DIE BUFFEL STRUIKEL: ’N STORIE VAN 32 BATALJON EN SY MENSE/L.J. BOTHMA

“Die Buffel Struikel: ’n Storie van 32 Bataljon en Sy Mense” (The Buffalo Stumbles: A Story of 32 Battalion and Its People) was written originally in Afrikaans. The author is an Afrikaans-speaking white South African who, as a member of the well-known South African 32 “foreign legion” Battalion, participated in the Namibian Border War in the 1970s and 1980s. The war was fought by an army whose operational language for the major part was Afrikaans. However, two reasons call for a review of this book in English. Firstly, with the Western powers facing a serious insurgency threat in Iraq and elsewhere, the world has an urgent need for a new understanding, thinking and perspectives about counter-insurgency. Secondly, the book can be seen as a watershed contribution to the so-called Border War literature that, until now, has been dominated by contributions of journalists and writers with questionable motives.