African Military History Research Articles

“A Distinctly Busy Man” – Lieutenant Colonel (Dr) Frederick Holles Brennan, First Officer Commanding of the 1st South African Irish Regiment, 1861–1927

Abstract Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Holles Brennan, formerly the commanding officer of the 1st South African Irish Regiment, medical officer of the Transvaal Volunteers, surgeon to the Hawarden Castle hospital ship and recipient of the Volunteer Officer’s Decoration and Long Service Medal during active service, is a forgotten name in South African military history today. Canadian-born Brennan, a qualified medical doctor, emigrated to South Africa during the 1890s. After settling in Johannesburg, he established a successful medical practice and became an integral part of the Irish-Canadian diasporic community on the Witwatersrand. This was complemented by active involvement in a range of charitable causes, in addition to participating in both the Anglo-Boer War (on the side of the British) and the First World War. From 1894–1927, Brennan made a fundamental contribution to the development of the South African military and sports history, without compromising his Irish-Canadian identity.

Evolving Grand Narratives: A Forty-Year Perspective

Eminent historians reflect on the creation, evolution, and in some cases the destruction of the field of military history’s ‘grand narratives,’ ‘master narratives’, or ‘metanarratives’ over the past forty years in the following areas: race and the history of the modern US military; Asian military history; US military history; African military history: Europe 1789 to 1900; European history since 1914; wars of decolonisation; explanations of Confederate defeat; gender and war; and early modern European warfare.

‘Disgusting, disgraceful, inconsequential and dirty renegade?’: Reconstructing the early life and career of Anglo-Boer War combatant and war prisoner ‘Artie’ Tully, 1889–1910

Arthur William (‘Artie’) Tully is a largely forgotten name in South African military history. A professional boxer by trade, Australian-born Tully joined the republican forces during the South African/Anglo Boer War (1899-1902) while working on the Witwatersrand. Captured at Vaalkrantz, he became a prisoner of war on Diyatalawa in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon). After the Peace of Vereeniging, Tully, portrayed by his brethren as a traitor, rekindled his boxing career and established himself in Singapore, Southeast Asia, working as a bookmaker, turf commission agent and mine-owner. Tully’s visit to Australia after a thirteen-year absence was largely ignored, just like his legacy in post-war studies, and to this day, he, like thousands of others, remained an obscured figure of the Anglo-Boer/South African War. His life before the war and the factors that motivated him to join the republican cause remains unknown. For some Australians, he is an emigrant traitor of no consequence. South Africans ironically continue to celebrate the contribution of a range of other foreign participants but, for unknown reasons, continue to ignore or is blissfully unaware of the contribution of this Australian to their history. Against this background, this study reconstructed the early life and career of a significant personality with a view to end his current obscurity.

The Importance of Operational Accounts in African Military History

The Importance of Operational Accounts in African Military History

Legislative disconnect or institutional gatekeeping? Challenges of researching South Africa's military past

The Department of Defence Archive in Pretoria is the repository of all military documents generated by the Union Defence Force, the South African Defence Force and the South African National Defence Force. This makes it the foremost source of primary information for researchers of South African military history. However, an almost total ban on access to archival documents from 1 January 1970 onwards complicates research into later periods. In fact, anyone researching post-1970 military-related topics has to apply for access to archival documents through the Promotion of Access to Information Act. The traditional weapon in the armoury of the historian – the systematic trawling of archives – is thereby negated, while the methodology of post-1970 historical research differs significantly from commonly accepted historical practices. Finding aids, the only access route to classified information in this analogue archive, offer only the briefest descriptions of the content of files, and researchers need almost esoteric intuition to identify documents that are even remotely relevant to their research. Additionally, a fee is payable for declassification, and the process can take several months to complete. This review article reports on the theoretical workings of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, and uses an actual research example as a case study to illustrate the practical implications of conducting research at the Department of Defence Archive in South Africa based on classified military documentation.

Introducing the New Lens of African Military History

Abstract In an effort to enrich the historical understanding of the African past, the editors of the Journal of African Military History announce the creation of a new series titled the New Lens of African Military History. In this new series, we ask for contributions that examine various aspects of the African past from a military methodology, and assess the ways that using military history helps create a more complex and complete picture of different aspects of African history. In our inaugural issue, we examine the question of genocide during the Nigerian Civil War, a hard fought war with an underdeveloped military literature. By placing the evolution of Biafra’s genocide claims into the broader picture of the war, a more nuanced and complex analysis of the war and its most important legacy becomes possible.

What Does a Feminist Curiosity Bring to African Military History?

