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African Wars of Independence (Military History)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. While most African states gained independence through negotiation with outgoing European colonial rulers during the late 1950s and 1960s, some experienced wars between stubborn colonial and white settler regimes, and armed African nationalist insurgents. During the 1950s Kenya and Algeria, with British and French settlers respectively, experienced uprisings that led to the metropolitan regimes abandoning settler interests and granting independence in the early 1960s. Insisting that its three African colonies were integral parts of the mother country, fascist Portugal fought African nationalist insurgencies in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau, during the 1960s and early 1970s which led to a military coup in Lisbon in 1974 and a sudden withdrawal from Africa. In white settler ruled Southern Rhodesia (today’s Zimbabwe), South African occupied South West Africa (today’s Namibia), and apartheid South Africa, African nationalists became frustrated with increasingly deadly state repression and abandoned non-violent protest in the 1960s to embark on armed struggles to liberate their countries. Given the Cold War context of the time, the colonial and settler states portrayed themselves as champions of Western civilization and appealed to Britain and the United States for assistance and the exiled African nationalists received support from the Eastern Bloc which required that they adopt revolutionary socialist rhetoric. Newly independent African ruled countries, such as Tanzania and Zambia, were often sympathetic to the armed nationalist movements and allowed them to establish staging areas in their territories which meant that these states were often drawn into the conflicts as well. The sudden withdrawal of Portugal from Africa dramatically changed the balance of power in Southern Africa which led to the negotiated independence of Zimbabwe in 1980. The winding down of the Cold War led to South African withdrawal from Namibia, which gained independence in 1990, and the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa that resulted in that country’s first democratic elections in 1994. Given the number of African countries involved and the international dimensions of most of these conflicts, the relevant literature is vast and contains numerous debates.
  4.  
  5. General Overviews
  6.  
  7. Although there are many books and articles on specific wars of independence in Africa, there are surprisingly few general overviews of the subject. Broader works on the European decolonization of Africa cover both the negotiated and violent paths to independence though they tend to focus more on the former as well as the broader international context and changing imperial policies. Birmingham 1995, Hargreaves 1996, and Falola 2002 offer general overviews. Clayton 1994 looks at wars of independence in French colonies in Africa and Asia, Clayton 1999 examines warfare in Africa after 1950, which includes independence conflicts, Turner 1998 explores insurgencies in Africa, which also includes wars of independence, and Edgerton 2002 devotes a chapter to these conflicts.
  8.  
  9. Birmingham, David. The Decolonization of Africa. London: University College London, 1995.
  10. DOI: 10.4324/9780203169452Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  11. A general overview of Africa’s decolonization including wars of independence.
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  13. Clayton, Anthony. The French Wars of Decolonization. London: Longman, 1994.
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  15. A synopsis of French counter-insurgency struggles in Madagascar, Indo-China, and Algeria.
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  17. Clayton, Anthony. Frontiersmen: Warfare in Africa since 1950. London: Routledge, 1999.
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  19. This book surveys the history of armed conflict in Africa during the second half of the 20th century including wars of independence.
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  21. Edgerton, Robert B. Africa’s Armies: From Honour to Infamy: A History from 1791 to the Present. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2002.
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  23. Within this concise military history of Africa, one of the chapters provides an overview of the continent’s wars of independence.
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  25. Falola, Toyin, ed. Africa Vol. 4: The End of Colonial Rule: Nationalism and Decolonization. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2002.
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  27. Part of a series intended to introduce university students and the public to African history, this volume contains essays that examine the end of European rule in Africa including the wars of independence.
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  29. Hargreaves, John D. Decolonization in Africa. London: Longman, 1996.
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  31. A classic account of decolonization in Africa originally published in 1988 that does not focus much on warfare.
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  33. Turner, John W. Continent Ablaze: The Insurgency Wars in Africa 1960 to the Present. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 1998.
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  35. An overview of insurgency in late-20th-century Africa with chapters on Rhodesia and South West Africa (Namibia).
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  37. Journals
  38.  
  39. While no academic journal specializes in Africa’s wars of independence, relevant articles have appeared in many different journals mostly related to African studies and military history. The Journal of African History, the International Journal of African Historical Studies, and the Canadian Journal of African Studies were launched in the 1960s when African History and Studies became professional academic fields. African Affairs, first published by the Royal Africa Society in 1901, and the Journal of Modern African Studies also represent important journals for the study of Africa. Journals dedicated to warfare and military history such as the Journal of Military History, Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies, and Small Wars and Insurgencies also publish papers on aspects of African wars of independence.
  40.  
  41. African Affairs. 1901–.
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  43. The academic journal of Britain’s Royal African Society that publishes on any issue related to the continent.
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  45. Canadian Journal of African Studies. 1967–
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  47. Established in 1967, this academic journal publishes articles on a variety of themes related to Africa.
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  49. International Journal of African Historical Studies. 1968–.
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  51. Based at Boston University and established in 1968, this peer-reviewed journal publishes articles on African history.
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  53. Journal of African History. 1960–.
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  55. The founding of this academic journal in 1960 represented an important step in the professionalization of the study of African history.
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  57. Journal of Military History. 1937–.
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  59. Launched in 1937, this leading military history journal occasionally publishes articles and reviews related to Africa’s wars of independence.
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  61. Journal of Modern African Studies. 1963–.
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  63. An academic journal focusing on politics and society in contemporary Africa.
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  65. Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies. 1969–.
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  67. A professional journal published by the Faculty of Military Science at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. It has had numerous articles on aspects of the wars in Namibia and Angola.
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  69. Small Wars and Insurgencies. 1990–.
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  71. An academic forum for the discussion of insurgency, counter-insurgency, limited wars, peacekeeping, and the use of force as an instrument of policy.
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  73. Kenya, 1952–1960
  74.  
  75. More impacted by white settlement than other Kenyan groups, the Kikuyu of the “White Highlands” near Nairobi rose up during the 1950s by taking oaths of loyalty to their Land and Freedom Army and attacking whites and loyalist Kikuyu. The British called the movement Mau Mau though the origins of the term are uncertain. The Land and Freedom Army had no external support, resorted to fighting with home-made or captured firearms or spears and clubs, its fighters were mainly illiterate, and the movement lacked clearly stated aims. Consequently, there has been considerable disagreement about the nature of the insurgency. At the time, the British tended to see Mau Mau as a disorder, either social or psychological, among the Kikuyu brought on by overly rapid Westernization. Over the past thirty years, historians have debated whether the Land and Freedom Army represented a local Kikuyu uprising responding to local grievances or a Kenyan nationalist movement fighting for independence. This debate was informed by the fact that until very recently, authoritarian Kenyan governments included former loyalists and therefore did not celebrate Mau Mau in the way other African states celebrate past anticolonial insurgents as freedom fighters and national heroes. The most recent debate about Mau Mau centers on the number of Kenyans who died as a result of the brutal British counterinsurgency campaign and this has led to Mau Mau veterans engaging in successful legal action to demand compensation from the British government. Mau Mau has become one of the most written about subjects in African history. There are several general overviews of Mau Mau, such as Edgerton 1991, which is aimed at a popular readership, Maloba 1998, which attempts to combine existing interpretations, and Atieno Odhiambo and Lonsdale 2003, which is a collection of scholarly papers.
  76.  
  77. Atieno Odhiambo, E. S., and John Lonsdale, eds. Mau Mau and Nationhood: Arms, Authority & Narration. Oxford: James Currey, 2003.
