[lit-ideas] Re: The Boerwoer
- From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 3 May 2014 14:13:38 +0200
One of the enduring legacies of the Boer Wars (there were two of them
actually) was the introduction of concentration camps:
http://www.geni.com/projects/Anglo-Boere-Oorlog-Boer-War-1899-1902-British-Concentration-Camps/854
The camps were formed by the British army to house the residents of the two
Boer republics of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State.
They were established towards the end of 1900, after Britain had invaded
the Boer republics. The English term "concentration camp" was first used to
describe camps operated by the British in South Africa during this
conflict. The camps had originally been set up by the British Army as
"refugee camps" to provide refuge for civilian families who had been forced
to abandon their homes for one or other reason related to the war. However,
when Kitchener succeeded Roberts as commander-in-chief in South Africa in
29 November 1900, the British Army introduced new tactics in an attempt to
break the guerrilla campaign and the influx of civilians grew dramatically
as a result. Kitchener initiated plans to "flush out guerrillas in a series
of systematic drives, organized like a sporting shoot, with success defined
in a weekly 'bag' of killed, captured and wounded, and to sweep the country
bare of everything that could give sustenance to the guerrillas, including
women and children.... It was the clearance of civilians - uprooting a
whole nation - that would come to dominate the last phase of the war."
As Boer farms were destroyed by the British under their "Scorched Earth"
policy - including the systematic destruction of crops and slaughtering of
livestock, the burning down of homesteads and farms, and the poisoning of
wells and salting of fields - to prevent the Boers from resupplying from a
home base many tens of thousands of women and children were forcibly moved
into the concentration camps. This was not the first appearance of
internment camps. The Spanish had used internment in the Ten Years' War
that later led to the Spanish-American War, and the United States had used
them to devastate guerrilla forces during the Philippine-American War. But
the Boer War concentration camp system was the first time that a whole
nation had been systematically targeted, and the first in which some whole
regions had been depopulated.
Eventually, there were a total of 45 tented camps built for Boer internees
and 64 for black Africans. Of the 28,000 Boer men captured as prisoners of
war, 25,630 were sent overseas. The vast majority of Boers remaining in the
local camps were women and children. Over 26,000 women and children were to
perish in these concentration camps.
On Sat, May 3, 2014 at 1:41 PM, Redacted sender Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx for
DMARC <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> We are trying to evaluate different historians' perspectives on this or
> that imperial territory, or alleged imperial territory. Meanwhile, Harry
> and
> William are meant to play polo in Geary's territory.
>
> In a message dated 5/2/2014 11:10:12 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes in "Parmele on the British Empire's
> South African
> colony": "On page 70 of A Short History of England, Ireland and Scotland,
> copyrighted in 1898, 1900 and 1906, Mary Platt Parmele assesses Britain’s
> war with the Boers.
>
> This reminds me of Chapter 58 in "1066 and all that".
>
> Sellars and Yeatman title that chapter
>
> "The Boerwoer"
>
> They write:
>
> "The last event in Queen Victoria's reign was the Borewore, or, more
> correctly, Boerwoer (Dutch), which was fought against a very tiresome Dutch
> tribe called the Bores, because they were left over from all previous
> wars."
>
> "The War was not a very successful one at first, and was quite unfair
> because the Boers could shoot much further than the English, and also
> because
> they were rather despicable in wearing veldt hats and using PomPom
> bullets."
>
> "Numerous battles were fought against the Bore leaders (such as Bother,
> Kopje, and Stellenbosch) at Nek's Creek, Creek's Nek, Knock's Knee, etc.,
> and
> much assistance was given to the British cause by Strathcoma's memorable
> horse (patriotically lent by Lord Strathcoma for the occasion) and by the
> C.I.D., who fought very bravely and were awarded a tremendous welcome on
> their
> return to London after the war."
>
> "Finally, the people at home took upon themselves the direction of the War
> and won it in a single night in London by a new and bracing method of
> warfare known as Mafeking."
>
> "Thus the English were once more victorious."
>
> "Memorable Results The Barwar was obviously a Good Thing in the end because
> it was the cause of Boy Scouts and of their memorable Chief Scout, General
> Baden Powell (known affectionately as 'the B.O.P.'), and also because it
> gave rise to a number of very manly books, such as 40 Years Beating About
> The Bush, 50 Years Before The Mast, 60 Years Behind The Times, etc."
