Project In-Class Presentation

H. Prown

32 Battalion: Loyal Soldiers and Ruthless Mercenaries in the Rainbow Nation

Description of the Topic:
• The story of 32 Battalion, or “Os Terriveis” is one of contradiction. Theirs is a tale of an unlikely partnership between white officers defending a racist government and black refugees from the war torn nation of Angola. Together, for better or worse, they became the most effective fighting force for the apartheid government, winning more medals by far than any other Battalion. That is, until it was disbanded in 1993, for, I think, understandable political reasons. 32 Battalion, though, didn't die with its disbandment, no, it survived in the individual soldier who went on to, for whatever reason, serve the almighty dollar. In the last 20 years, hired men at arms have re-emerged as prominent actors in world crises from Iraq to Haiti and many places in between. This emergence was, in a way, forged in the jungles of Angola and Botswana, Mozambique and Lesotho, and to comprehend the current state of war ravaged Sub-Saharan Africa one must explore this past. The nature of the apartheid regime and its main support, their military, can be found in the story of the soldiers, what they actually did, why they did it, and how it led to current developments around the world.
Why it is Important:
• The story of the apartheid and the forces that held it together is one that many would like to avoid, at least outside of the most basic clichés. This is particularly true, I think, in the United States, where their history is all too close to ours. After all, only 30 years separates the institutionalized racism of South Africa and America, and the all too real legitimization and support given by both the US and other western nations through the late 1980s to the apartheid regime is a shameful scar on our history. Of course, it wasn’t the first, and certainly wasn’t the last time that we had supported a dictatorial regime. South Africa, though, came to represent a special kind of hypocrisy in the West, and particularly the United States, due to their unsettling similarities.
• The Rainbow Nation, then, in many other ways, mirrors our own. They were a British colony that brought together a melting pot of peoples – European, African, and Indian, and they share the unfortunate history of segregation. They, too, have become a symbol of Democracy, despite their recent troubles. A mirror, however, turns everything on its side, and this is true for the relationship between the United States and South Africa. The oppressors in South Africa, white and wealthy like in the US, were in the minority, and the peaceful transition to “true” Democracy came after years of war and violent conflict. The challenges of integrating a poor and marginalized majority, suffering mass unemployment, poverty, and disease, are on a magnitude much beyond anything the United States faced. The point of this short history is to provide insight into why I find this topic, in a larger sense, to be so engaging, and so very relevant.
• So, to bring this back to 32 Battalion. Besides the obvious connection between the segregated military of South Africa and the United States, I think that 32 Battalion serves as an interesting microcosm for the examination of South African history and the chaos that arose from the fall of communism and apartheid. Their demographics, their success, and their mystery, made them the most unique force in the military. It also made the most celebrated, and the most hated. They are celebrated, I think, for the same reasons that Robert E. Lee is still, in many quarters, a national hero, and hated, I think, for the same reasons that Nathan Bedford Forrest is, to most, a villain. That ambiguous nature became even more ambiguous with the rise of new mercenary groups, many of which were and are headed and staffed by 32 Battalion. Mercenary groups hired by the United States, Britain, and their allies on multiple occasions. I guess what I am trying to say is that their history is important for the same reason that foreign movies are important; they both show common threads of humanity through a different light, and, in doing so, explain aspects of ourselves (and our country) that we didn’t understand before.
What I hope to Achieve:
• Always residing in the legal gray area, mercenaries are viewed by some as necessity and by others as a dangerous erosion of national sovereignty and rule of law. The goal of my research will not be to comment on the moral foundations of “private contractors”, but merely to explore their origins and motivation. What brought a ragged band of Angolan refugees, Portuguese colonialists, British and Americans, Rhodesians, and white South African officers together? Was it out of necessity, vengeance, adventurism, loyalty? How did motivates differ between each group? What made them unbeaten as a force? A year before the end of the racist regime in South Africa, the battalion was sent to a distant corner of South Africa, and, as I mentioned, disbanded. Many went on to join the new defense firms that had sprung up the wake of the fall of communism. I want to understand, ultimately, why these men, heroes to some, villains to the rest, entered the murky waters of guns for hire.