Koevoet! by American journalist Jim Hooper is a compelling first-hand account of one of the most controversial and distinctive counter-insurgency units of the South African Border War. Published by Southern Book Publishers in Johannesburg in 1988, this first edition runs to 236 pages and includes black-and-white and colour photographic material. Bibliographic records confirm the 1988 Southern Book Publishers edition and its first-edition status.
Hooper was granted unusual access to Koevoet, the South West African Police Counter-Insurgency Unit, allowing him to accompany its personnel on operations during the conflict in northern Namibia. His account provides an unusually close view of patrols, tracking, reconnaissance, firefights and the realities of bush warfare, drawing on his direct experience in the operational area.
The book places Koevoet within the wider South African Border War, a conflict fought principally in Namibia and Angola between South African forces and the forces associated with SWAPO. Hooper's narrative is particularly concerned with the unit's unconventional methods of counter-insurgency and its reliance on trackers, mobility, intelligence and rapid pursuit of guerrilla forces. The resulting account is vivid, operationally detailed and inevitably controversial.
Koevoet! is of considerable interest to readers researching the South African Border War, the military history of Namibia and Angola, counter-insurgency operations, the South African Police and the broader military history of southern Africa. It also has particular appeal to collectors of Border War literature, as the 1988 first edition predates later expanded editions and is the original publication of Hooper's account.
For anyone interested in the experiences of soldiers, police units and journalists operating during one of southern Africa's longest and most contested conflicts, this first edition offers an important contemporary perspective and a substantial photographic record.
Condition: Very Good - Light wear present on dust jacket and boards. Foxing on numerous pages caused by newspaper clippings stored in between pages. See photos.