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  79. Released to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the declaration of a state of emergency in Kenya in 1953, this collection of scholarly essays focuses on the character of the Mau Mau movement, British counterinsurgency, and contests over the memory of the conflict in Kenya.
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  81. Edgerton, Robert B. Mau Mau: An African Crucible. New York: Ballantine, 1991.
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  83. Aimed at a popular readership, this is a general narrative history of the rebellion that avoids addressing the major scholarly debates.
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  85. Maloba, Wunyabari O. Mau Mau and Kenya: An Analysis of a Peasant Revolt. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998.
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  87. Offers an overview of the subject which attempts to blend the competing views about whether Mau Mau was a narrow tribalist or broader nationalist movement.
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  89. Memoirs
  90.  
  91. A number of personal accounts of the Mau Mau insurgency have been published. Kariuki 1964 is the personal story of a Kenyan nationalist detained during the emergency, Itote 1967 is a memoir of a Mau Mau leader, Barnett and Njama 1970 and Macharia and Kanyua 2006 are memoirs of Mau Mau veterans, Clough 1998 presents the memories of thirteen Mau Mau veterans, and Hewitt 2002 is an account by a white security force veteran.
  92.  
  93. Barnett, Don, and Karari Njama. Mau Mau From Within: Autobiography and Analysis of Kenya’s Peasant Revolt. New York: Modern Reader, 1970.
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  95. Based on the memories of Karari who was a Mau Mau veteran, this book portrays the Land and Freedom Army as an early manifestation of Kenyan nationalist sentiment which received widespread support because it was reacting to legitimate grievances.
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  97. Clough, Marshall S. Mau Mau Memoirs: History, Memory and Politics. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998.
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  99. A detailed examination of thirteen written accounts by Mau Mau participants, this book highlights the difficulties faced by insurgent veterans after the war and the potential danger that publicly celebrating them as national heroes could further divide Kenyan society.
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  101. Hewitt, Peter. Kenya Cowboy: A Police Officer’s Account of the Mau Mau Emergency. Johannesburg: 30 Degrees South, 2002.
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  103. A personal account by a colonial security force member.
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  105. Itote, Waruhiu. “Mau Mau” General. Nairobi, Kenya: East African Publishing House, 1967.
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  107. The personal memoir of a former Mau Mau leader known as “General China” who, after surrendering to the British, tried and failed to get other forest fighters to turn themselves in. During the Second World War he had fought in the Burma campaign as a British colonial soldier.
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  109. Kariuki, Josiah Mwangi. Mau Mau Detainee: The Account by a Kenya African of his Experience in Detention Camps, 1953–60. Baltimore: Penguin, 1964.
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  111. This is an account of an early Kenyan nationalist activist who was detained during the insurgency.
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  113. Macharia, Kinuthia, and Muigai Kanyua. The Social Context of the Mau Mau Movement in Kenya (1952–1960). Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2006.
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  115. Employing testimony from the Mau Mau veteran Muigai Kanyua, Macharia explores the insurgency through the lens of social movement theory.
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  117. Colonial Explanations
  118.  
  119. The British colonial administration explained Mau Mau as a mass social or mental disorder among the Kikuyu caused by rapid Westernization. Leakey 1952, Leakey 2004, and Corfield 1960 represent examples of this interpretation.
  120.  
  121. Corfield, F. D. The Origins and Growth of Mau Mau: An Historical Survey. Nairobi, Kenya: Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, 1960.
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  123. Sponsored by Kenya’s colonial government, this report represents a typical colonial account of the rebellion which explains it in terms of the breakdown of traditional society and the personal ambition of Kenyan nationalist leader Jomo Kenyatta who was imprisoned during the emergency.
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  125. Leakey, L. S. B. Mau Mau and the Kikuyu. London: Routledge, 1952.
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  127. Louis Leakey, the famous archaeologist who had grown up among the Kikuyu and researched human evolution in Kenya, became the British administration’s primary expert on Kikuyu society during the emergency. During this time he wrote two books on Mau Mau. The 1952 volume sees Mau Mau as the result of the disintegration of traditional Kikuyu society brought on by the intrusion of Western civilization.
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  129. Leakey, L. S. B. Defeating Mau Mau. London: Routledge, 2004.
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  131. The second book on Mau Mau by a famous archaeologist and Kikuyu expert (originally published in 1954), it advances methods to eradicate the movement including the use of a traditional cleansing ceremony on Mau Mau detainees to absolve them from their insurgent oath.
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  133. Nationalist Interpretations
  134.  
  135. Rosberg and Nottingham 1966 and Kinyatti 2009 represent examples of the nationalist view which portrays Mau Mau as a movement fighting for Kenyan independence from Britain and not a narrow Kikuyu rebellion.
  136.  
  137. Kinyatti, Maina Wa. Mau Mau: A Revolution Betrayed. CreateSpace, 2009.
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  139. A political prisoner of the Daniel Arap Moi regime in Kenya during the 1980s, Kinyatti presents the Mau Mau rebellion as the pinnacle of Kenya nationalism in which heroic fighters clashed with traitorous loyalists.
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  141. Rosberg, Carl Gustav, and John Cato Nottingham. The Myth of “Mau Mau”: Nationalism in Kenya. New York: Praeger, 1966.
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  143. The classic nationalist view of Mau Mau.
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  145. Social Histories
  146.  
  147. During the 1970s and 1980s, a rich literature emerged on aspects of the social history of Mau Mau. Buijtenhuijs 1973 examines the colonial and nationalist mythology. Throup 1987, Kanogo 1987, and Füredi 1989 look in detail at the causes of Mau Mau particularly in terms of access to land. Presley 1992 discusses the experience of women during Mau Mau, Kershaw 1997 explores non-violent Mau Mau in the Kiambu reserve, and Berman and Lonsdale 1992 studies Mau Mau and Kikuyu identity.
  148.  
  149. Berman, Bruce, and John Lonsdale. Unhappy Valley: Conflict in Kenya and Africa. London: James Currey, 1992.
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  151. In this a two-volume collection of essays, some jointly authored, the historian Lonsdale argues that Mau Mau represented an idealistic response by young men seeking to meet the demands of both their troubled Kikuyu ethnic group and their own identity.
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  153. Buijtenhuijs, Robert. Mau Mau: Twenty Years After. The Myth and the Survivors. New York: Mouton, 1973.
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  155. Written by a Dutch sociologist, this book shows that by the early 1970s two myths had developed about Mau Mau. A colonial myth saw it as a reaction by primitive people to rapid modernization and a nationalist myth portrayed it as a heroic independence movement. The author also explores the ambiguous portrayal of Mau Mau in 1960s and early 1970s Kenya which was peaceful and pro-Western whereas Mau Mau had been violent and anti-European.
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  157. Füredi, Frank. The Mau Mau War in Perspective. Oxford: James Currey, 1989.
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  159. Part of a series of new social histories of Mau Mau that appeared in the late 1980s, this book is based on detailed primary research and interviews and explains the insurgency as originating from the frustrations of landless, impoverished, and politically powerless Kikuyu over white land ownership. It also maintains that Jomo Kenyatta, while a symbolic leader to the Kikuyu squatters, had nothing to do with the uprising.
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  161. Kanogo, Tabitha. Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau. London: James Currey, 1987.
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  163. This book looks at the conflict between Kikuyu peasant agriculture and white settler plantation production in the highlands, the early success of Kikuyu farmers, and the rise of militancy among Kikuyu squatters as their ambitions were disappointed by the settler/colonial state. Investigating the social basis of Mau Mau, the author uses interviews with veterans to establish that there was a strong co-relation between higher social class and leadership within the movement.
