Environment

It was a pretty bleak place, really, 1 Intelligence Unit, Kimberley, in 1980 and 1981, when I was cloistered there as part of my two-year period of conscription. I ferreted out some more drawings I had forgotten about, which give a bit of a sense of the place.

It's not that clear here, but there were slightly curved rows of red-brick buildings, with brick paving, in two of which were the media centre.

Now this does bring those not very pleasant memories surging back. One of those massive bungalows which, we were told, were once hangars, though we saw no evidence of runways. The rectangular shapes at the ends of the buildings, I recall, were used for the sign-writing of various homilies, like "Blood sweated now is blood saved later".

This seems to be a point where two hangars/bungalows were divided by a narrow alley. Note the fire bucket, and the words, "Brand Fire".

I can't recall if this was a bungalow or some sort of storage facility.

Some okes came in cars. This seems to be a case where one is being unpacked, before it would have to be driven to a parking area far removed from the barracks. I remember one young guy who got a 1600 Ford Cortina, I think it was, for his 19th or suchlike birthday. Killed himself in a prang on the way back to base from Joburg.

This stately old mansion was near the entrance to the base amidst tall trees. It was where the officers stayed, no doubt in considerably more luxury than the rest of us.

This little bench, beside a large palm tree, was in the grounds of the officers' quarters.

Inside the media centre. Afraid my drawing isn't too clear, but it was essentially a drawing studio. Note the poster on the wall, by our corporal, Callie Shimwell of Maritzburg. I suspect he got the notion from his dad: "You must speculate to accumulate."

That man Terrence Keyter, on the right, while the other sketches are of a rather hobbit-like character whose name I forget.

It's that same hobbit guy, right, with his inseparable friend, whom I showed together in a cartoon-like drawing on an earlier posting.

This young guy was from Durbs, but his name eludes.

I've just spotted that there is a profile on the left, made from thick felt-tip pen lines. A mate must have found my quick sketches - the guy on the right is reading, with his book on a T-square - and given me a mark out of ten.

This, the preceding and following drawings all have a similar pose. Often I'd just get drawing and the guy would move or do something else. But the effect of a drawing curtailed is sometimes rather pleasing.

Here, in a few lines, I suggest a guy leaning over some work at a table.

I did several composite drawings like this, which acquire an interesting mood. Here the focus was on two berets hanging from pegs on a set of shelves. A guy at work is suggested next to a window on the right, while the one above is from an entirely different time, but in the same locale.

Another of those composites, here amongst sketches of okes with their heads down I did a bit of actual work. It seems we had to do a poster for a concert in Kimberley in aid of SADF funds. Eisch!

Again, amidst the profiles (of Mr Keyter mainly), the words about which I have no idea why they were written - and I'm also not sure that is my printing.

Big Terrence Keyter tackled a lovely task for our worthies: a massive Russian bear possibly embroiled in a conflict, I can't recall. I do remember it had to show this dangerous communist threat and was put up in the main admin building at the base.

Pensive lad. It's all in hand, I tell you.

Elongated head. Sometimes when drawing on a flat surface - here with myriad koki pens - you think you're drawing accurately, only to find the result elongated due to errors of parallax.

Here is the same guy, Lance-Coroporal Craig Glenday, at work, or possibly just reading.

How I got into a position to draw that distant view of someone at work I don't know. I can picture the young Durban guy on the left with a pencil in his mouth as if it were yesterday I last saw him, not 30 years ago.

Another guy, who arrived probably in mid-1980, from the Grahamstown area if I recall, whose name of course is now forgotten.

Mixing up one's media, so to speak, can sometimes be quite effective.

Another sketch done on waste paper used by Mr Slekirk, the airbrush expert.

Sign of the times

The strange thing is I never kept this poster, at the time, because I thought it may have some sort of interest value 30 years later. No I kept it for the drawings I did on the back. But now it takes on a new significance as we view the apartheid state as it was when I was at the media centre at 1 Intelligence Unit, Kimberley, having been booted off the actual "Burgersake", or Civic Action, course which was geared to intelligence-gathering in "the operational area" of SWA. This poster sums up what these okes were about, as the African masses rallied against apartheid and they sought to win them over.

This had been folded to fit in a large official envelope and, using an A4 scanner and a photomerge facility on Adobe photoshop, I was able to get the thing looking almost like it should.

The real reason I kept the poster was for these quick sketches of okes in the media centre, and a mug of coffee. Here, too, I had to photomerge the images.

A colleague in that media centre, his surname Selkirk, features often in my sketches. I like the use of the additional colourful doodles.

This Selkirk guy was something of a dab hand at using the airbrush, and I think this is him again, drawn against a page where he had probably tested the equipment. I wonder who Bruce Coleman was. It is not my handwriting.

Military Intelligence

There is a lot of stuff out there today masquerading as art. So I thought I'd join the club. I found this old notebook in which I did a so-called "Civic Action" course at 1 Intelligence Unit in Kimberley in late 1979, early 1980. It was the height of South Africa's Total Onslaught and Total Strategy period, as the isolated apartheid state faced not only a growing internal insurrection, but also the collapse of the Portuguese territories of Mozambique and Angola and a growing insurgency by Swapo guerrillas in northern South West Africa. Typically, this notebook is just half a notebook, because we tore A4 books in half so there were enough to go around. Anyway, I kept this, presumably, for the few drawings to be found on its covers and some inside pages. But anyone wishing to get an insight into just how the military state intended dealing with its pressing security problems could find some interesting snippets here. I have printed 24 out of about 40 pages of notes I took during lectures probably 90% in Afrikaans. The acronym PB, for example, will be for Plaaslike Bevolking, or Local Population. Given my repugnance for apartheid, you can imagine I wasn't too charmed being forced to listen to this, but it did give me an interesting insight into where they were coming from.

The front (half) cover of that notebook, which would have been folded in half again to fit in a pocket.

The first of some 20 pages of propaganda, much of it concerned about "communist propaganda" and all sorts of other "threats", while missing the obvious point that until black people in this country and Namibia got political rights, there would be no peace. Click on these to see them larger. Hope the writing is fairly legible.

For some light relief from the above, I sketched some of my colleagues.

The quote here is from a song by Tubeway Army, I think.

More bored soldier lads. Personally, I was fascinated by this view into what has been called "the heart of the whore".

Somewhere along the way, this book came with me into the veld, where I did this sketch.

A few more caricature-like sketches.

The bruised and battered back cover of that old notebook.