A prisoner at Benghazi

Benghazi, the second-largest Libyan city after Tripoli, is separated from Tobruk, a port town near the Libyan-Egypt border, by a coastal highway of more than 200 miles. Both cities carried special meaning to an old man sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of his house in South Africa. He seemed to spend days in that chair, staring into space and snarling at children playing in the street or occasionally barking orders at his wife. She had a more pleasant demeanor and used to excuse his behavior. “Ask him about the war,” she said. “Ask him gently and he will talk.”

She was referring to World War II ─ a global conflict largely re-enacted in theaters far removed from South Africa and the shores of North Africa. As more neighbors talked to the old man, they began to understand that he still harbored bitter memories about the war. Because of colonial interests dating back to the late 19th century, the Italians and Germans had fought against the Allies in North Africa. The South African contribution to the Allied efforts included the vigorous efforts of many colored men, like the old man. The racial moniker given to him by the apartheid-government reflected his golden skin and Nama heritage. His ancestors had fought the Germans during the Herero wars in South-West Africa (a German protectorate at the time) and many people had died during the 1st genocide of the 20th century i.e., the Herero and Namaqua genocide. A total of 60,000 members of the Herero tribe and 10,000 Nama people died during that tragedy. The old man moved to the Western Cape Province in South Africa. His adopted country would eventually rule South-West Africa. When then-Prime-Minister of the Union of South Africa, Jan Smuts, issued the order for able-bodied men to resist the relentless march of Hitler’s deputy, Erwin Rommel, into North Africa, he felt compelled to heed the call. Fueled by revenge and visions of respect after the war, he left for the city of Tobruk.

It was important for the Allies’ defense of Egypt and the Suez Canal to hold this port town and force the German Afrika Korps to travel longer distances over the desert. However, at the end of the protracted conflict, he was one of the 12,000 South Africans and 22,000 Allied troops who marched into captivity under the command of the South African Major-General H.B. Klopper. While history has chronicled this defeat as a footnote in the history of Rommel’s illustrious military career (“The Desert Fox” would later be forced to commit cyanide after conspiring to assassinate Hitler), the old man harbored bitter memories. He was one of a group of men handed over as prisoners-of-war to the Italians. The memories of his imprisonment at Benghazi under harsh conditions and watching fellow inmates die of dysentery and other ailments would haunt him for the rest of his life. His wife barely recognized his skeletal features when he returned home.

His children and grandchildren also had no inkling of his pain. To them, Benghazi was an obscure city deemed newsworthy only because of the attack on a US embassy in that city. He would sometimes lapse into a patois of the Nama language laced with German and Afrikaans when addressing to his children. The only responses he received were blank stares. One day a grandchild came to visit, excited to share news with her grandfather. She now understood more about the history of the Nama people. Her excitement elicited a rare smile from the old man.

The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War