SOUTH AFRICA'S 'BORDER WAR', contested narratives and conflicting memories

274pp., illus., paperback, Reprint, London, (2014) 2015

Historian and former South African Defence Force (SADF) conscript Gary Baines on the 'war of words' waged by retired SADF generals and other veterans against critics and detractors, and the impact of the 'Border War' on South African culture and society during apartheid and in the new dispensation.

"Especially valuable is [Baines'] use of a wide array of sources, as well as his adoption of a cultural studies approach that employs theoretical and conceptual insights derived from [a variety of] disciplines ... The present study offers an opportune moment to investigate how the war is memorised by various constituencies ... [and] is a timely reminder of the deep divisions that still exist in South Africa." Journal of Namibian Studies

Gary Baines is Professor of History at Rhodes University.