Foreign Policy Blogs

Oh, Mercenary!

It seems that South African mercenaries have been involved in the training of Guinea’s junta, at the head of which is Moussa Dadis Camara, who took power after a coup in December and which was responsible for the deaths of more than 150 anti-Camara protesters last month.  Images of Executive Outcomes and others among Apartheid South Africa’s shady post-Apartheid militarized remnants dance through my head.

 

Author

Derek Catsam

Derek Catsam is a Professor of history and Kathlyn Cosper Dunagan Professor in the Humanities at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. He is also Senior Research Associate at Rhodes University. Derek writes about race and politics in the United States and Africa, sports, and terrorism. He is currently working on books on bus boycotts in the United States and South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s and on the 1981 South African Springbok rugby team's tour to the US. He is the author of three books, dozens of scholarly articles and reviews, and has published widely on current affairs in African, American, and European publications. He has lived, worked, and travelled extensively throughout southern Africa. He writes about politics, sports, travel, pop culture, and just about anything else that comes to mind.

Areas of Focus:
Africa; Zimbabwe; South Africa; Apartheid

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