Portrait of a mobile political subject: The figure of the Afghan Mujahedeen in South Africa in the 1980s.

Abstract

This mini-thesis engages with the period of the Cold War between 1979 and 1989 to examine the shifts and contradictions that emerged around the figure of the “terrorist” and the “freedom fighter with a focus on the Afghan Mujahedeen. From 1979 to 1989, the Soviet Union invaded and occupied Afghanistan. This period was witness to the formation of the Mujahedeen who fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and also against the political ideologies of communism. In so doing, the Mujahedeen became political allies for the South African apartheid government as well as others fighting against the communist agenda