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Fighting for Time
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 353

Fighting for Time

This military study examines the evolution of the Rhodesian armed services during the complex conflicts of the Cold War era. Through the 1960s and 1970s, Africa endured a series of conflicts involving Rhodesia, South Africa, and Portugal in conflict with the Frontline States. The Cold War brought outside influences, including American interest at the diplomatic, economic, and social level. In Fighting for Time, military historian Charles D. Melson sheds new light on this complex and consequential period through analysis of the Rhodesian military. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, Melson examines the Rhodesian military’s evolution into a special operations force conducting intelligenc...

From the Barrel of a Gun
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 402

From the Barrel of a Gun

In November 1965, Ian Smith's white minority government in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) made a unilateral declaration of independence, breaking with Great Britain. With a European population of a few hundred thousand dominating an African majority of several million, Rhodesia's racial structure echoed the apartheid of neighboring South Africa. Smith's declaration sparked an escalating guerrilla war that claimed thousands of lives. Across the Atlantic, President Lyndon B. Johnson nervously watched events in Rhodesia, fearing that racial conflict abroad could inflame racial discord at home. Although Washington officially voiced concerns over human rights violations, an attitude of toleranc...

Days of the Generals
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 399

Days of the Generals

What really happened during South Africa’s military involvement in Angola? Did the military leaders always see eye to eye with the politicians – and with each other? Was South Africa responsible for the death of Mozambican President Samora Machel? What was the extent of South Africa’s nuclear programme? How did South Africa’s military machine deal with the end of apartheid? Based on interviews with the former generals of the South African Defence Force, Days of the Generals addresses these and many other fascinating questions. The book looks in detail at South Africa’s intervention in Angola, Namibia and Mozambique. It examines the armed struggle of the ANC and the state’s war ag...

A Matter of Weeks Rather Than Months
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 772

A Matter of Weeks Rather Than Months

Founded on 35 years of research into o the post-1945 Anglo-Rhodesian history, this book complements Richard Wood's The Welensky Papers: A History of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland: 1953-1963 (1983) and So Far and No Further! Rhodesia's bid for independence during the retreat from empire: 1959-1965 (2005). Of So Far, Michael Hartnack wrote that 'Once in a lifetime comes a book which must force a total shift in the thinking person's perception of an epoch, and of all the prominent characters who featured in it.' A Matter of Weeks Rather than Months recounts the action and reaction to Ian Smith's unilateral declaration of Rhodesia's independence, the second such declaration since the ...

Strange but True
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 465

Strange but True

Why do we: • Christen ships and sailing vessels or refer to them as ‘she’? • Avoid the number thirteen, breaking mirrors or walking under ladders? • Use the phrase having a ‘skeleton in the cupboard’? • Dress baby boys in blue, speak of ‘true blue’ or ‘blue-blooded’? • Decorate the Christmas Tree or eat Easter Eggs? • Kiss under the mistletoe or 'trick or treat’ on Halloween? In this easy-to-read book – a revised and updated re-publication of her previous book, Curious and Curiouser! – author, lecturer and public speaker, Dr. Monica-Maria Stapelberg, shares the results of her many years of research to uncover the historical background behind numerous commonly-held beliefs and traditions. These range from general popular beliefs to the more specific and enlightening traditions of western culture. Strange but True also brings to light how many of our day-to-day words, phrases and actions are anchored in past ritual or sacrificial observances, or simply based on fearful superstitious notions. This book is a must read for a curious mind!

A Far-Away War
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 209

A Far-Away War

South Africa's armed forces invaded Angola in 1975, setting off a war that had consequences for the whole region that are still felt today. A Far-Away War contributes to a wider understanding of this war in Angola and Namibia. The book does not only look at the war from an "e;old"e; South African (Defence Force) perspective, but also gives a voice to participants "e;on the other side"e; - emphasising the role of the Cubans and Russians. This focus is supplemented by the inclusion of many never-before-published photographs from Cuban and Russian archives, and a comprehensive bibliography.

Global Outlaws
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 257

Global Outlaws

Carolyn Nordstrom explores the pathways of global crime in this stunning work of anthropology that has the power to change the way we think about the world. To write this book, she spent three years traveling to hot spots in Africa, Europe, Asia, and the United States investigating the dynamics of illegal trade around the world—from blood diamonds and arms to pharmaceuticals, exotica, and staples like food and oil. Global Outlaws peels away the layers of a vast economy that extends from a war orphan in Angola selling Marlboros on the street to powerful transnational networks reaching across continents and oceans. Nordstrom's extraordinary fieldwork includes interviews with scores of inform...

The Janus Face of International Politics
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 381

The Janus Face of International Politics

This work investigates the ‘Janus face’ of international relations, refracted through the prism of the duality of Jan Christian Smuts, as it manifested in his contribution to the League of Nations and his struggle against the emerging peace treaty. A predominant characteristic of international relations is its requirement to face two different ways at the same time - its Janus face. States profess their adherence to lofty ideals for humanity alongside the pursuit of their own immediate self-interest. This phenomenon in the behaviour of states has been referred to as the distance between vision and reality, and the gap between rhetoric and reality. International relations is, and is likel...

Brothers in Arms
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 450

Brothers in Arms

At the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Boer War in 1899, a large number of Hollanders and Dutch expatriates joined the Boers, their reasons ranging from loyalty to their common ancestry to strong anti-British sentiments and a search for adventure. Brothers in Arms documents the trials and tribulations of these volunteers – most of them unaccustomed to the harsh landscape and climate of South Africa. Quotations and personal anecdotes from their diaries and memoirs vividly bring to life their hardships on commando, the thunder and chaos of battle, and the trauma of comrades falling around them. Some of the prominent figures in the book are Cornelius van Gogh, brother of the painter Vincent van ...

Fast Track Land Occupations in Zimbabwe
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 266

Fast Track Land Occupations in Zimbabwe

This book offers the first detailed scholarly examination of the nation-wide land occupations which spread across the Zimbabwean countryside from the year 2000, and led to the state’s fast track land reform programme. In an innovative way, it highlights the decentralized character of the occupations by recognizing significant spatial variation around a number of key themes, including historical memory, modes of mobilization and gender. A case study of the land occupations in Mashonaland Central Province, based on original research, adds empirical weight to the argument. In further identifying and understanding the specificities and complexities of the land occupations, the book also frames...