Posted on November 18, 2011

Battle Scarred: The Hidden Costs of the Border War
Anthony Feinstein
Tafelberg, 2011

Numerous books and documentaries on the experiences of soldiers in the Border War have been published over the last few years. These books seem to be in response to a perceived exclusion of white men - specifically those who served in the SADF during the Border War - from the 'new' South African national identity. There has also been a re-staging of Anthony Ackerman's play Somewhere on the Border in the 2011 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown (also scheduled for a second run in 2012, according to the National Arts Festival website).

For the most part, these books, plays and series explore the experiences of SADF conscripts on the border: personal accounts, the circumstances of their service, experiences of trauma, renderings of racism, violence, and the horrors of war. Many of these are confessions of suffering and/or regret and guilt, but some scholars who have done extensive research on veteran narratives, such as Gary Baines, assert that the voice of the veteran narrative is by no means consistent or unified (Baines, 2009). Some of the books, as evident in their titles, gesture to the previously 'untold', 'silent' or 'prohibited' nature of their contents. Examples include A Secret Burden: Memories of the Border War by South African soldiers who fought in it (K. Batley, 2007), An Unpopular War: From afkak to bosbefok (J.H. Thompson, 2006), The Silent War: South African Recce Operations (Peter Stiff, 2001), and Battle Scarred: Hidden Costs of the Border War (Anthony Feinstein, 2011).

Indeed, creator, director and producer of the 26 part M-net series Bush War/Grensoorlog, Linda de Jager, asserts on the series' website that these stories are being told '[f]or the first time ever - we reveal previously censored military footage which unashamedly tells the story of the true events of South Africa's Secret Bush War. This series packs a powerful punch providing an intimate, sometimes shocking, yet balanced glimpse of an important era in Africa's history.' (http://www.bushwar.grensoorlog.com ) As such, the series sets out to provide a platform to examine what 'really' happened in the Border War, implying that the Border War is something which, up till now, has been underrepresented, misrepresented, or misunderstood, and that the series 'offers new perspectives on the Border War through paradigms of diplomatic and military history and cultural studies' (http://www.bushwar.grensoorlog.com ). Furthermore, the home page of the website asserts that the series 'constitutes a literal unburdening for those whose voices have been silenced for so long' and that '[t]hose interviewed have challenged the boundaries, broken the silences and even tackled some of the taboos about the war' (http://www.bushwar.grensoorlog.com ). The unburdening, in this context, from what can be gathered, might suggest the laying down of secrets or guilt and shame.

This can be read in light of the state-sanctioned secrecy regarding the experiences of SADF soldiers on the border; military activities were kept secret not only from the media, but from the soldiers' families, and even from the very soldiers themselves. Furthermore, soldiers were required to sign declarations which, in accordance with the Defense Act, prohibited them from communicating any information, including to friends and family, regarding their activities in the army. This all falls within the shadow of the apartheid government's secrecy policies regarding public access to information, as well as the destruction of many of their State records before the hand over to the new democratic government.

Similarly, a review of the revival of Ackerman's Somewhere on the Border appearing on the National Arts Festival website states: 'When South Africa started exorcising its political past at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, one chapter in our recent history was given short shrift. That was the way young white men had been subjected to compulsory military service for several decades in a defense force that became politicized to a point where it was simply the brutal enforcer of apartheid.' (http://www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/events/event/309)

The play primarily revolves around the stories and experiences of six white SADF conscripts during their time of service in the Border War. Thus this review seems to speak to the same notion of silenced or under-represented narratives within the context of the 'new' post-apartheid South Africa. It suggests that the TRC, or circumstances around the TRC, did not provide for adequate or appropriate attention to be given to the experiences of young white conscripts of the SADF. Various possibilities exist for why this might be perceived as such, such as the classification of all armed wings during the Freedom Struggle/Border War as 'combatants', meaning that they could not apply as victims of gross human rights abuses in the same way as 'protected persons' or civilians, according to the TRC's mandate. Or the troubling question: what does it mean to talk about the suffering of white, conscripted male soldiers, in relation to the suffering of blacks across South Africa who were subjected to a system of oppression in order to uphold white supremacy and privilege? Moreover, what does it mean to talk about the experiences of white conscripts who suffered in a war, the imperative of which was to uphold the very system which oppressed blacks in the first place?

