ANC – African National Congress; formed first legitimately elected democratic government of South Africa

Bakkie – Afrikaans slang: pick-up truck

Bokkie – Afrikaans slang: beautiful woman

Bossies – Afrikaans slang: bush dementia

Bliksem – Afrikaans slang: bastard

China – Rhodesian slang: friend

DGSE – Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure: French intelligence agency

Doffs – Afrikaans slang: idiots.

Glide – Rhodesian slang: trip

Lekker – Afrikaans slang: nice, sweet

Okes – Afrikaans slang: guy

Oom – Afrikaans slang: uncle (word of respect)

Ooma – Afrikaans slang: aunty, old woman, grandmother (word of respect)

Parabat – Army slang: South African paratrooper; also vliesbom (meat bomb)

Operation COAST – Apartheid South Africa’s super-secret chemical and biological weapons programme

Poppie – Afrikaans slang: doll

R4 – standard issue 5.56 mm calibre assault rifle of South African Army, the South African-made version of the Israeli Galil rifle, semi-automatic

Rofie – Afrikaans slang: new recruit

Rondfok – Afrikaans slang: literally ‘circle fuck’

RV – rendezvous point

SADF – South African Defence Forces

Seun – Afrikaans: son

Sitrep – situation report

SWAPO – South West Africa People’s Organisation; rebel group fighting for Namibian independence

Torch Commando – banned underground organisation of mostly white South Africans dedicated to overthrowing apartheid

TRC – South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by Desmond Tutu, started in 1996 to help heal the wounds after apartheid

Valk – Afrikaans for hawk, the designation for a platoon of South African Army paratroopers, approximately thirty men

Volkstaat – Afrikaans for the dreamed-of independent Afrikaner homeland

Vrot – Afrikaans slang: wasted, intoxicated

Zut – Rhodesian slang: nothing