Insurgency, counter-insurgency, and the military and security dimensions of South African racial segregation

Abstract

This special issue explores a neglected dimension in the wide-ranging historiography of twentieth century South Africa: the evolution of the state and its security arm in the form of the police and the military in a context of resistance by a variety of insurgent and rebel formations at the local level. The issue covers the period from the South African War (otherwise known as the Anglo Boer War) of 1899–1902 to the advent of apartheid in 1948. South African historiography has usually approached instances of rebellion and resistance on a case-by-case basis and proved reluctant to integrate military factors into a broader perspective focused on the expansion and consolidation of state power. This neglect might appear, at first hand, to be somewhat puzzling given the centrality of military factors in the shaping of South African history: the period from 1900 to 1948, for instance, includes varying degrees of South African engagement in three cases of total war while the later political transition from white minority rule in 1994 came in the wake of a limited war fought on South Africa’s sub-imperial frontier of Angola and Namibia. The lack of historical focus on military themes clearly requires some explanation: one which can be found, it shall be argued here, in the indifference, if not hostility, of many historians over the decades to the study of South African military history. The reasons for the indifference are complex but relate in part to the way South African academic history has been shaped. The period from the early 1970s to mid-1990s was one of intense debate between rival groups of liberal and Marxist (sometimes called revisionist) historians on the forces behind racial segregation, apartheid and the genesis and evolution of South Africa’s capitalist economy. A pattern emerged from this, comparable to those in some other historical contexts, when questions concerning the impact of