Godfrey Maringira

It's in my blood : the military habitus of former Zimbabwean soldiers in exile in South Africa

This article examines the habitus of soldiers who either deserted or resigned from the Zimbabwe National Army in the post–2000 crisis in Zimbabwe and now live in exile in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is based on the information provided by forty-four former soldiers who related their life histories and participated in informal conversations and group discussions. A main finding is that these men, even though they have left the army, hold on in the extreme to their being as soldiers. This is shaped by at least four, interlinked dimensions of change in their lives: leaving the army without honorable discharge, leaving Zimbabwe itself, being exiles in an often unwelcoming South Africa, loss of family life and military status. The post-deployment dominance of military dispositions in the identity of the former soldiers is quite unique. Most former combatants worldwide have succeeded in different degrees to unmake their habituated forms of military identity or live with multiple identities.

Militarised Minds: The Lives of Ex-combatants in South Africa

This article focuses on how ex-combatants in South Africa remain militarised. Identities which were forged through resistance continue to be reproduced in different ways in post-conflict society. Military identity is a source of status and recognition in the everyday lives of ex-combatants, either as ‘defenders of the community’ or for individual gain. While some may argue that there is no such thing as military identity, the group of ex-combatants interviewed remained attached to such an identity and saw themselves as having a particular role in their communities. While studies, particularly in Africa, present ex-combatants as if they can be easily transformed into civilian life, this article considers the difficulties of such a process. The argument is that it is a complex matter to demilitarise ex-combatants’ minds in a highly unequal and militarised community. Sixteen life history interviews were collected, 11 with APLA ex-combatants and five with Zimbabwean army deserters.

“Once a Soldier, a Soldier Forever”: Exiled Zimbabwean Soldiers in South Africa

Through military training, soldiers’ bodies are shaped and prepared for war and military-related duties. In the context these former Zimbabwean soldiers find themselves—that of desertion and ‘underground life’ in exile in South Africa—their military-trained bodies and military skills are their only resource. In this article, we explore the ways in which former soldiers maintain and ‘reuse’ their military-trained bodies in South Africa for survival, in a context of high unemployment and a violent, inner-city environment. We look at their social world and practices of soldiering—a term that refers to the specific forms of their social interaction in exile, through which they keep their memories of their military past alive. By attending to their subjectivities and the endurance of their masculine military identities and bodies, we aim to contribute to the discussion on demilitarization, which has largely focused on the failure of models of intervention to assist ex-combatants in postconflict contexts.

When the war de-professionalises soldiers: wartime stories in exile

The narratives of Zimbabwean soldiers who fought in the Democratic Republic of Congo war (1998–2002) have received scant attention, particularly at a time when the professionalisation of the Zimbabwean National Army (ZNA) is questioned by scholars and, largely, by the private media, in and outside Zimbabwe. This article explores accounts of soldiers who joined the ZNA in post-independence Zimbabwe: those without a liberation history. The article reveals these ex-soldiers’ accounts of their profound disappointment about the way in which the Zimbabwean army was ‘de-professionalised’ in its deployment in the DRC war. They felt that the army, particularly the commanders, became unprofessional in their practice. The men’s disappointment ranged from the poor conduct in war, lack of food and clothing, and the inability of the army to repatriate soldiers’ dead bodies from the war terrain. I argue that the accounts of de-professionalisation provide a vantage point from which to analyse the current politicisation of the Zimbabwe defence forces. The article is based on 44 life histories.

Political violence within army barracks: desertion and loss among exiled Zimbabwean soldiers in South Africa

While studies on soldiers who leave the army have focused on them as perpetrators of political violence in war and peace, little is known about the ways in which soldiers have been subjected to violence. This paper examines the ways in which Zimbabwe National Army deserters who are currently in exile in South Africa experienced politically inspired violence in the army barracks and the ways in which they mediate and reify it through the image of the “torn underwear.” The ‘torn underwear’ signifies the violence experienced in the army barracks but also represents its reification in their present exile condition and the ways in which it is embedded in the body psyche. In analysing the army barracks as a ‘total institution’ and as a ‘surveillance unit,’ the paper, respectively, situates itself in the discussions of Goffman and Foucault, drawing from life history interviews and conversations with deserters who live in exile in South Africa.

