Masculinities, Militarisation and the End Conscription Campaign: War resistance in apartheid South Africa

The End Conscription Campaign (ECC) was one of the most significant white social movements to oppose apartheid in South Africa during the 1980s. It opposed compulsory conscription to the South African military for white men and supported conscientious objectors. Daniel Conway examines the work of the ECC to pose important questions about the interconnections between masculinity and sexuality in highly militarized societies. In doing so, he seeks to make his work relevant not just to scholars of apartheid-era South Africa, but also to contemporary militarized societies. The book makes a convincing claim that the increasing militarization of South African society from the 1960s onwards had profound effects on dominant understandings of white masculinity and on gender relations more broadly. Compulsory military service was introduced after the declaration of the Republic of South Africa in 1961 and in the context of the launch of armed resistance to apartheid by the African National Congress (ANC) and Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC). As other Southern African states gained independence, the demands of conscription were progressively extended. By 1985, the average white 18-year-old man faced two years of full-time military service, which would probably include at least one six-month tour of duty on the Angolan-Namibian border, followed by twelve years of annual reservist duties. This extension of military service was not simply a military response to the perceived internal and external threat posed to the apartheid regime, but was part of the ‘Total Strategy’ intended to encourage the full identification of white South Africans with their government. Military service came to be understood both as a rite of passage into manhood and the ultimate expression of good citizenship for white South African men. Schooling and competitive sports prepared young men for military service. Mothers, too, were encouraged to prepare their sons for this transition into manhood. The militarization of South African society is outlined in depth in Chapter 2, while its consequences for citizenship, masculinity, and the family are examined in the following chapter.