THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR

SOURCES

•photos - who took them and why ?•drawings - who drew them and why ?•quotation – who were they writing for

and why ?

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The caption at the bottom of this postcard reads: We are the Boers from the Transvaal valleys, we live and die for our country.

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SPIOENKOP War Memorial at

Spioenkop

trenches

“They are not buried here; they are planted. And they will forever be growing in the hearts of the Boer people.”

Written on the plaque at the war memorial at Spioenkop.

Burn

ing

farm

house

Burning farmhouse

Dead Sheep

Killing sheep & other stock

Kings, rulers of Europe, America

(Uncle Sam) stand

watching Britain (John

Bull) burning at the stake the Boer

republics)

CONCENTRATION CAMPS

The caption with this photo was ‘vlugtende vroue en kinders’ (fleeing women and children.

Chilren in the camps

The British journalist, WT Stead, wrote this about the concentration camps:

"Every one of these children who died as a result of the halving of their rations, done in order to exert pressure on their family still on the battle-field, was purposefully murdered. The system of half rations stands exposed and stark as a cold-blooded deed of state policy, employed with the purpose of ensuring the surrender of people whom we were not able to defeat on the battlefield."

This cartoon appeared in a French newspa

per

The Women’s Monument (Vrouemonumnet) in Bloemfontein

“Despite the English claims that the concentration camps were "voluntary refugee camps" the following questions must be asked:

From whom did the refugees flee? If it was ‘voluntary’, why did the women and children have to be dragged to the concentration camps? Why should the ‘voluntary refugee camps’ be enclosed by barbed wire fences and the inmates be overseen by armed wardens? Why would one of the camp commanders make the following statement: "The wardens were under orders not to interfere with the inmates, unless they should try to escape."? What kind of ‘voluntary refugee’ would want to escape?”

From a newspaper article written in 1920

HOW DID THE WAR AFFECT BLACK PEOPLE ?

While the two main forces in the Anglo-Boer War 2 were white, it was not an exclusively white war. At least 15 000 Blacks were used as combatants by the British, especially as scouts to track down Boer commandoes, and as armed block house guards, but also in non-combatant roles by both British and Boer forces as wagon drivers, etc.

dispatch rider

Black people suffered severely as result of the British “scorched earth policy” during which those who lived on Boer farms were removed to concentration camps, as were the women and children of their Boer employers. The rural economy was destroyed as crops were burnt and livestock butchered.

Displaced and captured civilians (black and white) were forced into ‘refugee camps', a total misnomer, because usually they did not seek refuge in the camps but were rounded up by the British forces and forced into the camps - soon known as ‘concentration camps' - separated along racial lines .

Black ‘soldiers’ with British at Mafekeng

Field-Marshal Lord Roberts had an ulterior motive in putting Blacks into camps, namely to make them work, either to grow crops for the troops or to dig trenches, be wagon drivers or work as miners once the gold mines became partly operational again.

Black concentration camp inmates did not receive rations, hardly any medical support or shelter and were expected to grow their own crops. They could exchange labour for food or buy mealie meal at a cheaper price and acted as scouts for British forces. Black camps were situated along railway lines and on the border and they formed an early warning system against Boer attacks on the British military's primary logistic artery – the railway lines.

concentration camp

This strategy alienated Whites and Blacks from each other by furthering distrust between the two population groups and was detrimental to racial harmony in South Africa after the war.

WAR TOYS If you are a social

historian, you are very interested in the different kinds of toys children played with in different eras. They (the toys) tell us what the values of society were at that time, what was going on in society, and what people thought was important.

Boer en Rooinekspel : Boer & Redneck boardgame

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