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  165. Kershaw, Greet. Mau Mau from Below. Oxford: James Currey, 1997.
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  167. Based on anthropological fieldwork conducted in part of Kenya during the 1950s, the author sees Mau Mau as originating from grievances over access to land but claims that the movement in Kiambu reserve, her focus area, was nonviolent whereas its counterpart in the Rift Valley was violent. The author delayed publication of her findings until further comparative studies were available.
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  169. Presley, Cora Ann. Kikuyu Women, the Mau Mau Rebellion and Social Change in Kenya. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1992.
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  171. Based on archival and oral research, this book reveals the experience of Kenyan women in the Mau Mau movement. Presley traces the origins of Kenyan women’s militancy to just after the First World War and illustrates that they played a central but hitherto ignored role in Mau Mau
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  173. Throup, David. Economic and Social Origins of Mau Mau, 1945–53. Oxford: James Currey, 1987.
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  175. Throup uses extensive primary source research to illustrate how the governorship of Sir Philip Michell in Kenya during the late 1940s and early 1950s set the stage for the Mau Mau insurrection as white settlers were allowed to undermine Colonial Office plans to cultivate loyalist African capitalists as a first step toward decolonization.
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  177. Counter-Insurgency and Loyalists
  178.  
  179. In recent years, with the availability of new documentary evidence in Britain, several scholars have focused on the colonial campaign against Mau Mau. Branch 2009 looks at Kenyan Africans who remained loyal to the British and fought against Mau Mau, Chappell 2011 presents a concise article reinterpreting the impact of British air power in the conflict, and Bennett 2013 undertakes a major review of the British counter-insurgency campaign.
  180.  
  181. Bennett, Huw. Fighting the Mau Mau: The British Army and Counter-Insurgency in the Kenya Emergency. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
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  183. Based on newly released British records, Bennett examines counter-insurgency in 1950s Kenya and concludes that British atrocities in Kenya were not anomalous but that the British army created a legal atmosphere which encouraged massacres and abuse.
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  185. Branch, Daniel. Defeating Mau Mau, Creating Kenya: Counterinsurgency, Civil War and Decolonization. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
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  187. Moving the focus away from the insurgents, Branch looks at the emergence of the loyalist Kikuyu and how they allied with British counter-insurgency forces to fight Mau Mau the legacy of which continues to be controversial in contemporary Kenya.
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  189. Chappell, Stephen. “Air Power in the Mau Mau Conflict: The Government’s Chief Weapon.” RUSI Journal 156.1 (February–March 2011): 64–70.
  190. DOI: 10.1080/03071847.2011.559986Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  191. This article challenges the conventional view that British air power in Kenya did little to hamper the Mau Mau insurgency and claims that aerial bombing compelled some rebel groups to disband and others to flee their forest hideouts.
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  193. Recent Work on British Atrocities
  194.  
  195. The availability of new colonial documents has allowed researchers to explore the issue of British human rights abuses during the uprising and has led to controversy and debate as well as legal action by Mau Mau veterans. Anderson 2005 explores the questionable trials of accused insurgents, Elkins 2005 examines the horrors of the British detention camps, and Blacker 2007 challenges Elkins’s estimates of the number of deaths in these camps.
  196.  
  197. Anderson, David. Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2005.
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  199. Focusing mostly on the many questionable trials of Mau Mau suspects, this thoroughly researched study reveals the horrors of British counter-insurgency in Kenya.
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  201. Blacker, John. “The Demography of Mau Mau: Fertility and Mortality in Kenya in the 1950s: A Demographer’s Viewpoint.” African Affairs 106 (2007): 205–227.
  202. DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adm014Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  203. Contradicting Elkins’s recent claim that between 150,000 and 300,000 Kenyans died during the Mau Mau Emergency, this article uses the Kenyan censuses of 1948 and 1969 to put the figure at around 50,000, half of whom were children.
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  205. Elkins, Caroline. Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya. New York: Henry Holt, 2005.
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  207. Based on detailed research, Elkins’s book focuses on the system of detention camps that rural Kikuyu people were herded into by British security forces and estimates that between 150,000 to 300,000 Kenyans died during the emergency which she calls a genocide. This book opened a new and intense front in the broader debates about Mau Mau and was important in surviving Mau Mau veterans using legal means to seek compensation from the British government.
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  209. Algeria, 1954–1962
  210.  
  211. As the Algerian War sharply divided French society and many French of Algerian origin lived in marginalized communities, it first became part of the history curriculum in French schools in the late 1990s. In postcolonial Algeria, the memory of the war was employed by an authoritarian-military state to legitimize violence in supposed defense of the revolution. Horne 2006 (originally published in 1977) and Evans 2012 provide detailed overviews of the conflict. Shrader 1999 discusses French military logistics and mobility in Algeria; Wall 2001 looks at the diplomatic relationship between France and the United States during the period; Alexander and Keiger 2002 and Alexander, et al. 2002 present collections of papers on aspects of the military history of the war; Aussaresses 2004 controversially defends the French use of torture during the insurgency, and McCormack 2007 analyzes the place of the Algerian conflict in French popular memory.
  212.  
  213. Alexander, Martin S., Martin Evans, and J. F. V. Keiger, eds. The Algerian War and the French Army, 1954–62: Experiences, Images and Testimony. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
  214. DOI: 10.1057/9780230500952Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  215. This collection of essays focuses on the French army in Algeria and is divided into sections on experiences such as the influence of previous counterinsurgency in Indochina, images such as the representation of the army in film, and testimony of veterans.
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  217. Alexander, Martin S., and J. F. V. Keiger, eds. France and the Algerian War, 1954–62: Strategy, Operations and Diplomacy. London: Frank Cass, 2002.
  218. DOI: 10.1057/9780230500952Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  219. A collection of essays dealing with different aspects of the war such as French military training, the use of aerial photography by the French, and de Gaulle’s relationship with the French military. The editors point out the need for more research on insurgent strategy, operations and diplomacy.
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  221. Aussaresses, Paul. The Battle of the Casbah: Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Algeria, 1955–57. New York: Enigma, 2004.
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  223. In 2001 a retired French army general and intelligence officer published a controversial book in which he defended his use of torture during the Algerian War the use of which had never before been acknowledged by the French government or military.
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  225. Evans, Martin. Algeria: France’s Undeclared War. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
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  227. A thorough and balanced overview of the conflict which was France’s worst conflict since the Second World War yet was described by Paris as a “police action.”
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  229. Horne, Alistair. A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954–62. New York: New York Review Books, 2006.
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  231. Widely seen as the definitive history of the Algerian war. Originally published in 1977.
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  233. McCormack, Jo. Collective Memory: France and the Algerian War (1954–1962). Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2007.
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  235. This book examines the lack of transmission of the memory of the Algerian War in France.
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  237. Shrader, Charles R. The First Helicopter War: Logistics and Mobility in Algeria, 1954–1962. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999.
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  239. This book, based on French primary sources, argues that superior logistics and mobility facilitated French military success in Algeria though Paris lost the war in political terms. Employment of helicopters enabled the French military to master Algeria’s difficult terrain and gain advantage from aerial observation.
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  241. Wall, Irwin M. France, the United States and the Algerian War. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
  242. DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520225343.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  243. This book examines French and American diplomatic relations from 1956 to 1962. It argues that this relationship was central to the Algerian War as France needed American support to remain in Algeria and the poisoning of Franco-American relations led to the independence of Algeria.
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  245. The Portuguese Colonies, 1960–1974
  246.  