>
> Parmele writes:
>
> “The sympathy of foreign states was strongly with the Boers."
>
> As Helm notes, since Parmele is an anglo-phile, the implicature of the
> above is:
>
> "The antipathy of the anglophile is with the Boers.
>
> "... and in England itself the cause evoked a languid enthusiasm, until
> aroused by disaster, and until the pride of the nation was touched by loss
> of
> prestige."
>
> Noel Coward, of all people, was fascinated by this war. In "Cavalcade", or
> rather, THROUGH "Cavalcade" (the original recording now on CD) I learned
> MOST of the "Boer war" songs -- My favourite have to be "Goodbye Dolly
> Gray"
> and "Goodbye my bluebell". These were AMERICAN (Spanish war) songs, but
> adopted by the English as they went to South Africa. VERY MOVING, as
> recorded
> by Sir Noel.
>
> The plot of Cavalcade revolves around the Boer War and ends with the news
> of the crucial battle.
>
> I think Coward found more romance in the Boer War than the more jingoistic
> "Long-Way-to-Tipperary" GREAT war, that, instead, fascinated Beverly
> Nichols.
>
> Parmele goes on:
>
> "The danger, the enormous difficulties to be overcome, the privations and
> suffering of their boys, these were the things which awoke the dormant
> enthusiasm in the heart of the nation. And when the only son of Lord
> Roberts
> had been offered as a sacrifice, and then a son of Lord Dufferin, and
> then,
> Prince Victor, October 29, 1900, grandson of the Queen herself, the cause
> had become sacred, and one for which any loyal Briton would be willing to
> die."
>
> -- rather than making cheap jokes to its expense, as per Sellars and
> Yeatman!
>
> "By September 1, 1900, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal had been
> formally proclaimed by Lord Roberts, "Colonies of British Empire.""
>
> Why plural? I suppose "One of the Colonies of THE British Empire". In
> Latin, you don't need 'the' (in fact, the definite article does not exist
> in
> Latin) but English is a different animal. Just kidding.
>
> "This was the beginning of the end, and when the victorious commander
> (December 2, 1900) arrived in England amid the plaudits of a grateful
> nation,
> the victory was practically won, and the time was at hand when not far from
> twenty thousand British soldiers would be lying under the sod six thousand
> miles away, in a land, which no longer disputed the sovereignty of
> England!"
>
> The 'lying under the sod' reminds me of the Boys of the Old Brigad, another
> earlier 'reminiscent' war song. I love to sing (and play) that song,
> because it's a 'ballad' (and a drawing-room ballad at that) and the second
> stanza is totally modulated!
>
> Over the sea far away they lie,
> Far from the land of their love;
> Nations alter, the years go by,
> But Heav’n still is Heav’n above,
> Not in the abbey proudly laid
> Find they a place or part;
> The gallant boys of the old Brigade,
> They sleep in old England’s heart.
>
> But that's another part of Empire!
>
> Parmele goes on:
>
> "We have yet to see whether the South African colonial possessions have
> been paid for too dearly, with nine fierce Kaffir wars (another
> threatening as
> this is written), and the blood of princes, peers, and commoners poured as
> if it were water into the African soil. Is England richer or poorer for
> this outpouring of blood and treasure? Has she risen or fallen in the
> estimation of the world, as she uncovers her stores of gold and diamonds
> among
> those valiant but defeated Boers, sullenly brooding over the past, with no
> love in their hearts."
>
> Pathetic paragraphing, in the sense that Parmele surely knows how to find
> the right word with emotional overtones!
>
> Helm comments: "I have recently taken offense at historians who didn’t
> provide references for their conclusions and opinions (pertaining to the
> American Civil War) but have yet to take offense at anything Parmele has
> written. The above comment on the Boer War may be typical. She is
> clearly an
> Anglophile and yet when British leaders do something dumb or something she
> thinks is unjust she is quick to say so. And in the above case she also
> asks
> the interesting question about whether Britain gained or lost by means of
> their South African accomplishment."
