phd presentation - stephen symons

INSERT HEADER HERE Insert basic text here


Call-up papers were issued to all white males from the age of 17


Conscript photos from SA Army Basic Training in the SADF (1980s)

Insert basic text here

SA Navy conscripts: Bierman Company, SAS Saldanha (1990)

Film: Kodak E3 Slide film, Camera: Minolta XG 1, no flash


“Beach party”, SA Navy conscripts: Bierman Company,

SAS Saldanha (1990)



Situating itself within the interdisciplinary nexus of gender,

memory and visual studies, my thesis focuses on

recollections of the transitionary phase of registration for

military service (initially occurring within a secondary school

environment), induction and basic training of conscripts in the

SADF, as well as the place / role / guises of these typically highly

gendered memories within post-apartheid South Africa.

While the Border War and conflict in the townships has drawn

much discussion and research, the induction phase and basic

training within the SADF remains a largely unexplored domain,

particularly within the disciplinary framework of this study. The

thesis responds to this gap, highlighting not the battlefield

but the induction and training phase of SADF conscripts.

Border War literature – histories & commentary

Border War literature – photographic and conscript narratives

Border War literature – novels, plays & poetry

According to sociologist, George Lipsitz,

counter-memory unearths the past exposing

the "hidden histories" excluded from dominant

narratives — to present fresh perspectives on

past events.

The induction phase acknowledged and

underwrote a deterministic view of race,

duty and hegemonic masculinities

inculcated in young white South African

men since early childhood.

The Secondary School Cadets system was established

in the mid 70s and fell under the auspices of the SADF.

By entering parental roles, ex-conscripts are forced to pose

deeper questions relating to apartheid era parental compliance

with conscription.

However, discourse (written, spoken and visual) is also crucial

to individual cathartic processes of necessary forgetting, not

necessarily as an antidote to memory, but as a means of

relinquishing redundant notions of masculinity.

The Archive as counter-memory

Letters to the author.

These are objects (including photographs) that act as evidence

of past events or traces of subjugated histories, and once

contextualised, begin to function as counter-memories.

The archive as counter-memory

Standard issue South African Defence Force R1 rifle bayonet


Inspection checklist & small arms safety manual, Feb. 1990


Standard issue South African Defence Force R1 rifle. This rifle was a locally manufactured copy of the Belgiun FN FAL rifle.


SAS Simonstown, Marine Naval Base inspection


SADF Pattern 70 webbing. During basic training webbing was often filled with

a sandbag during route marches and physical training.

Excerpt from a letter to the author, Feb. 1990

Conscript portrait archive

All the following photographs were taken during basic

training as SAS Saldana Naval Training Base during

basic training in February & March 1990.

All the photographs were taken on a Minolta XG 1

analogue camera with no flash using Kodak E3 slide film.

The photograph as counter-memory

For Barthes, “not only is the photograph never, in essence a memory ... but

it actually blocks memory, (and) quickly becomes a counter-memory.”

(Barthes 1981:91)

2. Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography . New York, Hill and Wang, 1981, 91.

The photograph as counter-memory

Barthes perceives memory as more sensation than frozen image. We as

the viewer can only imagine and never smell, touch, taste, or feel what

is pictured in the photograph.

2. Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography . New York, Hill and Wang, 1981, 91.

SA Navy Conscripts, Bierman Company, SAS Saldana Naval Base, Feb. 1990



SA Navy Conscript birthday celebration, Bierman Company,

SAS Saldana Naval Base, Feb. 1990

Conscript photo archive

Basic Training

“Route march”, SA Navy Conscripts, Bierman Company, SAS Saldana Naval

Base, Feb. 1990

“Completion of a route march”, SA Navy Conscripts, Bierman Company, SAS

Saldana Naval Base, Feb. 1990

“Passing out parade”, SAS Saldana Naval Base, Feb. 1990

“Route march”, SA Navy Conscripts, Bierman Company,

SAS Saldana Naval Base, Feb. 1990

“Smoke break during PT”, SA Navy Conscripts, Bierman Company, SAS Saldana Naval Base,

Feb. 1990

“Inspection”, Bierman Company, SAS Saldana Naval Base, Feb. 1990

“SA Navy PT instructor”,SAS Saldana Naval Base, Feb. 1990

This study may also be of relevance to

transitional contexts elsewhere in which

men who were conscripted into a system

that was eventually vanquished and much

castigated seek means of reintegration

into the society they call home.

Thank you

phd presentation - stephen symons

Documents