The last decade has seen an outpouring of published memoirs written by those who fought in Southern Africa’s liberation wars. Our case studies are no exception. There has been a remarkable new body of writing on the part of former soldiers of MK, ZPRA and MPLA, as well as by the veterans of the Soviet Union’s military forces. These latter assisted as military trainers, advisers, technical specialists and interpreters, as well as sometimes being co-fighters. Personal narratives of war and soldiering provide fascinating insight into the meanings, memories and politics of liberation war remembrance today. The samples of covers that we have reproduced here provide some indication of the scale of this writing. Bibliographic listings of memoirs can be found here. Click on the relevant tabs for a discussion of this genre of writing for each of our case studies.