  247. Compared to material on Africa’s other wars of independence, the literature on insurgency in the Portuguese territories of Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau is relatively small. In Portugal the memory of these conflicts has been muted by the fact that they are associated with the old authoritarian regime that collapsed, at least in part, because of them. Venter 1973 and Humbaraci and Muchnik 1974 offer journalistic accounts. Minter 1972 looks at US support for Portuguese counterinsurgency in Africa, Macqueen 1997 presents a scholarly study of the 1974 Portuguese coup that prompted the country’s withdrawal from Africa, and Gleijeses 2002 explores Cuban support for anti-Portuguese insurgents.
  248.  
  249. Gleijeses, Piero. Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959–1976. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
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  251. Examines the Cuban support for insurgents in all three Portuguese colonies in Africa within the broader context of the Cold War.
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  253. Humbaraci, Arslan, and Nicole Muchnik. Portugal’s African Wars: Angola, Guinea-Bissao and Mozambique. New York: Third Press, 1974.
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  255. An early journalistic overview of the independence wars in Portuguese Africa.
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  257. Macqueen, Norrie. The Decolonization of Portuguese Africa: Metropolitan Revolution and the Dissolution of Empire. London: Longman, 1997.
  258. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  259. A thoroughly researched and detailed examination of the 1974 military coup in Lisbon which led to the rapid decolonization of Portuguese Africa. It looks at the contradiction between a highly politicized Portuguese military and a failing authoritarian state.
  260. Find this resource:
  261. Minter, William. Portuguese Africa and the West. New York: Monthly Review, 1972.
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  263. Written while the conflicts were taking place, this book looks at US and western European support for Portuguese military operations in Africa within the context of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Cold War.
  264. Find this resource:
  265. Venter, Al J. Portugal’s Guerrilla War: The Campaign for Africa. Cape Town: J. Malherbe, 1973.
  266. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  267. A sympathetic overview of Portuguese counterinsurgency written by a South African war correspondent.
  268. Find this resource:
  269. Portuguese Security Forces
  270.  
  271. Scholarly work on the Portuguese security forces in Africa is fairly limited. Porch 1977 looks at why the Portuguese military staged a coup in 1974, Cann 1997 and Cann 2007 offer detailed and sympathetic accounts of the Portuguese security forces, and Borges Coelho 2002 examines the Africanization of Portuguese colonial forces in Africa.
  272.  
  273. Borges Coelho, Joao Paulo. “African Troops in the Portuguese Colonial Army, 1961–1974, Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique.” Portuguese Studies Review 10.1 (2002): 129–150.
  274. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  275. A look at how Portuguese forces responded to the insurgencies in Africa by recruiting African personnel.
  276. Find this resource:
  277. Cann, John P. Counterinsurgency in Africa: The Portuguese Way of War, 1961–1974. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1997.
  278. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  279. An uncritical and top-down view of Portuguese counterinsurgency in Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique.
  280. Find this resource:
  281. Cann, John P. Brown Waters of Africa: Portuguese Riverine Warfare, 1961–1974. St. Petersburg, FL: Hailer, 2007.
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  283. While previous studies focused on land forces, a former American naval officer examines the role of the Portuguese navy in the counterinsurgency campaigns in Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique where it had to overcome a tradition of deepwater operations to work in inland waterways. The author is unsympathetic to the motives of the insurgents and their supporters.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. Porch, Douglas. The Portuguese Armed Forces and the Revolution. London: Croom Helm, 1977.
  286. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  287. After tracing the history of military discontent with Portugal’s regime, this scholarly book maintains that the military staged the 1974 coup to avoid being made a scapegoat for defeat in Africa.
  288. Find this resource:
  289. Angola
  290.  
  291. Since Angola was Portugal’s largest and most economically valuable African colony, Lisbon devoted considerable resources to combating several insurgent groups that emerged there. Marcum 1969 and Marcum 1978 represent a major study of Angolan nationalism, Van Der Waals 1993 surveys the Angolan independence war, Maier 1996 provides an overview, Guimaraes 2001 studies the interaction of local and foreign actors in the conflict, and George 2005 examines the role of Cuba in supporting Angolan insurgents.
  292.  
  293. George, Edward. The Cuban Intervention in Angola, 1965–1991: From Che Guevara to Cuito Cuanavale. London: Frank Cass, 2005.
  294. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  295. Although this book mostly deals with Cuban involvement in the Angolan civil war from 1974 to 1991, it also covers earlier Cuban assistance to the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angolan (MPLA) when it was fighting the Portuguese.
  296. Find this resource:
  297. Guimaraes, Fernando Andresen. The Origins of the Angolan Civil War: Foreign Intervention and Domestic Political Conflict. London: Macmillan, 2001.
  298. DOI: 10.1057/9780230598263Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  299. Examines the interaction between internal and external actors in the Angolan Civil War.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Maier, Karl. Angola: Promises and Lies. London: Serif, 1996.
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  303. A journalist’s overview of conflict in Angola beginning with the insurgency against the Portuguese and continuing into the period of superpower involvement.
  304. Find this resource:
  305. Marcum, John. The Angolan Revolution: Volume I: The Anatomy of an Explosion (1952–1962). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1969.
  306. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  307. Representing the first of a two-part study, this is a masterful account of the origins of nationalism and insurgency in Angola.
  308. Find this resource:
  309. Marcum, John. The Angolan Revolution: Volume II: Exile Politics and Guerrilla War (1962–1976). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1978.
  310. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  311. The second volume in an epic study of Angolan nationalism, the independence war, and the civil war and foreign interventions that followed the Portuguese withdrawal.
  312. Find this resource:
  313. Van Der Waals, W. S. Portugal’s War in Angola. Rivonia, South Africa: Ashanti, 1993.
  314. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  315. Written by a former South African military officer and diplomat, this book offers a thorough overview of the independence war in Angola and suggests that it was events in Guinea-Bissau that were more important in stimulating the Lisbon coup.
  316. Find this resource:
  317. Guinea-Bissau
  318.  
  319. Although Guinea-Bissau was a small colony of limited economic or strategic value, Portugal clung to it in the face of growing nationalist insurgency. The nationalists in Guinea-Bissau pursued the most successful insurgency among the three Portuguese African territories yet it is not well studied. Venter 1973 represents a pro-Portuguese journalistic account and Chabal 1983 presents a biography of independence movement leader Amilcar Cabral.
  320.  
  321. Chabal, Patrick. Amílcar Cabral: Revolutionary Leadership and People’s War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
  322. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  323. The first scholarly study of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) and biography of its leader Amílcar Cabral who fought the Portuguese during the 1960s and early 1970s.
  324. Find this resource:
  325. Venter, Al. Portugal’s War in Guinea-Bissau. Pasadena, CA: Munger African Library Notes, 1973.
  326. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  327. A detailed account by a South African journalist who visited Guinea-Bissau at the invitation of the Portuguese government in 1971.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Mozambique
  330.  
  331. Based in neighboring Tanzania, the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) fought a guerrilla war against the Portuguese and ultimately established liberated zones in parts of the colony. Written by the FRELIMO leader, Mondlane 1982 stresses the central role of peasants in the revolution, and Munslow 1983 explores the origins of the insurgency.
  332.  
  333. Mondlane, Eduardo. The Struggle for Mozambique. London: Zed Press, 1982.
  334. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  335. Written by the leader of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) who was assassinated by Portuguese agents in 1969 (which was also the year the book was originally published), this book outlines the importance of peasants in the liberation movement.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Munslow, Barry. Mozambique: The Revolution and Its Origins. London: Longman, 1983.
  338. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  339. A scholarly examination of the relationship between Portugal and its Mozambique colony, and the rise of FRELIMO.
