War for Profit, Peace at Profit - The African Nexus in Wealth Creation

Abstract

Recently the issue of mercenaries, especially in the newer garb of private security outfits, also sometimes referred to as private military companies (PMC's) became prominent in academic literature.' The mercenary soldier apart from the professional soldier and the prostitute (commercial sex worker) is perhaps since the invention of the notion of God(s) and the religious cult leader (priest), some of humanities' early and most persistent phenomena. In this review we deal with a recent South African book on the topic of privatised security outfits in Africa. Since it is a review article, the authors will also refer to other relevant works in the course of this contribution.