Shadow Cultures, Shadow Histories Foreign Military Personnel in Africa 1960–1980
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Shadow Cultures, Shadow Histories Foreign Military Personnel in Africa 1960–1980 William Jeffrey Cairns Anderson A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Arts University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand November 2011 Abstract From the 1960s to the 1980s mercenary soldiers in Africa captured the attention of journalists, authors and scholars. This thesis critically examines the shadows of mercenarism in sub-Saharan Africa during decolonisation – an intense period of political volatility, fragility and violence. The shadows of conflict are spaces fuelled by forces of power where defined boundaries of illegal/legal, illicit/licit and legitimate/illegitimate become obscured. Nordstrom (2000, 2001, 2004, 2007) invokes the shadows as a substantive ethnographic and analytical concept in anthropological research. This thesis considers how the shadows are culturally, socially and politically contingent spaces where concepts of mercenarism are contested. Specific attention is given to ‘shadow agents’ – former foreign military combatants, diplomats and politicians – whose lived experiences shed light on the power, ambiguities and uncertainties of the shadows. Arguing the importance of mixed method ethnography, this thesis incorporates three bodies of anthropological knowledge. Material from the official state archives of New Zealand and the United Kingdom (UK) where, amongst themselves, politicians and diplomats debated the ‘mercenary problem’, are used alongside oral testimonies from former foreign soldiers whose individual stories provide important narratives omitted from official records. This ethnography also draws on multi-sited fieldwork, including participant observation in Africa, the UK and New Zealand that engages with and captures the more intimate details of mercenary soldiering. As findings suggest, the worlds of diplomacy, politics and mercenarism are composed of shadow cultures where new perspectives and understandings emerge. ii Acknowledgements I cannot overstate my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Greg Rawlings. I am indebted to his dedication, time and support over the duration of this research. Greg, your enthusiasm, academic excellence, passion for anthropology and kindness have been invaluable, not just to this project, but to me personally. Both inside and outside the academic arenas I have learnt so much from you. What has truly made this research so enjoyable is the way you supported me with patience and compassion while also encouraging and stimulating my own thought processes and ideas. Above all else, you believed in me. I could not have wished for a better supervisor and friend. Greg, you are an inspiration. I am especially grateful to Hugh Bomford and Tony Fraser. Your assistance, contribution, honesty and time have been invaluable to this research. There are major parts of this thesis that could not have been done without your help. The hospitality that you and your families, friends and associates showed me is greatly appreciated and something I will never forget. I thank all of those people who participated in this research. Not only were your oral testimonies fascinating, they were incredibly informative. A Research Grant from the Knowledge Services Division of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign and Affairs and Trade (MFAT) helped fund this research. I extend my sincere thanks to Neil Robertson. Your cooperation during my time at the Archives New Zealand in Wellington made sure the process was a fruitful one. The Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Otago also financially contributed to my New Zealand fieldwork. I would also like to thank Clair Taylor at Cambridge University Press for kind permission to reproduce the maps included in this thesis. To Mum and Dad. Your love, support and care have been the most important aspect of my journey through university. What this means to me cannot be justly captured in words. You have always been there for me, especially when I have needed you most. You are my rock. I am immensely grateful to my dear friends Leah and Greg in London who housed and fed me during my time at the British National Archives in Kew. I enjoyed iii relaxing and getting to spend quality time together. Greg, the next Bushmills is on me! There is also Murray and Jenny in New Zealand who opened their home to me during an integral stage of this research. I look forward to coming back and spending more time with you in such a beautiful part of the country. To Ana, thank you for what you have done for me over the course of this project. I have enjoyed sharing together the experiences of postgraduate research. In particular, your help, company, and compassion over the last three months have actually made the difference. This research has also benefitted from the conversations, assistance, input, discussions and collegiality of people such as Jeff Scofield, Rochelle Bailey, Anna Paris, Kristen Clift, Heather Sadler, Les O’Neil, Andy Brown, Chris Brickell, Darryl Grant, Mei Ding, Steph Dobson, Phil Latham and Geoff Kohe. You have all contributed in your own unique and subtle ways. Thank you. I must also say a special thanks to Cathrine Waite, Marj Blair and Bronwyn Craig, not only for your administrative help, but your positive energy and good humour. Finally, to my partner Amelia. It is your unyielding love, support, positivity, and calming presence that reminds me why I am the luckiest person I know. iv Notes on Referencing This thesis incorporates two specific referencing styles. For secondary sources, the Harvard system of referencing is employed. Since this thesis includes substantial volumes of archival material, the Chicago referencing style is also used. This means footnotes provide citations and references to primary sources including a wide range of official government records, archived newspaper articles, legislation, and multilateral resolutions and conventions. Footnotes are also used throughout this thesis as explanatory notes for readers. It is challenging to include the intricacies of archival references within the Harvard system, especially where repositories vary between countries. This system of combining both referencing styles is an established method in ethnohistory and is used in journals like History and Anthropology. See also Scofield (2011) for recent uses of this referencing system. v Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................... iii Notes on Referencing .................................................................................... v Table of Contents .......................................................................................... vi List of Maps .................................................................................................. viii List of Abbreviations ..................................................................................... ix Chapter 1 ......................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 Histories and Presents: Mercenary soldiering, current wars and past conflicts ............ 4 Thesis Overview ............................................................................................................ 8 Chapter 2 ....................................................................................................... 11 The “Shadows”: Theoretical and Methodological Foundations .............. 11 (Re)Conceptualising the Shadows ............................................................................... 12 Entering the Shadows .................................................................................................. 14 Anthropology and “The Field” .................................................................................... 15 Problematising Fieldwork: Critical approaches to “the field” ................................ 16 Historical Anthropology .............................................................................................. 17 Archives as an Anthropological Experience ........................................................... 19 Affect of the Archive ............................................................................................... 21 Archival Forms: Public records, private lives ............................................................. 23 Oral Histories ............................................................................................................... 25 The Process: Accessing former foreign soldiers ..................................................... 27 Research Environments ........................................................................................... 30 Oral Testimonies as Evocative Experiences ............................................................ 31 Multistranded Ethnography ......................................................................................... 32 Chapter 3 ....................................................................................................... 34 Contextualising Mercenarism and Conflict in a Decolonising Africa ...... 34 Part One: Mercenarism – an historical trajectory ........................................... 35 The State, Citizen Armies and Mercenarism ..............................................................