  340. Find this resource:
  341. Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) 1965–1980
  342.  
  343. Depending on how writers see this conflict, it is called either the Rhodesian Bush War or Zimbabwe’s War of Liberation. There is a large academic literature that began to emerge during the war itself and was generally unsympathetic to the white minority Rhodesian government that had unilaterally and illegally broken from Britain in 1965. Early academic works on the war during the 1980s, such as Martin and Johnson 1981, focused mostly on Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) which had fought a Maoist guerrilla campaign against the Rhodesian state and emerged as the first post-independence government. During the 1990s and 2000s disillusionment with Mugabe’s increasingly authoritarian government prompted historians to look at other participants in the war such as the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), which had been suppressed by the ruling ZANU-PF in the 1980s, and topics such as the role of African women in the insurgency. Ranger and Bhebhe 1995a and Ranger and Bhebhe 1995b present collections of essays dealing with various military and social aspects of the conflict. At the same time, a rapidly growing literature emerged that portrayed the Rhodesian security forces of the late 1960s and 1970s in nostalgic terms including many war memoirs by white veterans who had left the country. Several publishers based in South Africa, Galago and 30 Degrees South, specialize in such books which became increasingly popular as Mugabe’s Zimbabwe experienced economic collapse and violent state repression during the 2000s. Scholarly overviews of the war include Cilliers 1985, Ellert 1989, and Moorcroft and McLaughlin 2008, Horne 2001 looks at American support for Rhodesia, and Godwin and Hancock 2008 focuses on the impact of the conflict on white Rhodesian society.
  344.  
  345. Cilliers, J. K. Counter-Insurgency in Rhodesia. Beckenham, UK: Croom Helm, 1985.
  346. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  347. The first academic effort to study Rhodesian counterinsurgency.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. Ellert, H. The Rhodesian Front War: Counter-Insurgency and Guerrilla War in Rhodesia, 1962–1980. Gweru, Zimbabwe: Mambo, 1989.
  350. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  351. Much criticized by white former Rhodesians, this book was written by a former Rhodesian intelligence operative and presents a critical examination of the state’s counterinsurgency.
  352. Find this resource:
  353. Godwin, Peter, and Ian Hancock. Rhodesians Never Die: The Impact of War and Political Change on White Rhodesia, c. 1970–80. London: Pan Macmillan, 2008.
  354. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  355. A thoroughly researched study of Rhodesia’s white community during the independence war which is highly critical of the Smith regime.
  356. Find this resource:
  357. Horne, Gerald. From the Barrel of a Gun: The United States and the War against Zimbabwe, 1965–1980. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
  358. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  359. A scholarly examination of covert American support for white-ruled Rhodesia within the context of the Cold War.
  360. Find this resource:
  361. Martin, D., and P. Johnson. The Struggle for Zimbabwe: The Chimurenga War. New York: Monthly Review, 1981.
  362. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  363. Emphasizing the role of ZANU-PF, this was one of the first detailed accounts of the war.
  364. Find this resource:
  365. Moorcroft, P., and P. McLaughlin. The Rhodesian War: A Military History. London: Pen and Sword, 2008.
  366. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  367. A thoroughly researched military history of the conflict.
  368. Find this resource:
  369. Ranger, T., and N. Bhebhe, eds. Soldiers in Zimbabwe’s Liberation War. London: James Currey, 1995a.
  370. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  371. Transcending the earlier scholarly emphasis on ZANU-PF, this collection of essays looks at military issues such as other liberation movements, the experience of insurgent veterans, and the memory of the war.
  372. Find this resource:
  373. Ranger, T., and N. Bhebhe, eds. Society in Zimbabwe’s Liberation War. London: James Currey, 1995b.
  374. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  375. This collection of essays, the second of two volumes, examines nonmilitary issues related to the war such as education within the liberation movements and the emergence of the Rhodesian war novel.
  376. Find this resource:
  377. Liberation Movements
  378.  
  379. From the early 1970s, the Zimbabwe independence movements pursued different strategies. ZANU-PF launched its armed wing the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) based in neighboring Mozambique, adopted a Maoist guerrilla approach and support from China. ZAPU founded the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) which developed a conventional army in neighboring Zambia, adopted a Leninist revolutionary strategy, accepted Soviet military support, and waited to invade Rhodesia once it had been weakened by international sanctions and insurgent warfare. There is a fairly rich academic literature on these groups such as Lan 1985 which looks at the role of traditional spirit mediums in the struggle, Ranger 1985 which examines the rise of rural peasant consciousness, McLaughlin 1996 which explores the Catholic Church’s challenge to white supremacy, Nhongo-Simbanegavi 2000 and Lyons 2004 which reveal the experience of women in the liberation movements, White 2003 which investigates the assassination of a prominent nationalist leader, and Sibanda 2005 which recounts the history of ZAPU.
  380.  
  381. Lan, D. Guns and Rain: Guerrillas and Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe. London: James Currey, 1985.
  382. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  383. An anthropological study of how traditional Shona spirit mediums were used by ZANU-PF to mobilize rural people for the insurgency.
  384. Find this resource:
  385. Lyons, Tanya. Guns and Guerrilla Girls: Women in the Zimbabwe Liberation Struggle. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2004.
  386. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  387. This scholarly study argues that the unequal treatment of young women within insurgent forces during the war led to the eventual marginalization of women in independent Zimbabwe.
  388. Find this resource:
  389. McLaughlin, Janice. On the Frontline: Catholic Missions in Zimbabwe’s Liberation War. Harare, Zimbabwe: Baobab, 1996.
  390. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  391. Written by a former Catholic nun and liberation struggle activist, this book looks at the role of the Catholic Church in challenging white Rhodesia.
  392. Find this resource:
  393. Nhongo-Simbanegavi, J. For Better or Worse: Women and ZANLA in Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle. Harare, Zimbabwe: Weaver, 2000.
  394. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  395. Looking at the experience of women within the armed wing of ZANU-PF, this well researched work contradicts the revolutionary propaganda of gender equality and points out that the movement emphasized traditional female roles by having them cook and carry supplies.
  396. Find this resource:
  397. Ranger, Terence. Peasant Consciousness and Guerrilla War in Zimbabwe: A Comparative Study. London: James Currey, 1985.
  398. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  399. Authored by an eminent historian of Zimbabwe who had been involved in the Zimbabwe nationalist movement during the late 1950s and early 1960s, this book claims that African peasant consciousness played a central role in the development of the nationalist insurgency.
  400. Find this resource:
  401. Sibanda, E. The Zimbabwe African People’s Union, 1961–1987. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2005.
  402. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  403. An academic study of a Zimbabwe liberation movement that operated primarily in western Zimbabwe and was violently suppressed by the ZANU-PF government during the 1980s.
  404. Find this resource:
  405. White, Louise. The Assassination of Herbert Chitepo: Texts and Politics in Zimbabwe. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003.
  406. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  407. A scholarly examination of the 1976 assassination of a prominent ZANU leader in exile in Zambia. Was he killed by Rhodesian forces or his own comrades?
  408. Find this resource:
  409. Rhodesian Security Forces
  410.  
  411. Most books published on aspects of the Rhodesian security forces tend toward the celebratory. Highly sympathetic Rhodesian unit histories include Reid Daly 1982 on the Selous Scouts, Cole 1984 on the Special Air Service, Binda 2007a and Binda 2007b on the Rhodesian African Rifles and Rhodesian Light Infantry, and Gibbs, et al. 2009 on the British South Africa Police. Wood 2009 thoroughly explores Rhodesian air mobile tactics and Stapleton 2011 offers an academic study of the experience of black personnel within the Rhodesian security forces.
