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Abstract
During the apartheid era, a key component of the Nationalist government's strategy in combating both African nationalism and the perceived threat of communism was the compulsory conscription of young white men into the South African Defence Force (SADF) between 1968 and 1993. Conscription was one relatively small component of a system in which all South Africans' lives were profoundly affected by the political domain's imposition of racial, class and gender stratifications. This paper is based on ongoing research into the psychosocial legacies of the apartheid wars. It explores how some of the burgeoning publications about this period of South African history reflect the intrapersonal legacies and psychological stresses that were caused by the social and political discourses of this context. A particular focus in this discussion is the way in which the social and political fracturings that characterised South African society during the apartheid era have been mirrored in the psychosocial constructs that significantly shaped some conscripts' lives, both at the time and in the post-apartheid context, and continue to influence current South African society.
Notes
1While a ballot system of conscription had been in place prior to this, it was in 1968 that all white men were compelled to serve in the SADF. See G. Baines, ‘Site of Struggle: The Freedom Park Fracas and the Divisive Legacy of South Africa's Border War/Liberation Struggle’, Social Dynamics, 35, 2 (September 2009), 330; G. Baines. ‘Introduction: Challenging the Boundaries, Breaking the Silences’, in G. Baines and P. Vale, eds, Beyond the Border War: New Perspectives on Southern Africa's Late-Cold War Conflicts (Pretoria: University of South Africa, 2008), 1–21.
2Being ‘white’ was a designation bestowed by the Population Registration Act of 1950, based on the apartheid system's categorisation of the South African population into four biologically determined racial groups: whites, coloureds, Indians and Africans (see D. Posel ‘What's in a Name? Racial Categorisations Under Apartheid and their Afterlife’, Transformation, 47 (2001), pp. 50–74 for further discussion on this). Under the apartheid regime, an individual's race, as determined primarily by skin colour (and sometimes also by features such as hair texture), was the basis for deciding many aspects of individuals’ and communities lives: where they lived, where they went to school, whether they could own land, who they could marry, where they could travel, when and with whom they could associate in public. In this case, it was conscripts’ designation as ‘white’ (and male) that was the basis for being called up for military duty.
3G. Baines, ‘Introduction’; D. Gibson ‘‘The Balsak in the Roof’: Bush War Experiences and Mediations as Related by White South African Conscripts’, in Kapteijns, L. and Richters, A., eds, Mediations of Violence in Africa: Fashioning New Futures from Contested Pasts (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2010), 211–245; J. Rauch, ‘War and Resistance’, in G. Cawthra, G. Kraak, and G. O'Sullivan, eds, War and Resistance: Southern African Reports (London: Macmillan Press, 1994) available at www.csvr.org.za/index.php?option=com_contentandtask=viewandid=639 (accessed 11 March 2009).
4C. Draper, Psychological Experiences of Military Conscription in South Africa during the 1970s and 1980s (Psychology Honours paper, University of Cape Town, 1999); M. van Zyl, J. de Gruchy, S. Lapinsky, S. Lewin, and G. Reid, The Aversion Project: Human Rights Abuses of Gays and Lesbians in the South African Defence Force by Health Workers During the Apartheid Era (Cape Town: Simply Said and Done, 1999).
5G. Baines ‘Blame, Shame or Reaffirmation? White Conscripts Reassess the Meaning of the ‘Border War’ in Post-Apartheid South Africa’, InterCulture, 5, 3 (October 2008), 214–227.
6Baines, ‘Blame, Shame or Reaffirmation?’, 214; Rauch, ‘War and Resistance’, 5.
7Rauch ‘War and Resistance’, 9.
8S. Gear, Now that the War is Over. Ex-Combatants, Transition and the Question of Violence: A Literature Review (Johannesburg: Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation; 2002).
9Baines ‘Challenging the Boundaries’, 3; Gibson, ‘The Balsak in the Roof’, 211.
10Baines ‘Challenging the Boundaries’, 5.
11Baines ‘Challenging the Boundaries’, 7.
12A. Diedricks, Journey Without Boundaries: The Operational Life and Experiences of a South African Special Forces Small Team Operator (Durban: Just Done Publications, 2007), 9; E. Windrich, ‘Savimbi's War: Illusions and Realities’, in Baines and Vale, Beyond the Border War, 196.
13L. Nathan, ‘Troops in the Townships, 1984–1987’, in J. Cock and L. Nathan, War and Society: The Militarisation of South Africa (Cape Town and Johannesburg: David Philip, 1989), 67.
