Rhodesian Selous Scouts: Skuzappu: When White men pretended to be Blacks and merged with Blacks at night!

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[This will give you an idea of how far the Selous Scouts could go to infiltrate and be among Blacks and in the night, the Blacks, with their black camouflage, the Blacks had no clue there were Whites sitting right next to them speaking to them. Note: Chibuku was the main beer that the Blacks drank. I think I even tasted a bit of it. It is nothing at all like the beer Whites are used to. One of my family members even worked for the company. No Whites drank chibuku. But the Selous Scouts clearly did so when they were among the Blacks. Here's a link to Chibuku: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chibuku_Shake_Shake – You'll see mention of Chibuku below. The reference to Nugget Black – is Black shoe polish named nugget. Gooks is the American Vietnam term Rhodesians also used for Black Communist Terrorists. Skuza is a word we used in chilapalapa which meant: "excuse me". Hondo is a war so hondo songs are War songs sung by the Blacks. Jan]

Below is what a Rhodesian sent me and another Rhodesian checked it and confirmed it. NB: This is full of Rhodesian slang – that’s why I tried higher up to explain it:

Reid Daily’s book would be a useful resource….according to the book they were commonly referred to as "skuzappu"

This was a little known nickname for the Selous Scouts on account of their ability to put nugget black on, smell like a walking armpit and mingle with the gooks, mostly at night when they could blend in better.

So they’d get intel about a campfire meeting that the komrads would be plotting, and they’d saunter in like invited guests and say "Skuzappu, skuzappu" (a shona slang bastardization of "excuse + move up" as they nudged oaks aside, to sit down amongst the bozeys.

They’d share the chibuku gourds, chant Hondo songs and do their commie chants and fist raises, in unison with the other gooks.

And listen to the plans of the upcoming attack.

Then melt back into the night, just like all the other units.

Then pass on the Intel to plan the counter-attack.