This essay uses feminist scholarship to engender African military history. It begins by examining the ways in which gender has—or has not—been integrated into African military history over the last ten years. Next, it analyzes some of the most influential feminist scholarship on gender and militarism in Africa today. Although most of this literature has not been produced by historians, it has much to teach us about how gender can be critically interrogated within our own work. The penultimate section considers the importance of cultivating a feminist curiosity and discusses what this type of critical thinking can bring to African military history. And finally, the conclusion reflects upon the future of the field, describing what needs to be done and how we might get there.

African Military History: A Perspective

African military history has only recently come into its own as an acknowledged and viable academic field of considerable variety, scope and sophistication. This study attempts to situate it in the broader context of historical writing. It is argued that African military history is the product of several converging and overlapping fields of history, each with its own trajectory and characteristic source base. These are War Studies including both the traditional or “old” military history along with the “new military history” which has been gaining traction since the 1980s, imperial history, and African history itself. The suggestion is made that two related elements of the new military history are particularly pertinent to the military history of Africa: military culture and masculinity.

Out of Africa: The Challenges, Evolution, and Opportunities of African Military History

Since their inception, African studies have endeavored to dispel the harmful racialized stereotypes of the African people. However, these efforts have been uneven and some aspects of African history have remained immersed in colonial dehumanized tropes. The sub-discipline of African military history has been one such aspect due in part to structural issues involved in its generation. However, with these structural issues slowly being overcome by advances in the discipline, the development of African institutions, and the expansion of historical inquiry, there are now a multitude of African military historical inquiries that might be successfully pursued. In turn, these inquiries will help transform the understanding of African military practices from a racialized discussion of slave raids and massacres to a nuanced examination of a complex socio-political practice.

The Ethnic Army and the State

Military coups have posed a persistent threat to political stability in Africa, undermining democratization efforts, igniting insurgencies, and leading to years of devastating military governance. Initial cross-national studies found little consistent evidence linking ethnicity to coups, leading recent formal and statistical work on coup risk and coup-proofing to largely ignore ethnic politics. This article, however, argues that in two important contexts of African political development—decolonization and democratization—ethnic politics are critical to understanding the occurrence of coups. Both case study evidence and statistical analysis of original data on African military history and ethnic politics reveal that practices of ethnic manipulation within security institutions have driven coup attempts. When leaders attempt to build ethnic armies, or dismantle those created by their predecessors, they provoke violent resistance from military officers.

Accolades and Albatrosses: The South African National Defence Force’s Centenary and the Commemoration of Milestones in South African Military History

Peoples, societies, institutions and other entities frequently record their histories in terms of successive epochs, and commemorate those histories according to perceived milestones or turning points in their development. Since much of human history has been dominated by strife and warfare, national and international milestones are frequently embedded in notions of a military past. Milestones in military history may be divided into three broad categories, namely those representing significant strides in the evolution of warfare, those associated with bravery, heroic sacrifice and great loss, and those of decisive political importance. Defence forces in general, and individual military units in particular, are extremely conscious of their past and often commemorate milestones through customs, traditions, and splendid parades and ceremonial displays. This year (2012), the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) celebrates its centenary against the complex background of South Africa’s long history of internal strife interspaced with participation in foreign conflicts. This article reflects on the commemoration of South Africa’s military history within the context of the divergent historical heritages of the SANDF and its predecessors. It commences with a brief background on memory, identity and the commemoration of history and military history. Thereafter it outlines the commemoration of a few of the foremost milestones in South African military history associated with the evolution of warfare, with bravery, heroic sacrifice and great loss, and with political change within its historical and current context.

DIE SLAG VAN BLOEDRIVIER 16 DESEMBER 1838

On the site where the brave impi's of Dingane unsuccessfully stormed the wagon-laager of Andries Pretorius and his men 141 years ago, a D-shaped laager of old-fashioned ox-wagons of cast iron blown over with bronze stands today. The laager is a reconstruction of the original, with which the 'Wenkommando' defeated the Zulu might. Bloodriver is one of the battlefields which has been reconstructed to the fullest because of the significance attached to the Battle of Bloodriver in South African military history.

The History of the Transvaal Horse Artillery 1904-1974.

With the publication of its Regimental History, the Transvaal Horse Artillery has rendered a valuable service. The book is a welcome addition to works on South African military history.

