An Unpopular War: From afkak to bosbefok. Voices of South African National Servicemen

Title: An Unpopular War
Subtitle: From afkak to bosbefok. Voices of South African National Servicemen
Author: J. H. Thompson
Publisher: Struik Publishers
Imprint: Zebra Press
Cape Town, South Africa 2006
ISBN 9781770073012 / ISBN 978-1-77-007301-2
Paperback, 15 x 23 cm, 256 pages

About: An Unpopular War: From afkak to bosbefok. Voices of South African National Servicemen

Until 1994, all white male South Africans were called up for National Service in the year they turned 18. This could be deferred for a few years if the person was studying, but to avoid it meant a jail term. In the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, hundreds of thousands of young men served in the military, most going through intense physical training and many of them being sent to fight the war in northern Namibia and Angola. I interviewed over 40 men who were required to do National Service, in order to record their personal memories of this military era. This book, An Unpopular War: From afkak to bosbefok. Voices of South African National Servicemen, is a collection of mental snapshots from their time as SADF conscripts: an inspection, the routine of camp life, the monotony and dread of patrols, the terror of a battle.

Whatever the experience, it came with intensity absent in civilian life. The men I interviewed spoke honestly of fear, boredom, loss, crying, drinking, fighting, of deep friendships and a yearning for the camaraderie they had then. Their stories also give an anecdotal record of the idiosyncrasies and slang from that period, and the way that these varied in different regions and units. The interviews covered a wide range of experiences. The men spoke of life in the army, the navy and the air force. Some were chefs and medics, others were Recces and Parabats. One was a conscientious objector serving time in a military prison. A few of them stayed on for longer than their two years’ National Service, such as the helicopter pilots. Most are identified by their first name and their age at the time, although some preferred to remain anonymous.

There are a few duplicate names but no false ones. Even though most National Servicemen called up for military service did not experience combat, their time with the military had a profound and lasting impact on them. The war, fought primarily in South Africa’s protectorate South West Africa (Namibia) and in Angola, was an unpopular one on many fronts. Many young men, straight out of school or university, were not staunchly patriotic and did not want to give two years of their lives to the military, mothers didn’t want to lose sons, and South Africa’s apartheid government was condemned internationally for fighting an unjust war. It was a radically different political climate – one that now, from the perspective of a non-racial and democratic South Africa, is almost impossible to comprehend.

Today, it is not socially acceptable for these men to talk about their experiences. But even if the politics were abhorrent, this doesn’t make the soldiers so. These stories are their experiences as remembered by them. I wrote them as they were told, with no embellishment or editing to make them seem better men, or worse. It is not clichéd at all to say that without certain people this book would not exist. Most obviously and most importantly are the men whom I interviewed. Thank you for trusting me with your stories and memories, without which I could not have written this book. An Unpopular War: From afkak to bosbefok - Voices of South African National Servicemen is not my book, it is yours.

Content: An Unpopular War: From afkak to bosbefok. Voices of South African National Servicemen

Preface
Acknowledgements
You’re in the Army Now
Soutpiele and Dutchmen
G1K1, G4K-Fucked Up
Drill and Weapons
Washing, Ironing, Inspection
Chefs and Blue Eggs
Afkak, Opfok, Rondfok, Vasbyt
Making and Breaking
The World Outside
Fear and Loathing
Black and White
Propaganda and Subversion
Gyppoing
Training
Boetie Gaan Border Toe
In the Bush
Plaaslike Bevolking
Contact
Ballas Bak
Where We Weren’t
The States
Oh My Fok
Stripes and Stars
Somewhere on the Border
Under Attack
Bosbefok
At War
Township Patrols
Changes Coming
Klaaring Out
Glossary