| dc.description.abstract | The 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. | |
