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A Spectre Haunting a Journalist and a Devastated Land

- Baines, Gary F

Authors: Baines, Gary F
Date: 2023
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/450055 , vital:74879 , https://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/hist/v68n1/07.pdf
Description: In 1986, British journalist Fred Bridgland published the first, and to date the only full-length English language biography of Jonas Savimbi, 1 the leader of UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola). The mammoth volume raised the profile of Savimbi and elevated the guerrilla to a pantheon that included his idol Mao Zedong and his reputed friend, Che Guevera. 2 Apparently unbeknown to Bridgland, Savimbi was already exhibiting the worst excesses of Mao: the elimination of all potential rivals to his ironclad control of the rebel armed group. What Bridgland could not have foreseen was that Savimbi was destined to die in the same undignified manner as Guevera with the reputation that he had helped cultivate in tatters (255).
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Date Issued: 2023

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Reconsidering the Rhodesian war through white soldier-writers’ stories

- Baines, Gary F

Authors: Baines, Gary F
Date: 2021
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/450070 , vital:74880 , https://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/hist/v66n2/08.pdf
Description: The title of Luise White’s new book recalls the truism that every war is fought twice over: it is waged in the first instance on the battlefield and, thereafter, contested via representations such as books, films and social media. White's focus is on the memoirs and novels of Rhodesia's civil war written and (often self-) published by veterans. These soldier-authors participated in a war of counterinsurgency against guerrillas of the Zimbabwean liberation movements and, subsequently, mounted a rearguard struggle to monopolise the story of the Rhodesian war through their writings. White reflects that their stories of counterinsurgency were “more successful as a story than they were in practice” (p 223). This does not, ipso facto, invalidate their personal experience of war nor the entire corpus of Rhodesian memoirs as evidence. But evidence of what? White reckons that they “reveal soldiers’ ideas about and analysis of wartime practices” (p 31). In other words, memoirs serve not as historical records per se but as experiential evidence of how the war was conducted by soldiers as actors in their own right. Only in this sense can the memoirs be treated as primary sources.
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Date Issued: 2021

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[Post] Colonial Histories: Trauma, Memory and Reconciliation in the Context of the Angolan Civil War

- Baines, Gary F

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

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South Africa's 'Border War': contested narratives and conflicting memories

- Baines, Gary F

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.
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Date Issued: 2014

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The saga of South African POWs in Angola, 1975-82

- Baines, Gary F

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

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Site of struggle: the Freedom Park fracas and the divisive legacy of South Africa’s Border War/Liberation Struggle

- Baines, Gary F

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

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De La Rey rides (yet) again : Afrikaner identity politics and nostalgia in post-apartheid South Africa

- Baines, Gary F

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

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On location: Narratives of the South African city of the late 1940s and 1950s in film and literature

- Baines, Gary F

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

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Coming to terms with the "Border War" in post-apartheid South Africa

- Baines, Gary F

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

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The battle for Cassinga : conflicting narratives and contested meanings

- Baines, Gary F

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

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‘South Africa's Vietnam’? Literary History and Cultural Memory of the Border War

- Baines, Gary F

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

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