Africa
The Concentration Camps of the South African (Anglo-Boer) War, 1900–1902
By , University of Cape Town (November 2008)
Sections: Africa
Subjects: Imperial, Colonial, and Postcolonial History, Historiography, Study of History, Women's History, History, Colonial History.
Periods: 1000 - 1999, 1900-1999.
Key Topics: imperialism, war, conquest, conflict, disease.
Abstract
The concentration camps of the South African War or Anglo-Boer War, where Boer women and children, as well as many black families, were interned as a result of the British military sweeps to clear the veld, incited controversy from their inception. The high mortality, primarily from measles, caused much bitterness but the history of the camps has never been properly investigated. Instead, a mythology was created by emergent Afrikaner nationalists who deployed the women's testimonies, in particular, to establish a ‘paradigm of suffering’. Recently a number of historians have demonstrated the way in which commemoration of the concentration camps in South Africa has also been politicised. This article surveys the literature on the camps, highlighting some of the omissions.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00562.x
This article abstract has been viewed 6255 times.
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