Soldiering the terrain of war: Zimbabwean soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1998–2002)

Abstract The paper reveals how Zimbabwean soldiers who fought in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1998–2002) were challenged by the terrain of war. While soldiers are trained to live and fight in dreadful wars, I argue that immersing oneself in the war terrain is neither mathematical nor calculative; rather, war tactics to be employed are defined by the context in which soldiers operate in. When soldiers reflect on and about the war, they unconsciously produce accounts that are often not completely heroic, but a life lived in fear as well an issue that they had never anticipated when they set out to war. A main finding of this study is that while these soldiers were deployed to fight against the rebels, they find difficulties in locating physical features from map reading to the ground, distinguishing the enemy from civilian people and deployed for days without eating a proper meal as well as seeing their fellow soldiers dying in the context of war. The paper provides a vantage point in which we can also understand that trained soldiers do not exert total power over war terrains, they are sometimes challenged by the war situation itself.

Between Remorse and Nostalgia: Haunting Memories of War and the Search for Healing Among Former Zimbabwean Soldiers in Exile in South Africa

This chapter explores how former Zimbabwean soldiers who deserted or resigned from the Zimbabwe National Army journey between two seemingly contradictory spaces in search of healing: the space of camaraderie in the political association of the former soldiers in exile namely Affected Military Men of Zimbabwe Association (AMMOZA) and Pentecostal churches in Johannesburg where many of these former soldiers participate. In the former the men reaffirm their military past, keep it alive, and use it to justify who they are in their post-combat life in South Africa. In the churches, in contrast, the men are guided to reconstruct their perspective on the past in terms of expiating remorse and guilt and to obtain forgiveness, presuming that this will liberate them from the haunting effects of hope dzakaipa or ukucubungula meaning bad dreams. From the men’s narratives it emerges that to come to terms with their past and find some sort of reconciliation between their two contradictory perspectives in dealing with the past, the men would require political amnesty by the Zimbabwean government. This would ensure they would be recognised as former soldiers who served the nation and could reconcile with their families and friends, and openly present themselves to civilians. This chapter is primarily based on interviews with 10 of the 44 former soldiers who participated in a larger study on members of the Zimbabwean army who deserted or resigned and are in exile in South Africa.

When ex-combatants became peaceful: Azania People’s Liberation Army ex-combatants in post-apartheid South Africa

ABSTRACT In post-colonial Africa ‘ex-combatant’, ‘war veteran’, ‘ex-fighter’, and ‘demobilised soldier’ are categories that denote a history of war, violence and conflict. In essence, these are labels which represent military identities. However, despite the view that the Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) programme has failed to re-integrate ex-combatants into civilian life, in the absence of an expressed identity under the aegis of the DDR programme, ex-combatants can elect to embrace peace in the communities in which they live. I argue that even though we may perceive ex-combatants to belong to a violent category of persons, they can espouse non-violent practices while holding on to their military identity.

Military corruption in war: stealing and connivance among Zimbabwean foot soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (1998–2002)

ABSTRACT This article examines the ways in which Zimbabwean foot soldiers engaged in military corrupt activities, stealing army rations from the trenches to resell in neighbouring civilian communities and Congolese soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The practice became widespread among and between senior and junior officers. However, this practice did not end with the war; rather it was carried over from the DRC war to the Zimbabwean army barracks. The article contends that the practice of stealing army rations was a deeply unprofessional practice. The article draws from life history stories of Zimbabwean former soldiers who deserted the army and are now living in South Africa.

Gendered Military Identities: Army Deserters in Exile

Much of what we know about gendered military identity has focused on the ways in which soldiers are trained and deployed in war contexts, while neglecting soldiers who desert the military. This chapter explores the extent to which male military identity persists, even among those who desert the military and find themselves in exile. Through military training and everyday socialisation in combat uniform, the army inculcates a gendered way of thinking towards civilians who are perceived and understood as women (feminised), even though they are also men. This chapter reveals how such gendered military identities function, that is, the manner in which army deserters think of themselves as former soldiers in a context of exile.