  412.  
  413. Binda, Alexandre. Masodja: The History of the Rhodesian African Rifles and Its Forerunner the Rhodesia Native Regiment. Johannesburg: 30 Degrees South, 2007a.
  414. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  415. A celebratory and richly illustrated account of a Rhodesian regular infantry unit which consisted of white officers and black rank-in-file.
  416. Find this resource:
  417. Binda, Alexandre. The Saints: The Rhodesian Light Infantry. Johannesburg: 30 Degrees South, 2007b.
  418. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  419. A celebratory and well-illustrated account of Rhodesia’s regular and exclusively white infantry battalion which evolved into an air mobile force during the counterinsurgency campaign of the 1970s.
  420. Find this resource:
  421. Cole, Barbara. The Elite: The Story of the Rhodesian Special Air Service. Durban, South Africa: Three Knights, 1984.
  422. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  423. A popular and congratulatory account of an exclusively white Rhodesian special forces unit.
  424. Find this resource:
  425. Gibbs, Peter, Hugh Phillips, and Nick Russell. Blue and Old Gold: The History of the British South Africa Police, 1889–1980. Johannesburg: 30 Degrees South, 2009.
  426. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  427. This celebratory and richly illustrated account of the Rhodesian police was published in increments over a number of decades with new authors adding updated information.
  428. Find this resource:
  429. Reid Daly, Ron. Selous Scouts: Top Secret War. Alberton, South Africa: Galago, 1982.
  430. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  431. As told to Peter Stiff. The war memoir of the commanding officer and founder of a Rhodesian security force unit, portrayed as a specialist tracking unit as a cover, that employed former insurgents to attempt to infiltrate active insurgent groups with a view to surreptitiously calling in air mobile forces to eliminate them.
  432. Find this resource:
  433. Stapleton, Timothy J. African Police and Soldiers in Colonial Zimbabwe, 1923–80. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2011.
  434. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  435. A scholarly examination of the ambiguous experience of black personnel within the white-led Rhodesian security forces.
  436. Find this resource:
  437. Wood, J. R. T. Counter-Strike from the Sky: The Rhodesian All-Arms Fireforce in the Bush 1974–1980. Johannesburg: 30 Degrees South, 2009.
  438. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  439. A pro-Rhodesian account of air mobile operations as a central part of Rhodesian counter-insurgency.
  440. Find this resource:
  441. Personal Accounts
  442.  
  443. Personal memoirs of Zimbabwe’s independence war tend to be highly polarized. Smith 1997 remembers his role as Rhodesian prime minister, Chung 2006 and Tekere 2007 remember the authors’ roles in ZANU-PF. Cocks 2006, Parker 1999, Croukamp 2007, Petter-Bowyer 2008, and Trethowan 2008 represent accounts by veterans of various Rhodesian security force units.
  444.  
  445. Chung, Fay. Reliving the Second Chimurenga: Memories from Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle. Stockholm: Nordiska Afrikaininstutet, 2006.
  446. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  447. A memoir of the liberation struggle by a former member of ZANU-PF with important sections on the group’s internal conflicts.
  448. Find this resource:
  449. Cocks, Chris. Fireforce: One Man’s War in the Rhodesian Light Infantry. Johannesburg: 30 Degrees South, 2006.
  450. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  451. Originally published in 1988, this was one of the first personal accounts of the Rhodesian war by a white soldier. Cocks eventually founded 30 Degrees South which specializes in publishing book on southern Africa’s late 20th century conflicts; particularly memoirs.
  452. Find this resource:
  453. Croukamp, Denis. The Bush War in Rhodesia: The Extraordinary Combat Memoir of a Rhodesian Reconnaissance Specialist. Boulder, CO: Paladin, 2007.
  454. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  455. A personal account by a white Rhodesian soldier who eventually specialized in covert reconnaissance missions into neighbouring countries.
  456. Find this resource:
  457. Parker, Jim. Assignment Selous Scouts: Inside Story of a Rhodesian Special Branch Officer. Alberton, South Africa: Galago, 1999.
  458. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  459. The personal account of a white Rhodesian policeman who worked with the Selous Scouts; a Rhodesian special unit that attempted to infiltrate insurgent groups.
  460. Find this resource:
  461. Petter-Bowyer, Peter P. H. Winds of Destruction: The Autobiography of a Rhodesian Combat Pilot. Johannesburg: 30 Degrees South, 2008.
  462. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  463. The memoir of a Rhodesian air force officer.
  464. Find this resource:
  465. Smith, Ian. The Great Betrayal: The Memoirs of Africa’s Most Controversial Leader. London: Blake, 1997.
  466. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  467. The autobiography of the Rhodesian prime minister who broke with Britain in 1965 and led the territory through most of the war years.
  468. Find this resource:
  469. Tekere, Edgar. A Lifetime of Struggle. Harare, Zimbabwe: SAPES Books, 2007.
  470. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  471. This autobiography of a former ZANU-PF leader turned opposition activist criticizes Mugabe’s leadership during and after the independence war.
  472. Find this resource:
  473. Trethowan, Anthony. Delta Scout: Ground Coverage Operator. Johannesburg: 30 Degrees South, 2008.
  474. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  475. A personal account by a white former Rhodesian policeman who specialized in rural reconnaissance during the war.
  476. Find this resource:
  477. Namibia, 1966–1990
  478.  
  479. During the First World War South Africa invaded and occupied neighboring German South West Africa which then became a League of Nations mandate administered by Pretoria. However, in practice South Africa ruled South West Africa as another province. In the 1960s the South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO) established an armed wing called the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) to evict South African occupation by force. Initially PLAN’s insurgency did not go well as it was difficult to infiltrate South West Africa from its staging area in Zambia. When Angola became independent in 1974 and the South African invasion of 1975 was countered by Cuban intervention, PLAN began to use bases in southern Angola which was just over South West Africa’s northern border which accelerated the insurgency. The insurgency in South West Africa and the civil war in Angola were linked as South Africa periodically invaded southern Angola to pursue PLAN forces and therefore engaged PLAN’s sponsors, the Angolan army and Cuban expeditionary forces. At the same time, South Africa and the United States supported Angolan rebels, the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), to undermine the pro-Soviet Angolan government. Academic works on Namibia’s independence war began during the conflict itself and tended to be unsympathetic to the South African occupation and counterinsurgency effort. Similar to many books on the Rhodesian Bush War and released by some of the same publishers, a host of war memoirs from mostly white South African veterans of the South West African/Angolan conflict (which they call the Border War) have been published in recent years. These different literary traditions have stimulated debate on the conflict. Around the twentieth anniversary of the 1987–1988 Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, in which South African and UNITA forces attacked an Angolan/Cuban defended town in southern Angola, a fierce argument broke out over who had won Africa’s largest conventional battle since the Second World War. White South African veterans, seeing themselves as protecting the region from communism but distancing themselves from apartheid, claim that their side won because of the massive casualties they inflicted on the enemy. Others, including veterans of the region’s liberation movements, point out that South African/UNITA forces did not achieve their goal of pushing the Angola and Cuban forces west of the Cuito River, and in the wake of the battle Pretoria withdrew from Angola and then granted independence to Namibia in which SWAPO came to power. Herbstein and Evenson 1989 and Minter 1994 represent overviews sympathetic to Namibian independence. Norval 1989 and Steenkamp 2006 are pro–South African journalistic accounts, Kaela 1996 presents a synthesis of the existing literature at that time, and Udogu 2012 has written a scholarly study of the diplomatic dimension of the crisis.
