Masculinities, Militarisation and the End Conscription Campaign: War Resistance in Apartheid South Africa

Key information

Date
Time
5:00 pm to 6:30 pm
Venue
Russell Square: College Buildings

About this event

Dr. Daniel Conway, Politics Department, Loughborough University

This paper explores the gendered dynamics of apartheid-era South Africa’s militarisation, analysing the defiance of compulsory military service by individual white men and the anti-apartheid activism of the white men and women in the End Conscription Campaign (ECC). The ECC was the most significant white anti-apartheid social movement in South Africa. Military conscription and objection to it are conceptualised as gendered acts of citizenship and premised on and constitutive of masculinities. Analysing the interconnections between militarisation, sexuality, race, homophobia and political authoritarianism, the work draws upon a range of materials and perspectives in sociology, political and international relations. Sources include interviews with white men who objected to military service in the South African Defence Force (SADF), archival material including military intelligence surveillance of the ECC, ECC campaigning material, press reports and pro-state propaganda. The analysis finds that the ECC disrupted the ability of the state to construct dominant militarised masculinities and premise white citizenship on military service.

Biography

Dr Daniel Conway is a Lecturer in Politics at Loughborough University. His book Masculinities, Militarisation and the End Conscription Campaign: War Resistance in Apartheid South Africa is published with Manchester University Press and the University of the Witwatersrand Press.

Organiser: Bloomsbury Gender Network hosted by the SOAS Centre for Gender Studies

Contact email: rs94@soas.ac.uk