The Emergency Bouzouki Player

The Emergency Bouzouki Player is the true story of a teenager railroaded into the South African army for two years of national service at the height of the Angolan Border War. A saga that begins in the small Cretan village of Sfakia, continues through leafy Johannesburg, visits dusty Kimberley, Boer War graves in Wynberg, 3 Military Hospital Psychiatric ward in Bloemfontein, detention barracks in Voortrekkergoogte, 32 Battalion’s base in Rundu; Chetto, Omega and Bagani front line border camps on the Caprivi Strip, and ends on a rainy morning at Heathrow arrivals.

The cruelty, the absurdity and the mindlessness of life in the South African army are candidly described in this first-hand account by an unwilling and resentful conscript who, to escape the infamous Diskobolos Infantry Training Camp and its murderous instructors, claimed he could play the bouzouki in a subterfuge that was to have unforeseen, sometimes comical and sometimes life-threatening consequences.

Most of all, the Emergency Bouzouki Player depicts the way in which hope can carry a young person through the worst of times.