h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have a commission to paint for a friend, who was involved with the Namibian/Angolan War, about which I've written over here. The painting is to symbolize the end of the war, and for it I had to find pictures of military vehicles. While searching for pics I came upon some quite ugly photos taken during the war. There's still a controversy about the war in Namibia, since some people wish people fighting on the South African side to also be recognized as war veterans, while the Namibian Government only recognizes Swapo and those recognized as 'freedom fighters'. Over here in South Africa of course we've long heard the rationale for why our fighting in Namibia and Angola was 'the good fight'. Much of that was discredited of course with the collapse of Apartheid. But recently new arguments have again emerged about why actually our war in Angola/Namibia was for the best, and without it, Communists would have gained a stronghold in Africa and things would have turned out much worse.

But this isn't about those arguments. It's about something I saw on the websites putting forth Swapo's point of view. They publish pictures there of white South African soldiers posing with dead black people, presumably enemy fighters. The soldiers are smiling, sometimes pointing at the corpses, some photos being reminiscent of hunting trophy photos. There are some photos of dead people strapped to the military vehicles I was looking up, like the carcases of deer. At any rate, the person writing the accompanying articles asks, paraphrasing, what kind of people take photos of dead people as if they were hunting trophies?

Well ... the answer is: soldiers; warriors; human beings.

This is the thing people do during war. As far as I can tell it's always been that way. Our celtic ancestors collected human heads at battles and decorated their homes with them. The Mongols made pyramids of thousands of skulls. If they had cameras back then, for sure they would have taken photos, posing proudly in front of these. Back in the thirties when cameras were available, the Japanese posed with slain Chinese during their wars there. Later during the second world war American soldiers sometimes took bodyparts including skulls of Japanese soldiers as trophies. There was trophy taking during the Vietnam war, including Americans posing with severed heads. There are 'trophy photos' from the Yugoslav wars; from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; I've heard of but thankfully not seen some incredibly awful stuff from the DRC and other countries here in Africa in very recent years. There's certainly much, much more that I don't know about, about which I'm grateful. The bottom line is ... this is what happens during wars. On all sides.

So yes, 'our boys' did occasionally pose and take photos with dead 'enemies'. I don't mean to excuse it. I don't even like photos where people pose with animals that they've shot. I find the thing shocking, cruel and callous, and dehumanising. But it doesn't mean that one side is squeaky-clean if one can find such incriminating stuff about the other side.

I have heard but not seen of some extremely awful stuff done by the SWAPO side and their supporters as well. Maybe they didn't have as many cameras as the South African side had, so there are less photos going round of *them* posing with dead enemies.

This is war! When you go to war what you're going to do is *killing human beings*. That is dehumanising PERIOD. So why be surprised when the young folks you're sending there to do that stuff end up being callous about human lives, human beings? You've TRAINED them to do that. You've brutalised them with basic training that pounded the humanity out of them, you've bashed them to destroy the people they used to be, to turn them into order-behaving machines who would go and fire on whoever they were told to. You've made them give less than a s*hit about their own lives ... so why be surprised when they turn out giving even less for the side they're fighting against? After a successful 'battle' the boys left alive could be expected to be happy and smiling ... they're still there after all, unlike the guys they shot up. Give them cameras and what do you expect?

Lots, *lots* of photos like that exist ... often they're private and never get 'published' but often they do wind up with someone in a position to make their existence known to the world ... the regular newspapers can't publish them, they're far too awful, but they are sometimes put up on websites ... like in this case, often to prove how bad the 'other side' is or was. That can be used as a rationale to keep people fighting, whereas if people realised that all sides do stuff like this, it can be used as a reason to stop people from fighting. After all, we do not want the nice young boys we're sending to fight our good fight to do stuff like that, do we? But ... the hell we're sending them out to kill people ... what's worse, killing a living human being, or taking a picture of a dead one?

Gracious, that is a tough commission. Does he want a symbolic picture representing the peace? What sorts of things does he want commemorated?

Hi Elektra! He wants the painting to include:

- His own profile
- A Casspir military vehicle
- Some Mopane Trees
- The setting sun.

He wants to be portrayed watching the military vehicle driving off into the sunset, symbolizing the war and his leaving it behind.

What a great idea for a picture.

Are mopane trees the ones that edible catipillars are on?

Hi Dmitri and Elektra! Yes, those are the trees the edible caterpillars live on. They're characteristic of many places over here including northern Namibia.

They are interesting looking trees, but I'm not big on caterpillars as a dietary item. It is rather at the bottom of my to eat list, but I think I'd lose a lot of weight if I stuck to eating them. I am hoping that they are considered a snack food than anyone's exclusive diet.