A doctor of conscience: an analysis of the life of Ivan Toms, a medical practitioner, conscientious objector and LGBTQ rights activist in South Africa, 1952 to 2008.
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Date
2022
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Abstract
Using a micro historical lens, this thesis examines the life history of Ivan Toms. Born
in 1952 in Cape Town to a white middle class family, after qualifying as a medical doctor,
Toms was conscripted into the South African Defence Force (SADF) as a non-combatant
doctor in 1978. He, like many 17- to 65-year-old South African males of European descent,
were required (i.e., it was made compulsory) to join the SADF to protect the white minority
government from what it regarded as anti-apartheid threats both in South Africa and north of
its borders. As a conscript, he experienced first-hand the brutality of the apartheid regime’s
military arm while serving in the SADF in South West Africa (now known as Namibia).
After his return, he witnessed the apartheid regime’s violence at the Empilisweni informal
settlement clinic, which he helped establish in the Cape Flats area. These experiences,
together with his experiences of being gay, propelled him to become a founding member of
the End Conscription Campaign (ECC), which ultimately led to his imprisonment. During the
early 1990s, after his release from Pollsmoor prison, he became a health and gay rights
activist until his untimely death in 2008.
This thesis on Dr Ivan Toms contributes to the historiography on South Africa’s
militarization and Conscientious Objection history. A microhistory on a Conscientious
Objector like Toms, not only makes a concerted effort to provide a deeper understanding of
the multi-faceted life experiences of a particular individual, but through an analysis of his
life, try to comprehend more about the broader history of the period of military conscription
and Conscientious Objection in apartheid South Africa. In addition, while there has been a
surge of interest in the study of black anti-apartheid activists in the post-apartheid period,
there has been a shift away from analysis of white activists who contributed to the anti- apartheid movement. This study seeks to bring me attention back to the struggles of such an
individual who was active in the ECC, LGBTQ rights movement and health rights struggle.
Description
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.