THE GUNS fell silent across the world 101 years ago on Monday, bringing to an end the greatest war the world had ever experienced.
The silence was quickly replaced by hope, unimaginable hope, that no one would ever have to go through the charnel houses: the hells of the trenches in western Europe, the folly of the Dardanelles, the sweating tropics of East Africa or the desert sands of the Middle East.
There were many South Africans involved; some died in “Devil’s Wood”, others drowned in the English Channel or fought forgotten battles in Palestine.
Those who returned were determined to fight for a better world and ensure that neither their sacrifice nor the deaths of their comrades had been in vain.
Many initiatives were testimony to that, like the Comrades Marathon and the minute’s silence across the world on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. There’s the Royal Commonwealth Ex-Services League, today best known for the red poppies all over English Premiership soccer jerseys in November.
And there’s the rub. Are the British fetishising war? Are we ignoring it? What do we remember at this time, and why?
In South Africa, apart from the yeomanlike - albeit disparate - efforts of veterans’ organisations and the determination of some historic schools, almost exclusively English-medium, Remembrance Day either on November 11 or on the nearest Sunday, almost passes unnoticed.
There are many reasons. For a start, there’s no one left from World War I, and hardly any from World War II. Today’s veterans are from different conflicts that are neither as clear-cut nor glorious. There’s also the National Party’s determination to airbrush both World Wars from public discourse, given that they didn’t just actively want the Nazis to win in World War II, but the returning veterans were a major headache for them.
The Torch Commando, led by Sailor Malan, an Afrikaner who became an iconic Royal Air Force hero, and the Springbok Legion, which counted Joe Slovo among its ranks and would provide some of the earliest training for the ANC’s MK, were determined to fight against apartheid - whether through mass civil protest or in the case of the Springbok Legion, insurrection.
Those veterans and their comrades of the Great War were witnesses to atrocities no person should ever have to experience. They wanted a better world.
This year is the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II, when the Nazis invaded Poland.
There’s a cartoon doing the rounds of an old man sitting on a couch, wearing his moth-eaten old beret and medals, a kierie clutched in his hand. Next to him, sits a typically awful pimpled teenager in a beanie clutching a gaming console in his hands.
“When I was your age,” says the toppie, “I defeated the Nazis in Poland.”
“On Xbox or PlayStation?” asks the teen.
And maybe that is their greatest gift of all. For our tomorrows they gave their todays - so that we can live in a world where we have the luxury of forgetting.
Ritchie is a journalist and former newspaper editor.
The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of Independent Media.