WAR, GUNS, AND PLAY: A REVIEW OF THE WORK OF HELENA UAMBEMBE
June 2021
From the contested town of Pomfret, Helena Uambembe emerges as a visual storyteller of note.
Pomfret is a South African town known specifically for the history of its former and present occupants most notoriously known as the 32 Battalion. The 32 Battalion refers to an elite fighting military unit that was formed of men who participated in the border wars between Angola, Zambia, and Namibia. Many of the men were thrust into the Angolan civil war as child soldiers fighting for the National Liberation Front of Angola (NLFA).
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As soon the Border war ended in 1989 (1966- 1989), the 32 Battalion soldiers found themselves displaced without a place to call home. They unfortunately, could not return home to Angola as they had fought their own and were the proprietors of residual resentment of their countrymen. Now functioning as exiles, and shortly after Namibia gained its independence from South Africa in 1990, the men were incorporated into the New South African National Defence Force (SANDF). However, the men could not live in any South African townships because they had also been used by the National Party government in suppressing anti- apartheid uprisings and had played a huge role in gross human rights abuses in the country (Omar & Taylor, 2011)[1]. South Africa’s former FW de Klerk’s government acquired the then an asbestos mining town Pomfret and transformed it into a military base which served as a home for the Battalion members who did not make it to SANDF (Masondo, 2017)[2]. Engulfed in a heritage of violence, socio-economic woes, and military culture, Pomfret became a home of soldiers and became regarded as a mercenary pool and collection ground for security and violent recruiters. The Pomfret veterans were allegedly promised substantial pay-outs at the end of their service towards the education of their children, but this never materialized. In 1993 the Battalion was disbanded, and the gross actions they performed while fighting for the apartheid government had made them perpetrators in the New South Africa and not victims.
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Uambembe comes in as a storyteller, telling of her lived experience of growing up as a child in the town of Pomfret. With complicated histories as such of the 32 Battalion, imagery, epistemologies, and theories are often always told from the perspective of the one who has capital and the most to gain from a clean autopsy. The soldiers are hardly ever given a chance to tell their version of events or even presented with a chance to defend their actions. The stories of the soldiers, their wives, and children, who were with them as they fought and travelled along the continent are always ignored and marginalised as if they never existed or experienced the harsh realities of war.
[1] Omar, Y, Taylor, Theresa.2011. Forgotten and alone in Pomfret [Online] Available from: https://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent-forgotten-and-alone-in-pomfret-1145411 (Accessed: 05/06/21).
[2] Masondo, S. 2017. Pomfret: The sins of the father’s [Online] Available from: https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/pomfret-the-sins-of-the-fathers-20170115 (Accessed: 05/06/21).
