JAMH Call for Papers

Journal of African Military History - Special Issue: 
New Histories of the Southern African Liberation Struggles

The intertwined wars to bring majority-rule to the Southern African states are rightfully understood in African history both as the triumphs of pan-African solidarity and complex events that interwove both local struggles for authority and global ideological competition. Initial nationalist histories traced the rise and political activities of the liberation fronts while more global views explored the cooperation of African actors with international patrons such as Russia, China, and Cuba in their attempts to leverage Cold War dynamics in an effort to attain their freedom. These often ultimately proved to be more official histories that played up the successes of the liberation struggles against the white redoubt countries as well as the international and Pan-African cooperation that allowed these successes 

However, the past decade has seen the continued expansion of historical inquiry into these conflicts. Both on the continent and abroad, critical archives have been opened and their documentation being woven into the historical narratives of the conflicts, such as the emergent work on the ALCORA exercises by Robert McNamara and Felipe Rebeiro de Meneses. Access to a plethora of previously unreachable or forgotten interview subjects has established new narratives of the struggles themselves, such as in the works of Joanne MacGregor, Joceylyn Alexander, Christian Williams, or Marc Thomas Howard. Topics that had not previous been studied in a systemic way, such as African participation in the struggles against the liberation fronts or the logistics of sustaining the far-flung struggles, have been explored, establishing new bodies of knowledge about these complex conflicts. Simply put, while there have been published historical narratives and knowledge about these struggles since the days of their waging, newer work has both enhanced and expanded on these early publications and there remains more new scholarship emerging. The intent of this special issue is continuing these efforts and publishing new scholarly perspectives on the planning, waging, and inherited narratives of the struggles for the final liberation of Africa while at the same time uncovering varied aspects of these intertwined conflicts which have received little or no previous scholarly attention

We are particularly interested in contributions exploring the following topics regarding either side of the conflict:

- Internal alliances and military cooperation;

- Operational planning and direct military engagements;

- Recruitment, mobilization and manpower;

- Veterans and demobilization;

- Labor, industry and sustainment of the struggles;

- Gender, masculinity, and the role of women;

- Resistance, political activism and interment;

- Propaganda, espionage and counterintelligence;

- External connections and interactions;

- Legacy, commemoration and historical memory;

The special issue will consider articles submitted in English.

If you are interested in proposing a paper on these or any other topics, please contact Dr Charles Thomas (charles.thomas.40@au.af.edu) or Dr. Bafumiki Mocheregwa (bafumiki.mocheregwa@usm.edu). 

Abstracts should be submitted by 30 November 2025, with completed essays due by 31 April 2026.

Scholars interested in editing future special issues should contact the journal’s managing editors, Roy Doron and Charles G Thomas at doronrs@wssu.edu and charles.thomas.40@au.af.edu