  480.  
  481. Herbstein, Denis, and John A. Evenson. The Devils Are Among Us: The War for Namibia. London: Zed Books, 1989.
  482. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  483. A journalistic and detailed account of the ten years leading up to Namibia’s independence in 1990. Chapter topics include alleged atrocities committed by the police counterinsurgency unit Koevoet, the impact of the war on the daily life of Namibians, and attempted diplomatic settlements.
  484. Find this resource:
  485. Kaela, Laurent C. W. The Question of Namibia. London: Macmillan, 1996.
  486. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  487. Written by a political scientist, this book offers an overview of the Namibian crisis and is based on a synthesis of the available literature.
  488. Find this resource:
  489. Minter, William. Apartheid’s Contras: An Inquiry into the Roots of War in Angola and Mozambique. London: Zed Books, 1994.
  490. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  491. A critical look at apartheid South Africa’s military destabilization of the former Portuguese colonies.
  492. Find this resource:
  493. Norval, Morgan. Death in the Desert: The Namibian Tragedy. Washington, DC: Selous Foundation, 1989.
  494. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  495. An overview of the war in Namibia that stresses the South African security forces and military issues.
  496. Find this resource:
  497. Steenkamp, Willem. Borderstrike: South Africa into Angola, 1975–1980. Durban, South Africa: Just Done, 2006.
  498. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  499. A South African journalist’s account of South African military intervention in Angola.
  500. Find this resource:
  501. Udogu, E. Ike. Liberating Namibia: The Long Diplomatic Struggle Between the United Nations and South Africa. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012.
  502. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  503. An academic study of the negotiations between the United Nations, South Africa, and SWAPO over the Namibia crisis. The role of the “Frontline States,” independent African countries sympathetic to the liberation struggle, is not given prominence.
  504. Find this resource:
  505. South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO)
  506.  
  507. There is an emerging literature on SWAPO. Leys and Saul 1995 attempts to reconcile the different images of the group, Dobell 2000 looks at the movement’s diplomatic campaign, and Groth 1995 and Trewhela 2009 have highlighted SWAPO’s poor treatment of dissidents during the struggle.
  508.  
  509. Dobell, Lauren. SWAPO’s Struggle for Nambia, 1960–1991: War By Other Means. Basel, Switzerland: P. Schlettwein, 2000.
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  511. A scholarly and dispassionate study of SWAPO’s diplomatic campaign for the independence of Namibia which sees international issues as primary in determining the movement’s ideology. The book does not pay much attend to military matters.
  512. Find this resource:
  513. Groth, Siegfried. Namibia: The Wall of Silence: The Dark Days of the Liberation Struggle. Wuppertal, Germany: Peter Hammer Verlag, 1995.
  514. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  515. Focuses on SWAPO members who, as dissidents or suspected South African spies, were detained and abused by their own organization.
  516. Find this resource:
  517. Leys, Colin, and John Saul. Namibia’s Liberation Struggle: The Two Edged Sword. Oxford: James Currey, 1995.
  518. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  519. Edited by two Canadian professors with a history of personal sympathy for African liberation movements, this collection of scholarly essays tries to bridge the gap between the two prominent views of SWAPO as a terrorist organization and the savior of the Namibian people. A chapter by Susan Brown outlines the history of SWAPO’s armed struggle.
  520. Find this resource:
  521. Trewhela, Paul. Inside Quatro: Uncovering the Exile History of the ANC and SWAPO. Johannesburg: Jacana, 2009.
  522. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  523. Written by a former South African Communist Party member and journalist, this is a well-researched account of human rights abuses within the detention camps of the ANC and SWAPO in Angola during the liberation struggle period.
  524. Find this resource:
  525. South African Security Forces
  526.  
  527. There is a large and growing popular literature on the experience of South African security forces in Namibia and southern Angola which South Africans call “The Border War.” Breytenbach 2002, Nortje 2003, and Bothma 2008 have written histories of 32 Battalion. Other unit accounts include Uys 1993 on 31 (Bushman) Battalion, Stiff 2004 on the police counter-insurgency force Koevoet, and Lord 2008 on the South African Air Force. Breytenbach 2008 discusses the South African airborne assault on Cassinga in 1978 and Williams 2008 represents an overview of the Border War for a wide though largely white South African readership.
  528.  
  529. Bothma, L. J. Buffalo Battalion: South Africa’s 32 Battalion: A Tale of Sacrifice. Bloemfontein, South Africa: L. J. Bothma, 2008.
  530. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  531. A popular history of a South African Defence Force (SADF) unit which consisted primarily of black Angolans based in northern South West Africa (Namibia). The author served with the unit.
  532. Find this resource:
  533. Breytenbach, Jan. The Buffalo Soldiers: The Story of South Africa’s 32-Battalion, 1975–1993. Alberton, South Africa: Galago, 2002.
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  535. A history of 32 Battalion written by its founder and first commanding officer.
  536. Find this resource:
  537. Breytenbach, Jan. Eagle Strike: The Story of the Controversial Airborne Assault on Cassinga. Johannesburg: Manie Grove, 2008.
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  539. An account of a 1978 South African parachute assault on a SWAPO camp in southern Angola written by the South African operational commander.
  540. Find this resource:
  541. Lord, Dick. From Fledgling to Eagle: The South African Air Force during the Border War. Johannesburg: 30 Degrees South, 2008.
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  543. A former South African Air Force officer’s account of South African air operations in Namibia and Angola.
  544. Find this resource:
  545. Nortje, Piet. 32 Battalion: The Inside Story of South Africa’s Elite Fighting Unit. Cape Town: Zebra, 2003.
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  547. A detailed and comprehensive history of 32 Battalion, the most embattled SADF unit of the Namibian/Angolan war, by a former member.
  548. Find this resource:
  549. Stiff, Peter. The Covert War: Koevoet Operations in Namibia, 1979–1989. Alberton, South Africa: Galago, 2004.
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  551. A sympathetic account of the history of a controversial South African/South West African police counterinsurgency tracking unit that emphasizes its success in killing SWAPO insurgents.
  552. Find this resource:
  553. Uys, Ian. Bushman Soldiers: Their Alpha and Omega. Germiston, South Africa: Fortress, 1993.
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  555. A celebratory account of an SADF combat unit that primarily employed Bushmen from Namibia and Angola.
  556. Find this resource:
  557. Williams, David. On the Border: The White South African Military Experience, 1965–1990. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2008.
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  559. A sympathetic overview and popular account of the white South African soldiers’ experience in Namibia and Angola.
  560. Find this resource:
  561. Personal Accounts
  562.  
  563. Among the growing number of published personal memoirs of the war in Namibia and southern Angola the vast majority have been written by white South African veterans. Durand 2011, Durand 2012, and Kamongo and Bezuidenhout 2011 are accounts by Koevoet veterans. Geldenhuys 1995 looks at the war from the perspective of a high-ranking South African officer, Greeff 2001 is an account by a highly decorated South African special forces operator, Thompson 2006 presents the stories of numerous South African conscripts, and Koriff 2009 writes about his experience as a South African paratrooper. One of the few published accounts by a SWAPO veteran is Namakalu 2004.
  564.  
  565. Durand, Arn. Zulu Zulu Golf: Life and Death with Koevoet. Cape Town: Zebra, 2011.
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  567. The graphic personal account by a former member of a controversial police counterinsurgency unit that specialized in tracking and eliminating SWAPO insurgents. The first of two parts.
