The Cold War in Southern Africa Produced Some Odd Bedfellows. At one point during the Angolan Civil War, some 2,000 Cuban soldiers were assigned to defend the operations of an American oil company. The irony of Communist internationalists defending an American oil company, whose revenues were providing the majority of the funds for Angola’s Communist government, may have been lost at the time.
“Apartheid’s Black Soldiers: Un-national Wars and Militaries in Southern Africa” by Lennart Bolliger, published by Ohio University Press, provides more such intriguing examples that have, until now, slipped through the pages of other history books. The book looks at Namibians who fought against the Socialist SWAPO and mostly Angolan soldiers who fought with the South African Army. The latter became a Portuguese-speaking elite unit of the South African Defence Forces. SWAPO would go on to win, securing Namibia’s independence, and Apartheid would crumble in South Africa. That these men were on the wrong side of history doesn’t detract from the human elements of their stories.
The 32nd Battalion, which started out as a uniquely Angolan unit, was made up of former rebels who had fought against the Portuguese Empire. Many of them became rebels once again when the Socialist MPLA took power in the country in the 1970s. Some were defectors from the MPLA itself.
The Soviet Union committed advisors to the MPLA down to the brigade level as late as 1989. Yet, when the Angolan Civil War ended, the 32nd Battalion was re-deployed for urban police operations in Africa. Its officers were largely white and learned Portuguese to better interact with their men. Intriguingly, the unit at one point also absorbed a group of Lusophone rebels from São Tomé and Príncipe—a platoon-sized group of survivors who had launched an abortive rebel invasion of that country.
Rare for a scholarly book, this is a quick read. The book could have better served the reader with a bit more general history of the period in the introduction. The first chapter of the book presents a historical sketch of the former South West Africa (Namibia) and Angola. A bit more background information here could have been useful for the neophyte reader, particularly regarding Kaokoland—a proto-Bantustan in Namibia that provided much of the Black police units who fought against SWAPO.
However, none of that detracts from this excellent piece of scholarship, in which the voices of participants are heard, effectively lifting a veritable veil of silence.
The final section of the book looks at the fate of both groups in the ensuing decades since South Africa became a full democracy in 1994. The author describes how some 32nd Battalion members became mercenaries involved in such diverse enterprises. Some became contractors during the Coalition invasion of Iraq in 2003. Others were involved in a 2004 coup plot aimed at Equatorial Guinea. Still, others went on to play important roles in South Africa’s military after the racist Apartheid system was dismantled.
In Namibia, the fate of the veterans of the various security units has been quite different, as various veterans’ groups have been formed to advocate for their rights. While veterans of SWAPO have long been given preference, the author suggests attitudes in Namibia may be changing.
This is a book that should be of broad interest to those who study African conflicts, the formation of proxy forces, and the important issue of combatant reintegration.
For further details, visit the publisher’s page for “Apartheid’s Black Soldiers: Un-national Wars and Militaries in Southern Africa” here.
Written by Joseph Hammond and Edited by Michelle Mungeni
