The “hysterical” Emily Hobhouse and Boer War concentration camp controversy

This essay provides a rhetorical analysis of some of the gender, class, and racial politics of the “concentration camp” controversy of the Anglo‐Boer war. The author argues that a synchronic ideographic analysis of key colonial fragments illustrates the ways that British and South African officials tried to create an image of a “hysterical” Emily Hobhouse, as a way of quelling the criticism of both the war and the camps. By investigating some of the newspaper accounts, diary entries, Parliamentary statements, and other contemporary documents, the author concludes that growing public pressure forced British administrators to eventually make needed reforms in the camps.

Key words:

• Boer war
• concentration camps
• hysteria
• Emily Hobhouse
• ideographic
• rhetoric
• synchronic