14L. Nathan, ‘Troops in the Townships, 1984–1987’, in J. Cock and L. Nathan, War and Society: The Militarisation of South Africa (Cape Town and Johannesburg: David Philip, 1989), 67.
15M. Rogez, ‘Borderline Cases: Madness and Silence in South African Novels’, in Baines and Vale, Beyond the Border War, 130, 131; Baines ‘Challenging the Boundaries’, 5.
16These claims are based on Michelle Crossley's writing concerning the links between phenomenology and narrative theory in M.L. Crossley, Introducing Narrative Psychology: Self, Trauma and the Construction of Meaning (Buckingham and Philadelphia: Open University Press, 2000), and M.L. Crossley, ‘Narrative Psychology, Trauma and the Study of Self/Identity’, Theory Psychology, 10 (2000), 527. The links between phenomenology, narrative and trauma will be discussed later in this paper.
17D. Conway, ‘“Somewhere on the Border – of Credibility”: The Cultural Construction and Contestation of “the Border” in White South African Society’, in Baines and Vale, Beyond the Border War, 73.
18D. Conway, ‘“Somewhere on the Border – of Credibility”: The Cultural Construction and Contestation of “the Border” in White South African Society’, in Baines and Vale, Beyond the Border War, 77.
19J. Cock, Women, the Military and Militarisation: Some Questions Raised by the South African Case (Johannesburg: Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, 1992), 1, available at http://www.csvr.org.za/index.php?option=com_contentandtask=viewandid=632 (accessed 11 March 2009).
20J. Cock, Women, the Military and Militarisation: Some Questions Raised by the South African Case (Johannesburg: Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, 1992), 1, available at http://www.csvr.org.za/index.php?option=com_contentandtask=viewandid=632 (accessed 11 March 2009), 77.
21P. Vale, ‘The Cold War and South Africa: Repetitions and Revisions on a Prolegomenon’, in Baines and Vale, Beyond the Border War, 35.
22O. Phillips, Conscripts in Camp: Making Military Men (2001), 1, available at http://web.uct.ac.za/org/agi/pubs/newsletters/vol8/camp.htm, accessed 11 August 2010.
23D. Conway, ‘The Masculine State in Crisis: State Response to War Resistance in Apartheid South Africa’, in Men and Masculinities, 10, 4 (June 2008), 422–439. Thanks also to Paul Morris (author of http://www.angolajourney.blogspot.com) for highlighting these issues in the course of correspondence regarding this paper.
24Conway, ‘The Masculine State in Crisis’.
25P. Gready, ‘The Public Life of Narratives: Ethics, Politics, Methods’, in M. Andrews, C. Squire, and M. Tamboukou, eds, Doing Narrative Research (London: Sage, 2008), 141.
26There are two memoirs about gay men in the military that explore some of these complexities: A.C. van der Merwe, Moffie: A Novel (Hermanus: Penstock Publishing, 2006), and H. Pillay, The Rainbow Has No Pink (Johannesburg: 30 Degrees South, 2009). An account of the harsh psychological treatment meted out to some homosexual men can be found in M. van Zyl et al., The Aversion Project.
28Conway, ‘The Masculine State in Crisis’, 436.
27This perceived enemy was a fractured phenomenon in itself. Whether one's view is that the wars were being fought on two separate fronts or were a confused conflation of the fight against communism and African nationalism into one war on many fronts, the fact remains that ‘the enemy’ was not clearly defined, besides being determined as a racial and ideological other and a threat.
29Conway, ‘Somewhere on the Border – of Credibility’, 80.
30Conway, ‘Somewhere on the Border – of Credibility’, 80.
31van Zyl et al., The Aversion Project, 73.
32Baines, ‘Challenging the Boundaries’, 1.
33J. Cock, ‘Introduction’, in J. Cock and L. Nathan, eds, War and Society: The Militarisation of South Africa (Cape Town and Johannesburg: David Philip, 1989), 1, 2.
34J. Cock, ‘Introduction’, in J. Cock and L. Nathan, eds, War and Society: The Militarisation of South Africa (Cape Town and Johannesburg: David Philip, 1989), 1, 2.
35M. Rogez, ‘Borderline Cases’, 125.
36C. Caruth, Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative and History (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), 5, 17.