>
> A sort of general question. it may be that the ROYAL family lost, while the
> ADMINISTRATION won. It may be that what later will be the COMMONWEALTH
> won, while "Little England" lost? We may want to specify the rather
> general
> term to which victory is ascribed: "Britain".
>
> Helm goes on:
>
> "Parmele considers the loss of British lives (around 20,000) and the loss
> of respect from other nations, but after the Second World War we also
> wonder about the economic loss. Spain clearly became a powerful empire
> as the
> result of robbing its colonies of their gold. When Parmele wrote her
> book,
> British miners were apparently digging out South African gold and
> diamonds,
> but Britain could not get away with mere robbery as Spain did, even if the
> British people would tolerate it; which they wouldn’t. There were laws in
> effect that British miners had to comply with; so the economic benefit to
> Britain was not as great as a similar extraction of wealth from the Aztecs
> and Incans was for Spain. Eventually (sometime around 1949 if I remember
> correctly) the cost of maintaining an army and navy in foreign enterprises
> became too great for this once Empire and it gave it up (with a little
> help
> from its friends)."
>
> Very good.
>
> For the record, a summary of Coward's "Cavalcade", which offering a view of
> English life in New Year's Eve 1899. The film is presented from the point
> of view of well-to-do London residents Jane and Robert Marryot. The first
> hstorical event that serves as background for the film is the SECOND Boer
> War.
>
> The soundtrack includes "Girls of the C.I.V.," "Mirabelle," "Lover of My
> Dreams," and "Twentieth Century Blues" by Noël Coward, "A Bird in a Gilded
> Cage" by Harry von Tilzer, "I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside" by John
> Glover Kind, "Take Me Back to Yorkshire" by Harry Castling[2] and Fred
> Godfrey,
> "Nearer My God, To Thee" by Lowell Mason, "Your King and Country Want You"
> by Paul Rubens, "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary" by Jack Judge and
> Harry Williams, "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag and Smile,
> Smile,
> Smile" by Felix Powell and George Asaf, "Keep The Home Fires Burning" by
> Ivor
> Novello and Lena Guilbert Ford, "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" by Nat Ayer and
> Seymour Brown, "Hinky Dinky Parlay Voo (Mad'moiselle from Armentieres)" by
> Irwin Dash, Al Dubin, and Joe Mittenthal, and "Over There" by George M.
> Cohan.
>
> The film premiered in New York City on January 5, 1933 but did not go into
> general theatrical release until April 15.
>
> Wikipedia has a full entry on "Opposition to the Boer War" from which a
> passage is extracted below.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Speranza
>
> ---
>
> "Although the 1900 UK general election, also known as the "Khaki election",
> had resulted in a victory for the Conservative government on the back of
> recent British victories against the Boers, public support quickly waned
> as
> it became apparent that the war would not be easy and unease developed
> following reports about the treatment by the British army's of the Boer
> civilians such as concentration camps and farm burning. Public and
> political
> opposition to Government policies in South Africa regarding Boer
> civilians was
> first expressed in Parliament in February 1901 in the form of an attack on
> the policy, the government, and the Army by the radical Liberal M.P. David
> Lloyd-George. Emily Hobhouse in June 1901 published a fifteen-page report
> on
> the concentration camps operated by British Command, and Lloyd George then
> openly accused the government of "a policy of extermination" directed
> against the Boer population. In June, 1901, Liberal opposition party
> leader
> Campbell-Bannerman took up the assault and answered the rhetorical "When
> is a
> war not a war?" with "When it is carried on by methods of barbarism in
> South Africa," referring to those same camps and the policies that created
> them. There was also embarrassment at the poor health of the British
> recruits,
> with up to 40% being found unfit for military service. Most were suffering
> from poverty-related illnesses such as rickets. Concern over the health of
> the recruits coincided with increasing concern for the general state of
> the
> poor in Britain. Opposition to the war was strongest among the Irish. Many
> Irish nationalists sympathised with the Boers as a kindred people being
> oppressed by British imperialism. Though many Irishmen fought in the
> British
> army, some fought for the Boers too. Irish miners working in the Transvaal
> when the war began formed the nucleus of two tiny Irish commandos."
>
>
>
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