Some attitudes in Grahamstown towards the advent of the second Anglo-Boer War.

Abstract

• Opsomming: Die kernvraag wat hier aan die orde kom, is hoe die oorwegend Engelssprekende gemeenskap van die laat-Victoriaanse Grahamstad in die maande voor die uitbreek van die Anglo-Boereoorlog (Oktober 1899) op die naderende krisis gereageer het. Ofskoon nie heeltemal verteenwoordigend nie, was ' n opvallende verskynsel die opwelling van 'n breë jingoïsme soos veral in sommige plaaslike koerante weerspieël. Onderliggend hieraan was die besef dat Grahamstad in die vergetelheid geraak het: dit was nie meer belangrik op handels- of militêre gebied nie en het ook nog nie 'n identiteit as universiteitsentrum aangeneem nie. Onder sulke omstandighede het inwoners hoofsaaklik hul eie belang gesoek en inhalig opgetree selfs teenoor hulle vlugteling-landgenote uit die Boererepublieke wat trou aan die Britse saak gesweer het.

• Summary: In October 1899 the Anglo-Boer War broke out. This article looks at how so quintessentially English speaking a community as late-Victorian Grahamstown (especially some of its local newspapers) reacted to the gathering crisis. Underlying the most obvious - but certainly not entirely representative - outburst of popular jingoistic feeling, was the sense that Grahamstown was in a state of limbo: it was no longer of commercial or military importance and it had not yet found its sense of identity as a university centre. In such circumstances, Grahamstonians looked essentially to their own interests. Theirs was a "tightfisted" response even to the plight of their own compatriots who fled the "Boer North".