37Judith Herman's Trauma and Recovery: From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror (London: Pandora, 2001) is a seminal work in highlighting these themes, albeit in the context of the United Sates of America.
38Crossley, ‘Narrative Psychology, Trauma and the Study of Self/Identity’, 534.
39Crossley, ‘Narrative Psychology, Trauma and the Study of Self/Identity’, 534.
40Crossley, Introducing Narrative Psychology, 56.
41Gready, ‘The Public Life of Narratives’, 141.
42K. Batley, ‘“Documents of Life”: South African Soldiers’ Narratives of the Border War’, in Baines and Vale, eds, Beyond the Border War, 185.
43There is extensive literature about the inner fracturing that military training and experience cause for people, particularly in relation to the Vietnam War. The work of Edward Tick (War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation's Veterans from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 2005)) and Jonathan Shay (Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character (Scribner: New York, 2003) are particularly apposite examples.
44The Official Secrets Act of 1965 prohibited a signatory from speaking about anything to do with the military and its work. See Diana Gibson ‘The Balsak in the Roof’, 213, for some discussion of this.
45Gibson, ‘The Balsak in the Roof’, 218.
46This point was made in the course of correspondence with ex-conscript Paul Morris (author of a blog regarding his coming to terms with his experiences: http://www.angolajourney.blogspot.com/). It is also referred to in Sasha Gear ‘Wishing Us Away: Challenges Facing ex-combatants in the “new” South Africa’, in Violence and Transition Series, Vol. 8, 2002 (Braamfontein: Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation), 133.
47E. Lomsky-Feder, ‘Life Stories, War and Veterans: On the Social Distribution of Memories’, Ethos, 32, 1 (2004), 82–109, 84.
48Hayes cites Karen Batley's introduction to A Secret Burden: Memories of the Border War by South African Soldiers who fought in it (Jeppestown: Jonathan Ball, 2007), 35, with regard to the term ‘white hell’.
49J. Liebenberg and P. Hayes, Bush of Ghosts: Life and War in Namibia 1986–90 (Cape Town: Umuzi, 2010), 11.
50The idea remembering that which has been dismembered draws on themes from Toni Morrison's novel Beloved (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1987).
51J.H. Thompson, An Unpopular War: From Afkak to Bosbefok – Voices of South African National Servicemen (Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2006). The second part of the title uses Afrikaans colloquialisms from the time, roughly translated it means from ‘pissed off’ (angry, resentful) to ‘bush fucked’ (traumatised by what happened while fighting in the bush).
52The text used in this research was printed in the eleventh run, which was in 2009.
53This statement draws heavily on discussions around this theme in Sasha Gear's paper, ‘Wishing Us Away’.
54See http://zebra.book.co.za/blog/2007/02/14/letters-from-an-unpopular-war-ex-conscripts-write-in/, accessed 24 May 2011.
55M. Graham, ‘Cold War in Southern Africa’, Africa Spectrum, 1 (2010), 131–139, available at http://hup.sub.uni-hamburg.de/giga/afsp/article/viewFile/251/251, accessed 24 May 2011.
56Examples include: A. Feinstein, In Conflict (Windhoek: New Namibia Books, 1998); R. Andrews, Buried in the Sky (London and Sandton: Penguin, 2001); B. Fowler, ed., Pro Patria (Durban: Just Done Productions, 2006); C. Holt, At Thy Call We Did Not Falter: A Frontline Account of the 1988 Angolan War as seen through the Eyes of a Conscripted Soldier (Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2005).
57Examples include: T. Ramsden, Border-Line Insanity: A National Serviceman's Story (Bloomington, IN: Trafford, 2007); S. Webb, Ops Medic: A National Serviceman's Border War (Johannesburg: Galago, 2008); C. Blake, Troepie: From Call-Up to Camps (Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2009); G. Korff, 19 With a Bullet: A South African Paratrooper in Angola (Johannesburg: 30 Degrees South, 2009); C. Blake, From Soldier to Civvy: Reflections on National Service (Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2010); A. Feinstein, Battle Scarred: Hidden Costs of the Border War (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2011).
58Christopher, A Branch of Wisdom: A Quest for Meaning in a Divided World (Kommetjie: Beyond Books, 2002).
59Operation Askari was a major SADF offensive into Angola during December 1983 and January 1984. Further details can be found at http://sadf.info/SWATF%20Operations.html and http://www.ajsportugal.org/ModernosVA/Angola_Askari_1.2.pdf, accessed 25 June 2011.
