ONGULUMBASHE: WHERE THE BUSHWAR BEGAN/PAUL J. ELS

Abstract

Retired Warrant Officer First Class, Paul J. Els, South African Corps of
Signals, is a veteran of the so-called ‘Bush War’. He did his first ‘stint on the
Border’ (p. v) in 1968, participated in Operation Savannah during South Africa’s
intervention in the Angolan civil war in 1975/76 and subsequently served in the
South African Special Forces as long-distance radio operator for 5 Reconnaissance
Commando. His first book, We Fear Naught But God: The Story of the South
African Special Forces (Covosday: Johannesburg) appeared in 2000, followed by
Ongulumbashe: Die Begin van die Bosoorlog in 2004, which he has now translated
into English under the title above. The English edition adds nothing of significance
to the original Afrikaans text, but makes his work available to a wider audience.
The epilogue by Gen. J.J. Geldenhuys, which was added to the English edition, is an
almost verbatim translation of parts of Geldenhuys’s foreword to the new edition of
his own book Die Wat Gewen Het: Feite en Fabels van die Bosoorlog. (Litera
Publikasies: Pretoria 2007).