[Post] Colonial Histories: Trauma, Memory and Reconciliation in the Context of the Angolan Civil War
- Authors: Baines, Gary F
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/125752 , vital:35814 , https://doi.10.1080/03612759.2019.1587342
- Description: In 2007, a former South African Defence Force (SADF) paratrooper, Marius van Niekerk, embarked on a journey to confront his shameful memories relating to his role in the Angolan Civil War. From Sweden (where he had gone into exile), Van Niekerk returned to Angola, where he had been deployed during the mid-1980s, and recruited three other veterans of the war to join his party: Patrick Johannes, who had been coerced to fight for the Popular Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA); Samuel Machado Amaru, who was forcefully enlisted by the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA); and Mario Mahonga, who had fought for the Portuguese colonial army before he was recruited by the SADF to fight against the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) regime. Van Niekerk had been conscripted at the age of seventeen, and the others had been coerced into their respective militias at more tender ages. It is not clear how the three Angolans were induced to participate in the project, whose objectives they evidently did not share.
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- Date Issued: 2019
Coming to terms with the "Border War" in post-apartheid South Africa
- Authors: Baines, Gary F
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6157 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007077
- Description: If you are a white, male South African between the ages of about 35 and 60 it is very likely that you donned the nutria brown uniform of the South African Defence Force (SADF). Between 1967 and 1994 approximately 300 000 young white males were conscripted by the SADF. As far as most of these conscripts were concerned, there was no option other than heeding the call-up and performing national service or diensplig. Failure to do so meant harsh penalties. The alternatives were to object on conscientious (actually religious) grounds and face a six year jail sentence, or flee the country. And the obligation did not end with national service as conscripts were assigned to citizen force or commando units that were liable for periodical call-ups for camps that might have included deployment in the “operational areas” from 1974 or tours of duty in the black townships from 1984. Those - like myself - belonging to this national service generation were part-time soldiers for much of their adult lives. Most served willingly, some with patriotic fervour. Others did so reluctantly and with little enthusiasm.
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- Date Issued: 2008
De La Rey rides (yet) again : Afrikaner identity politics and nostalgia in post-apartheid South Africa
- Authors: Baines, Gary F
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6158 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007078
- Description: In 2006 a relatively unknown South African artist with the stage name Bok van Blerk released his debut album called “De la Rey”. The album included a music video of the title track that calls upon the legendary Boer War general to save the volk (people) from the wantonly destructive strategies of the British imperial forces: the scorched earth policy and the subsequent internment of women and children in concentration camps. The British justified such extreme – some would say ‘genocidal’ – strategies so as to prevent non-combatants from supporting the irregular Boer soldiers. Although he did not believe that the war could be won on account of the overwhelming odds that the Boer forces faced, De la Rey still fought to the bitter end. Needless to say, he was on the losing side.
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- Date Issued: 2009
On location: Narratives of the South African city of the late 1940s and 1950s in film and literature
- Authors: Baines, Gary F
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/125397 , vital:35779 , https://doi.10.1080/02582470308671922
- Description: This article is about narratives, about the forms and meanings constructed by South African storytellers, especially writers and filmmakers. It examines the relationships between examples of these two different narrative forms of literature (fiction and non-fiction) and feature film. Following Turner, the point of departure is that the study of narrative has the potential to provide a framework within which such a two pronged approach can be undertaken. This is not to say that the production of meaning takes place within an exclusive literary or cinematic context. Rather, this approach will allow us to obtain a fuller picture of the narrative of the South African city than is possible by concentrating on one medium. It is based on the premise that narratives are ultimately produced by culture; thus these cultural constructions generate meanings, take on a significance, and assume forms that are articufations of the values, beliefs -the ideology - of the culture.' Literature and film offer specific forms for such narratives. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach which borrows insights from literary and film studies, this article attempts to make a contribution to the fledgling field of South African cultural studies.
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- Date Issued: 2009
Port Elizabeth History: A Select Annotated Bibliography
- Authors: Baines, Gary F
- Date: 1998
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/125742 , vital:35813 , https://doi.10.1080/02582479808671323
- Description: When I commenced my work on aspects of Port Elizabeth’s history in the late 1980s, there was no body of scholarly literature on which to draw. Since thena number of significant publications, both periodical articles and books, as well as theses have appeared, and something of a corpus of works on the city now exists. It seems appropriate to take stock of the current state of Port Elizabeth’s historiography by compiling a bibliography.
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- Date Issued: 1998
Sidelining developmental goals? Re-imaging Port Elizabeth for the 2010 Soccer World Cup
- Authors: Baines, Gary F
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6155 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007070
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- Date Issued: 2006
Site of struggle: the Freedom Park fracas and the divisive legacy of South Africa’s Border War/Liberation Struggle
- Authors: Baines, Gary F
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/126954 , vital:35938 , https://doi.10.1080/02533950903076428
- Description: In South Africa, Carcharias taurus is commonly known as the ragged-tooth shark or raggie. The species is also referred to as the sand-tiger shark in North America and as the grey-nurse shark in Australia. It is a long-lived species with an estimated longevity of up to 40 years (Goldman 2002). Female sharks reach sexual maturity at approximately 10 years (Goldman 2002), and they exhibit a biennial reproductive cycle (Branstetter and Musick 1994, Lucifora et al. 2002, G Cliff, Natal Sharks Board, unpublished data). Intra-uterine cannibalisation results in a maximum fecundity of two pups per litter after a gestation period of approximately 9–12 months (Bass et al. 1975, Gilmore et al. 1983). These life-history characteristics make this species particularly susceptible to overexploitation.
