A blast (and a giggle or two) from my past

 

Back in 1988, agreement was reached between the parties to the Tripartite Accord to grant independence to Namibia (previously administered by South Africa under the name South West Africa, under a disputed League of Nations mandate).  The United Nations Transition Assistance Group, or UNTAG, was dispatched to Namibia in 1989 to oversee and assist with the transition process.  It had a very rocky start, with hostilities flaring up as it was supposed to take over, but once they were suppressed, it began work.

UNTAG rapidly became a figure of fun to many South Africans and Namibians, because it wasn't the world's most militarily efficient force (anything but, in fact!), and many of its units and personnel were clearly not selected from elite fighting formations.  Despite its military issues and problems, UNTAG did a reasonably good job at overseeing elections, and Namibia became independent in 1990.  However, the military problems were fodder for cartoonists and comedians for many months.

Among them was Leon Schuster, a well-known South African filmmaker and comedian (and the diametric opposite of politically correct).  He rapidly produced a movie titled "Oh Schucks, Here Comes UNTAG", situated in the fictitious nation of "Nambabwe", which lampooned the UNTAG forces and prompted much sarcastic amusement among South African audiences.  It's not a great film (at best B-movie standard), and the jokes rely on slapstick rather than subtlety, but I nevertheless had a few good laughs when I saw it way back then.

It's been out of circulation for years, but to my pleasure, I discovered that someone recently uploaded it to YouTube.  If you want a military-oriented belly-laugh with an African flavor, you could do worse.

Yes, I giggled again at some of the scenes, particularly those dealing with ostriches and rhinoceros horn. Africans will understand.

Peter

(P.S.:  Don't believe the Wikipedia figures for the flare-up in hostilities as UNTAG took over, which were suppressed by swift and very vigorous South African military reaction.  Casualties numbered in the mid-thousands, not low hundreds, and almost all of them were SWAPO.)