Page 180 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo II

682 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

in the nearby UBS building in Plein Street. Since there was no military accommodation avai-
lable at Stellenbosch, but, also to integrate them as well as possible with student life, the 1955
Military Academy intake (32 students) took up residence with their civilian counterparts in
Dagbreek, one of the university residences. In 1956 the military students were split between
two residences, with the first-years in Huis Visser and the second-years in Huis Marais. in
1957 the new first-years were housed in Wilgenhof, while the second- and third-years stayed
on in Huis Visser and Huis Marais. With the Academy buildings at Saldanha completed at
long last, the second and third-years were relocated to Saldanha with effect from 1958. The
first-years had to stay on the main campus in terms of the agreement between the Department
of Defence and Stellenbosh University and were housed in a small, private hostel, Crozier
House, from 1958. The latter proved to be a very satisfactory arrangement and Crozier House
remained the home of the first-years until they were also relocated to Saldanha in 1961 when
the Military Academy a fully-fledged faculty of Stellenbosch University. 26
University education for military officers brought two seemingly irreconcilable subcultu-
res in the classical tradition of Sparta and Athens together, where Sparta, in the words of J.P.
Lovell, represents ‘the noble warrior: austerity, discipline, the comradeship of arms, devotion
to the state, and, above all, a commitment to heroic deeds and a love of glory’, while Athens
represents ‘culture and learning’. . In cases the Academy students were judged negatively
27
at Stellenbosch University. From that perspective A. du Toit claims:
The aim behind the presence of the military at university… was to remove the stigma that the
Afrikaner had attached to a soldier’s uniform since the Second World War. By going to university,
being students and living like students, future officers, and thus also the Defence Force, would
acquire a higher standing for themselves and would also become more acceptable to the Afrikaner.
Unfortunately the Defence Force’s so-called esprit de corps and the poor material with which they
had to achieve their aims handicapped them in this regard. The efforts to make a true student out of
a “student officer” failed dismally... the military students... always caused trouble… wherever they
were placed. There was so much discord at the University of Pretoria that the authorities refused
to accommodate them any longer. So Stellenbosch got them and their presence wrecked the spirit
of one residence after the other. 28

The perspective by Du Toit is one. There were others too. It is true that Erasmus wanted
to utilise the Military Academy to put UDF officers intellectually at the same level as pro-
fessional people in civil society and that he exploited the Academy to further his Afrikaner
ideals for the UDF. In this regard socialisation as “the process through which one (as part
of a group) develops awareness (and frequently adherence to for fear of sanction or social
isolation) of social norms and values” and “(with) socialization, society … can perpetuate

26 G.E. Visser: ‘Civilian-military interaction on the Matie campus: The Battle of Wilgenhof, 1957’ (unpu-
blished paper, 2008).
27 J.P. Lovell: Neither Athens nor Sparta? The American Service Academies in Transition (Indiana University
Press, Bloomington and London, 1979), p.16.
28 A. du Toit: Moeilikheid met die “Army”. In O. Potgieter (ed.): Wilgenhof Gedenkboek (1903 – 1967) (Stel-
lenbosch, 1968), p. 75 (author’s translation).