60Christopher's blog about this can be found at http://bipolardaily.blogspot.com/2010/04/dr-aubrey-levine-aka-dr-shock-and-his.html. Dr Aubrey Levine was a military psychologist in charge of Ward 22 (later called Ward 24) who used shock therapy long after it had been discredited as a psychiatric method of treatment, both for general treatment and to ‘cure’ homosexual men and women, resulting in his nickname Dr Shock. (Details of his work in this regard can be found in The Aversion Project Report.) Levine fled South Africa and moved to Canada, with the result that South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission was unable to hold him to account for alleged gross violations of human rights. He was arrested in Canada in March 2010 on charges of sexually assaulting a male patient at the hospital where he was working at the time. (See http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/28/aubrey-levin-charged-sexually-abusing-patient and http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/apartheid-s-dr-shock-arrested-on-sex-charge-1.477575, both accessed 2 June 2010). His arrest was the catalyst for several letters, blogs and emails to the ECC Listserve (see ‘Tormented Ward 22 Patients of “Dr Shock” Sobbed in Their Sleep’, a letter to the Cape Times, 29 March 2010, and the blog by Christopher, author of A Branch of Wisdom, at http://bipolardaily.blogspot.com/search/label/Aubrey%20Levin as examples).
61In an interview with Christopher in November 2010, he indicated that Ward 22 was renamed Ward 24 some time after the conclusion of the Aversion Project.
62In an interview conducted with Christopher in November 2010, he indicated that he thought his professor was probably Dr Aubrey Levine, but that he couldn't be sure.
63Christopher, A Branch of Wisdom, 49, 50.
64Christopher, A Branch of Wisdom, 116.
65Christopher, A Branch of Wisdom, 27.
66Christopher, A Branch of Wisdom, 204.
67The phrase ‘wished away’ draws on Sasha Gear's paper, ‘Wishing Us Away’.
68Baines, ‘Blame, Shame or Reaffirmation?’.
69Truth and Reconciliation Report Volume 4, 222ff available at http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/Volume%204.pdf, accessed 18 September 2011.
70The transcript of Laurie Nathan's testimony to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission can be found at http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/special/conscrip/conscr02.htm, accessed 18 September 2011.
71Gibson, ‘The Balsak in the Roof’.
72TRC Report Volume 4.
73Baines, ‘Blame, Shame or Reaffirmation?’
74TRC Report Volume 4.
75G. Baines, ‘Site of Struggle: The Freedom Park Fracas and the divisive legacy of South Africa's Border War / Liberation Struggle’, Social Dynamics, 35, 2 (September 2002), 330–334; Gibson, ‘The Balsak in the Roof’, 227.
76Gear, ‘Wishing Us Away’, 133.
77See http://www.beeld.com/In-Diepte/Nuus/Afrikaner-vat-jou-verlede-terug-20110622, accessed 20 July 2011.
78See http://www.beeld.com/In-Diepte/Nuus/Wittes-het-baie-skuld-20110704 and http://www.dieburger.com/Opinie/Nog/Moenie-apartheid-vergoeilik-nie-20110714, accessed 20 July 2011.
79See http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Maties-professor-attacked-in-office-20110714, http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Right-wingers-praise-attack-on-prof-20110715, http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Varsity-rejects-claims-of-trap-20110718, accessed 20 July 2011.
80At http://mspoliticalcommentary.blogspot.com/2011/07/lippy-liberal-afrikaner-prof-anton-van.html, accessed 20 July 2011.
81At www.thedailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2011-07-20-racial-nationalism-the-silliest-disease-of-them-all, accessed 20 July 2011.
82At http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/746.1, accessed 12 September 2011.
83A laager is the Afrikaans word for the defensive system of creating a circle of ox-wagons to protect early Dutch /Afrikaner settlers from attack. It is often used as a metaphor for a closed, defensive, adversarial mentality.
84At http://www.newsfeed24.com/a/zuma-opens-road-of-reconciliation, accessed 10 January 2012.
85At http://archbishop.anglicanchurchsa.org/2010/09/archbishop-thabo-makgobas-charge-to.html, accessed 1 October 2010.
86The Archbishop alluded to some of his involvement in his address at Albertina Sisulu's funeral, which can be found at http://archbishop.anglicanchurchsa.org/2011/06/sermon-at-funeral-of-albertina-sisulu.html, accessed 14 June 2010.