The myth of the white man's war : an historical perspective on the concentration camps for blacks during the South African war of 1899 to 1902

Skripsie (MA (Geskiedenis)--PU vir CHO, 1997The South African War of October 1899 to May 1902 represents the most intense conflict in sub-Saharan Africa during the colonial era. Lasting for more or less two and a half years, the war became a costly and bloody struggle. However, the war has thus far been mostly interpreted by historians exclusively as a 'white man's war', in which only the interests and actions of the white communities and the Imperial power, Britain, who were the parties directly involved in the war, have been researched in depth. 1 Through the pages of numerous accounts of the conflict from the earliest accounts of military operations published in 1900 to the most recent Afrikaans and English monographs, the response of blacks to the conflict, their participation and the impact of the war on the black community, have been passed over almost completely. 2 The various names given to the South African War, such as the English War, the Boer War, die Engelse Oorlog, the Second War of Independence and the Anglo-Boer War, depict the variety of attitudes of historians who write about it. These divergent attitudes, however, inspired me to conduct research on the South African War from a new angle, that is the perspective of a black South African. The topic I have selected deals with the experience of black people in the war, and particularly those blacks who were detained by the British in the concentration camps in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, which was after the British occupation known as the Orange River Colony. By looking at this aspect of the war, which has thus far received only scant attention, I hope to make a modest contribution to the historiography of the South African War. Although an impression has been perpetuated in the different historical writings that the war was simply a British and Afrikaner affair, thus a white man's war, this dissertation strongly maintains that it was rather a South African War. It was fought on South African soil and affected all South African population groups, though to different degrees of intensity. It is for this reason that the research seeks to throw some light on how the black community participated in the war. Background information on the distribution of racial groups prior to the outbreak of the war and the causes of the war will be provided in chapter one. With substantial evidence, the following chapter disputes that the South African War was a white man's war. Chapters three and four, which constitute the core of the dissertation, trace the origin of the black concentration camps, their importance in terms of labour and administration, their termination, as well as the compensation of their occupants. An analysis of the impact of the South African War on the black population will be made. In conclusion, a critical summary of the experience of blacks and the effects of the war on the black community at large, will be provided. It must be pointed out that although sources, both primary and secondary, dealing with the South African War are in abundance, there is indeed very little information on the involvement of blacks during the war. As a result, the task of researching such a topic became almost impossible to be achieved. Only a few sources which deal with the subject at length, are available. · The primary sources were consulted in the State Archives in Pretoria and Bloemfontein. These two archives depots seem to hold the only remaining official records of the camps for blacks. Enquiries by other researchers at the Public Record Office in London, where British government documents are kept, failed to identify any materials specifically related to the camps. The recordings and transcripts of the Oral History Project of the Institute for Advanced Social Research at the University of Witwatersrand, which preserve interviews of those blacks who were involved in the war and their descendants, were also used. Lastly, in terms of primary sources, the War Museum of the Boer Republics in Bloemfontein was also visited. Enquiries were made at the Cory Library, Rhodes University, the James Stuart Archives, University of Natal, and the Military Museum, Johannesburg, but without success. The primary sources have been supplemented by secondary materials provided by mainly English and Afrikaner writers. Only a few sources used were written by black writers on the subject. The nature of literature used, the motives and bias of the writers have been carefully taken into account, as will be explained in the survey of the historiography of the war in chapter 2.Master