Paper short abstract:

Local/loyalist allies of the same settler or colonial army did not form a coherent whole but different units developed distinct military cultures. This paper compares three units of apartheid South Africa’s security forces and explores the emergence and consequences of their particular cultures.

Paper long abstract:

A growing literature has begun to explore the histories of local allies, often termed loyalists, of settler and colonial security forces in Africa. In nationalist narratives, African members of those forces have commonly been denounced as mercenaries and collaborators. In both discourses, loyalists/collaborators belonging to the same security forces have been often portrayed as a seemingly static and coherent group. This has meant that significant differences between units and their consequences have been neglected. In this paper, I compare three units of apartheid South Africa's security forces - Koevoet, the South West African Territorial Force (SWATF), and 32 Battalion - by drawing on interviews with black Namibians and Angolans who served in them. I argue that these units developed distinct military cultures, particularly in aspects of leadership, enforcement of discipline, and race relations. These aspects not only determined the ways in which these units operated during the war but have profoundly shaped the military and social identities of its members to this day.