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- Date Issued: 2010
South Africa's 'Border War': contested narratives and conflicting memories
- Authors: Baines, Gary F
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67115 , vital:29033 , https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/south-africas-border-war-9781472508249/
- Description: publisher version , South Africa's 'Border War' provides a timely study of the 'war of words' waged by retired South African Defence Force (SADF) generals and other veterans against critics and detractors. The book explores the impact of the 'Border War' on South African culture and society during apartheid and in the new dispensation and discusses the lasting legacy or 'afterlife' of the war in great detail. It also offers an appraisal of the secondary literature of the 'Border War', supplemented by archival research, interviews and an analysis of articles, newspaper reports, reviews and blogs. Adopting a genuinely multidisciplinary approach that borrows from the study of history, literature, visual culture, memory, politics and international relations, South Africa's 'Border War' is an important volume for anyone interested in the study of war and memory or the modern history of South Africa.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 2014
The battle for Cassinga : conflicting narratives and contested meanings
- Authors: Baines, Gary F
- Date: 2007
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6156 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007073
- Description: Nearly thirty years ago the name Cassinga (or Kassinga) came to the attention of the world. At the time the name evoked a range of responses, from outrage to grief to the celebration of military bravado. It still does so. And Cassinga will continue to elicit such responses as long as participants and witnesses are alive and the events remain part of living memory. Obviously perpetrators and survivors remember the events of 4 May 1978 differently. Memory is, after all, selective. The recollections of participants and witnesses are framed by personal and political agendas. This much is abundantly clear from the conflicting accounts of Cassinga that appear in the media and literature, especially the exchanges that take place between parties with a stake in how the events are remembered. Thus a report headlined “Battle of Cassinga still rages” published on the 29th anniversary suggested that the events are still shrouded in controversy and that there is no agreement about what transpired in the southern Angolan town. The title of this paper reflects my concern with the battle for rather than of Cassinga. The choice of preposition is intended to signify the ongoing contestation over the meaning of Cassinga.
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- Date Issued: 2007
The contradictions of community politics: the African petty bourgeoisie and the New Brighton Advisory Board, c1937-1952
- Authors: Baines, Gary F
- Date: 1994
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:6147 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003831
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1994
The saga of South African POWs in Angola, 1975-82
- Authors: Baines, Gary F
- Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69882 , vital:29592 , http://dx.doi.org/10.5787/40-2-999
- Description: This article narrates the story of nine soldiers captured during and shortly after Operation Savannah, the codename for the South African Defence Force invasion of Angola in 1975–6. Eight of these soldiers were captured in Angola in three separate incidents by Angolan and/or Cuban forces, whereas the last was abducted from northern Namibia by SWAPO (the South West Africa Peoples’ Organisation). The article then provides a chronological account of the sequels to this story that interweaves a number of threads: first, the account relates the South African government’s attempts to suppress press coverage of these stories for fear of the political ‘fall-out’ that the matter might cause amongst the white electorate and in case it jeopardised secret negotiations to secure the release of the prisoners; and second, it uncovers the role played by intermediaries, especially the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in the sensitive and fraught negotiation process. It will be shown that the South African authorities adopted divergent approaches when dealing with SWAPO and the Angolans/Cubans to secure the release of prisoners of war (POWs). This is because the South African authorities regarded the former as involved in an internal insurrection whereas the latter were members of the military forces of sovereign states. Accordingly, they paid lip service to the Geneva Conventions in the case of Angolan and Cuban POWs but treated captured SWAPO cadres as ‘terrorists’ or ‘criminals’.
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- Date Issued: 2012
‘South Africa's Vietnam’? Literary History and Cultural Memory of the Border War
- Authors: Baines, Gary F
- Date: 2003
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/126987 , vital:35941 , https://doi.10.1080/17533170400505305
- Description: Density, population structure, growth, mortality and aspects of reproduction of the non-native amphipod Platorchestia platensis were studied for 20 consecutive months (October 2008 to May 2010) in the supralittoral wrack of the Knysna Estuary, South Africa. Amphipod density varied over the sampling period with the lowest numbers recorded in summer (January and February). Ovigerous females with embryos, and juveniles were found in most months with peaks in recruitment found in both April and October, suggesting that in Knysna this species is a biannual breeder. Average female size was significantly greater in winter, with larger females tending to brood more embryos. The largest adults (13.5 mm total length) were always male although the monthly sex ratio was nearly always female biased. Growth rate estimated from a cohort analysis was about 1 mm per month and monthly survival about 69%. The ability to reproduce all year round may be one reason why this introduced species has become established within this warm temperate estuary.
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- Date Issued: 2003