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For over half a million white South African males conscripted before 1994, National Service was a compulsory, demanding and intense experience that had a powerful impact on them. This book is a compilation of recollections by more than 40 conscripts about their time in the
SADF.
The chapters take you through the sequence of a National Serviceman’s career: receiving call-up papers, klaaring in, basics, keuring, bush phase, second phase, training, general service, the townships, klaaring out, and camps. Taking in the humour and the hardships, these accounts provide a variety of perspectives on inspections, drill, guard duty, Border patrols, and everyday life in the
SADF.
Also included are official documents such as call-up papers, extracts from a Basic Training manual and a clearing out certificate. Appendices give additional information on the history of National Service, the context of the Border War and other matters.
Troepie: from Call-up to Camps is a must read for everyone who went through National Service or who knows someone who did. It is a vivid and fascinating record of what conscripts actually experienced.
About the author: Cameron Blake grew up in Johannesburg and studied at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town before completing his National Service in the early nineties. He currently works at The Africa Star, a shop in Cape Town that sells coins, medals and militaria, where he conducted the interview that appear in this book.
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