  568. Find this resource:
  569. Durand, Arn. Zulu Zulu Foxtrot: To Hell and Back With Koevoet. Cape Town: Zebra, 2012.
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  571. The second part of a Durand’s account of his experience as a member of Koevoet during the “Border War.”
  572. Find this resource:
  573. Geldenhuys, Jannie. A General’s Story: From an Era of War and Peace. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 1995.
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  575. A former SADF general’s account of South African operations in Namibia and Angola. Republished as At the Front (2008).
  576. Find this resource:
  577. Greeff, Jack. A Greater Share of Honour: The Memoirs of a Recce Officer. Durban, South Africa: Just Done, 2001.
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  579. The personal story of a former South African special forces operator and the most highly decorated South African soldier of the Namibia/Angolan war.
  580. Find this resource:
  581. Kamongo, Sisingi, and Leon Bezuidenhout. Shadows in the Sand: A Koevoet Tracker’s Story. Johannesburg: 30 Degrees South, 2011.
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  583. The personal account of an Ovambo tracker who was a member of Koevoet during the 1980s. It represents the first war memoir by a black member of the South African/South West African security forces and was written with the assistance of another former Koevoet member.
  584. Find this resource:
  585. Koriff, Granger. Nineteenth with a Bullet: A South African Paratrooper in Angola. Johannesburg: 30 Degrees South, 2009.
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  587. The personal account of a white South African soldier who fought in Namibia/Angola.
  588. Find this resource:
  589. Namakalu, Oswin Onesmus. Armed Liberation Struggle: Some Accounts of PLAN’s Combat Operations. Windhoek, Namibia: Gamsberg Macmillan, 2004.
  590. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  591. One of the few personal accounts of a SWAPO/PLAN guerrilla.
  592. Find this resource:
  593. Thompson, J. H. An Unpopular War: From Afkak to Bosbefok: Voices of South African National Servicemen. Cape Town: Zebra, 2006.
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  595. A collection of short firsthand accounts of the war experience of white South African conscripts.
  596. Find this resource:
  597. South Africa, 1960–1994
  598.  
  599. Like the literature on Zimbabwe and Namibia, academic studies of the anti-apartheid armed struggle tend to be unsympathetic to Pretoria and personal accounts are dominated by white former apartheid security force members justifying their actions as part of a global anti-communist struggle. However, a few liberation movement veterans, black and white, have written broader histories and personal accounts. Much of the literature, particularly the memoirs, is linked to the wars in Namibia and Angola.
  600.  
  601. Security Forces
  602.  
  603. Cawthra 1986 and Cock and Nathan 1989 are academic but unsympathetic accounts of the South African security forces during the apartheid era. Seegers 1996 and Peled 1998 present more balanced scholarly studies. Hamann 2001 is a journalistic account based on interviews with a number of South African generals and Stiff 1999 celebrates the accomplishments of South African special forces.
  604.  
  605. Cawthra, Gavin. Brutal Force: The Apartheid War Machine. London: International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, 1986.
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  607. An unsympathetic look at South Africa’s counterinsurgency campaign.
  608. Find this resource:
  609. Cock, Jacklyn, and Laurie Nathan, eds. War and Society: The Militarization of South Africa. New York: St. Martin’s, 1989.
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  611. A collection of essays that looks at South Africa’s increasing reliance on state violence and militarization to suppress protest after the Soweto Uprising of 1976.
  612. Find this resource:
  613. Hamann, Hilton. Days of the Generals: The Untold Story of South Africa’s Apartheid Era Generals. Cape Town: Zebra, 2001.
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  615. Written by a South African journalist and based on extensive interviews with former SADF generals, this book gives a strategic perspective on South African military operations and looks at disagreements within the South African command structure.
  616. Find this resource:
  617. Peled, Alon. A Question of Loyalty: Military Manpower Policy in Multiethnic States. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998.
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  619. This scholarly work contains a chapter on how the exclusively white SADF began to recruit Coloureds (mixed race people), Indians, and blacks as a response to the growth of insurgency in Namibia and South Africa.
  620. Find this resource:
  621. Seegers, Annette. The Military in the Making of Modern South Africa. London: I. B. Tauris, 1996.
  622. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  623. An academic study of the development of the SADF.
  624. Find this resource:
  625. Stiff, Peter. The Silent War: South African Recce Operations, 1969–1994. Alberton, South Africa: Galago, 1999.
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  627. A detailed account on South African special forces operations including raids on liberation movement bases in neighboring countries like Botswana, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.
  628. Find this resource:
  629. Liberation Movements
  630.  
  631. Since the end of apartheid in 1994, there has been a surge in the number of publications on the South African liberation movements. A number of veterans of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the African National Congress, have published personal accounts such as Bopela and Daluxolo 2005, which is critical of the organization, and Ngculu 2010, which is celebratory. MK veterans’ accounts Williams 2000 and Cherry 2012 have attempted more comprehensive histories. Shubin 2008 explores and to some extent celebrates the Soviet role in supporting the armed anti-apartheid movement while the South African Democracy Education Trust 2004a and South African Democracy Education Trust 2004b have produced several large and thorough edited collections of scholarly papers on aspects of the liberation struggle. Ellis 2012 studies the ANC’s period in exile.
  632.  
  633. Bopela, Thula, and Luthuli Daluxolo. Umkhonto we Sizwe: Fighting for a Divided People. Alberton, South Africa: Galago, 2005.
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  635. An account by two black South Africans who, as young men in the 1960s, left their country to join the ANC’s armed wing but eventually became disillusioned with what they saw as poor leadership.
  636. Find this resource:
  637. Cherry, Janet. Spear of the Nation (Umkhonto we Sizwe) South Africa’s Liberation Army, 1960s to 1990s. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2012.
  638. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  639. A popular history of the ANC’s armed wing by a white former member.
  640. Find this resource:
  641. Ellis, Stephen. External Mission: The ANC in Exile, 1960–90. London: Hurst, 2012.
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  643. A thoroughly researched scholarly history of the ANC’s period of exile that emphasizes the role of the organization’s communists in launching the armed struggle.
  644. Find this resource:
  645. Ngculu, James. The Honour to Serve: Reflections of an Umkhonto Soldier. Claremont, South Africa: David Phillip, 2010.
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  647. The personal account of a former member of the ANC’s armed wing who trained in the Soviet Union and participated in the Angolan civil war.
  648. Find this resource:
  649. Shubin, Vladimir. The Hot Cold War: The USSR in Southern Africa. London: Pluto, 2008.
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  651. Written by a former Soviet agent, this book looks at how the Soviet Union provided military assistance to Southern Africa’s liberation movements including the ANC.
  652. Find this resource:
  653. South African Democracy Education Trust. The Road to Democracy in South Africa Vol. 1 (1960–70). Cape Town: Zebra, 2004a.
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  655. A collection of academic essays on the history of South Africa’s anti-apartheid movements including military issues such as the beginning of the ANC and PAC armed struggle, and cooperation between South African and Zimbabwean liberation movements.
  656. Find this resource:
  657. South African Democracy Education Trust. The Road to Democracy in South Africa Vol. 2: International Solidarity. Cape Town: Zebra, 2004b.
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  659. A collection of scholarly essays on aspects of South Africa’s liberation struggle which continues from the first volume by focusing on international issues.
  660. Find this resource:
  661. Williams, Rocky. “The Other Armies: A Brief Historical Overview of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) 1961–1994.” South African Military History Journal 11.5 (June 2000).
  662. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  663. Although written by a white former ANC insurgent who was later absorbed into the post-apartheid military, this concise overview of the history of the ANC’s armed wing is relatively objective.
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