DIE SUID-AFRIKAANSE MOTORFIETSKORPS

With the conclusion of the German South West African campaign. the ImperialGovernment requested the participation of the Union Defence Forces in the German East African campaign. As a result of experience acquired during the former campaignas well as knowledge of the rugged East African terrain. the need for a highly mobileand independent unit was considered essential. This heralded the establishment ofthe South African Motor Cycle Corps.During the East African campaign this Corps served with General Van Deventer's2 Division as a support and reconnaissance unit. In 1917 the Corps was attached to theforces under General Northey. where it saw action both in infantry and reconnaissancecapacities.When peace negotiations got underway in 1918. the Germans had retreated to Abercorn,and the South African Motor Cycle Corps returned to the Union. On arrival theCorps was immediately disbanded. and. while having no battle honours conferred nevertheless had done excellent work and had become the first unit in South Africanmilitary history to be equipped with motor cycles.

ADOLPH ZBOŘIL - AN AUSTRIAN OFFICER IN THE TRANSVAAL ARTILLERY

Whereas the German Major Richard Albrecht, the Commander of the Orange Free State Artillery, is a well-known figure of South African military history, this is not the case with Captain Adolph Zbořil. Zbořil (a Czech name, pronounced 'Sbor-shil') from 1886 to 1893 held the second-highest rank in the Transvaal Artillery. Admittedly, his achievements were less spectacular - and convincing - than Albrecht's and he left the Transvaal Artillery six years before the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Boer War. Still, it seems worthwhile to trace Zbořil's career.

OPERASIE SAVANNAH DAGBOEK VAN KAPT J.A. LAUBSCHER

The diary of Captain, as he was then, J.A. Laubscher forms the basis of this article. Since the ending of the SADF involvement in Angola, a number of books have been published concerning this conflict. This personal, day by day, account of events as they took place during Operation Savannah, is another chapter in the annals of South African military history.

AN ORIGINAL APPROACH TO REGIMENTAL HISTORY: THE STORY OF THE WITWATERSRAND RIFLES

At the end of October 1989 the regimental history of the Witwatersrand Rifles was published. The book is entitled A bugle calls: the story of the Witwatersrand Rifles and its predecessors 1899-1987, and its 764 pages (which includes some 65 maps and 105 photographs) details the history of this Citizen Force regiment, headquartered at Germiston, on the East Rand (since 1963). The author, Dr S Monick (a senior professional officer at the South African National Museum of Military History, in Johannesburg) has adopted what he hopes is a unique and refreshingly original approach to regimental history specifically, and South African military history in general. The following article is not, of course, a review of the book; such an object demands the highest degree of objectivity which is, obviously, impossible in this paper written by the author of the book himself. Rather, what is intended is a critique of the approach and methodology adopted in the regimental history.

HALT! ACTION FRONT! WITH LONG AT COLENSO

South African born Darrell Hall (1928 - 1996) joined the British Army in 1946 and retired with the rank of major in 1968. During his 22-year career in the British Army he served in both the Royal Artillery and the Royal Marine Commando and saw active service in the Suez Canal and Borneo campaigns. Returning to South Africa after his retirement from the British Army, he devoted much of his time to his passion for military history. He soon became a well-known authority on the battlefields of KwaZulu-Natal and served as Chairman of the Gunners' Association, the South African Military History Society and the sub-section British War Graves of the National Monuments Council. He has written three books on the Anglo-Boer War. The first was the title under discussion, of which the first edition was published in 1991 and a second edition in 1994. His second work, entitled Long Tom, deals with the history of the famous 155mm Creusot siege guns of the Boers. His last work, The Hall handbook of the Anglo-Boer War, was published posthumously in 1999 under the editorship of Fransjohan Pretorius and Gilbert Torlage.

A military history of South Africa: from the Dutch-Khoi Wars to the end of apartheid

This work offers the first one-volume comprehensive military history of modern South Africa. * A comprehensive chronology overviews South African military history with particular emphasis on the last 200 years * Maps are included with each chapter

African Military History, edited by John Lamphear

This volume is part of Ashgate’s ‘International Library of Essays on Military History’, an ambitious series edited by Jeremy Black. This book offers an excellent collection of classic journal articles on aspects of pre-colonial African warfare. Its real benefit lies in its ability to offer non-Africanists a comprehensive survey of accessible works on African military affairs from across the continent. As Richard Reid claims in his 2007 book Warfare in Pre-Colonial Eastern Africa, ‘the history of African warfare is perhaps the last bastion of the kind of distorted Eurocentric scholarship that characterized African studies before the 1960s’. Many of the essays contained in John Lamphear’s volume are a product of the attempts of Africanists to overcome this illogical and damaging misperception about the nature of African conflict and violence. It is a struggle still worth engaging in, because Western misunderstandings about African warfare and violence continue to inform the decisions made by politicians as they contemplate intra-state conflicts in Congo, Somalia, or Sudan.