speculative Fiction genre spectrum, in anthologies and periodicals around the world and online. He has also published two novels and a novella in ChiShona, and a collection of short stories in English. He was listed in Geoff Ryman's 100 African Writers Of Speculative Fiction He has become a regular at the Festival of the Battle For Ideas, held annually in London. He contributes to Sticks & Stones, the premier Black British magazine in the North East of England.