As such, Feinstein's autobiography enters into a discussion of South African heritage, where the previously silenced narratives of SADF soldiers are being brought forward as an important topic for discussion by these various authors, playwrights and producers. This is particularly interesting in light of what Gary Baines calls the 'Freedom park fracas' (Baines, 2009), where the names of SADF veterans were excluded from the memorial Wall of Names at Freedom Park erected by the current government to honour those who fell in the great battles and struggles for freedom (such as resistance movements and slavery) in South Africa'™s history, on the basis that they did not 'deserve inclusion on the wall, on the grounds that they had fought to preserve apartheid and defeat the struggle for liberation.' (Baines, 2009, 336) The exclusion of SADF names, as well as the historical silencing of their experiences by the apartheid government, creates the impression that perhaps they did not suffer, or if they did, that their suffering does not deserve a place in the way South Africa is remembered.

Feinstein's account is indeed an exploration of the particular suffering of SADF soldiers at the hands of a system of mundane and personalised cruelty. He narrates his experiences as a psychiatrist in the army, dealing with all manner of patients from those suffering with extreme psychosis to those with simple cases of athlete's foot. His account renders the complex structures of power and domination of men over men, and the suffering that this, in place of any actual experiences of combat, inflicts on the minds of those men and their families. Most of those men were, in fact, no more than boys. His account is unflinching. He deals empathetically with issues of family, fear, and human weakness, yet he still manages to maintain some form of distance, rendering just as clearly the unnecessary violence, cruelty, and racism of the war.

Feinstein renders both the small, lingering events of trauma, as well as those on a grander scale. In one of the smaller accounts, he describes how human remains of the 'enemy' had been used as superstitious battle mementos, and tacked up on the tree at Tsandi behind the bar where the men drowned their thoughts each night. In another, he wakes in the middle of the night, after a brutal ambush in a kraal on 'enemy' territory, to hear the high pitched crying of a child. Upon investigating the sound, he finds their Captain calling for help in his sleep. The grander narratives include a rape scene where Marie, the wife of a prominent military official, comes in search of help as she, like many women in the garrison towns, is being abused by her husband. The scene is a display of sheer force and callous power; the world of the military brought into the home. Feinstein also discusses various extreme cases where he was forced to send the young soldiers - too psychotic to be responsible for arms and the lives of their fellow soldiers - back home to be pieced together again by their families. One such case is Nel who holds up the checkpoint of the entire garrison town of Oshakati with heavy weaponry, asserting that a SWAPO attack is imminent, and refusing to speak to anyone else besides a general. When he is finally subdued he is beaten, sedated and sent home, but not before Feinstein talks to him and is struck by a painful moment of irony which exposes the paranoia generated at the heart of the inner workings of the army; Nel believed he was, as the army drilled them all relentlessly to believe, keeping everyone safe: 'I deserve a fucking medal, Doc... Why am I being treated like this?' He is diagnosed with schizophrenia and sent home.

Through these and other such narratives, Feinstein explores what it meant to be 'lower than snake shit', and the lengths individuals would go to in order to survive when they were considered expendable by the government. There are at times hints of glibness or sentimentality, especially evident in the epilogue, but Feinstein does acknowledge his narrative voice in the shaping of a story in place of an entirely accurate historical account of events. Overall, a good read, and an interesting, and at times, for myself personally, groundbreaking look literally into the minds of the soldiers who served in the Border War.

Bibliography

Baines, Gary, 'Site of struggle: the Freedom Park fracas and the divisive legacy of South Africa's Border War/Liberation Struggle.' Social Dynamics: A journal of African studies 35 (2009).

Grensoorlog. 'Grensoorlog.' Last modified November 8, 2011, http://www.bushwar.grensoorlog.com.

National Arts Festival. 'Somewhere on the Border.' http://www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/events/event/309.

Nicola Lazenby is completing her Masters in English at the University of Cape Town, where she is pursuing her interest in trauma narratives.