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South African Historical Journal Volume 41, 1999 - Issue 1
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Original Articles

The Many-Sided Struggle for Southern Africa, 1899–1902

GREG CUTHBERTSON University of South Africa and Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
&
ALAN JEEVES University of South Africa and Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
Pages 2-21 | Published online: 14 Jan 2009

  • 1998. . ‘Rethinking the South African War 1899–1902’ conference, University of South Africa Library, Pretoria, 3–5 August
  • Spies , S. B. 1989 . “ ed. ” . In A Soldier in South Africa Houghton (17;C. Saunders, Some Reflections on the Significance of the South African War' (Paper presented at the ‘Rethinking the South African War 1899–1902’ conference)
  • Smith , I. R. 1995 . The Origins of the South African War 1899–1902 London For example, see (B. Nasson, The South African War 1899–1902 (London, 1999);I.R. Smith, ‘Reading History: The Boer War’, History Today 34 (1984);S. Marks and S. Trapido, ‘Milner and the South African State Revisited’, in M. Twaddle, ed., Imperialism, the State and War (London, 1992), 80–94;A.N. Porter, ‘The South African War (1899–1902): Context and Motive Reconsidered’, Journal of African History, 31 (1990), 43–57
  • 1999 . 101 – 109 . See, for example, L. Changuion, ‘To Name a War: The War of 1899–1902’. Historia 44, 1
  • Dubow , S. and Marks , S. 1998 . ‘Patriotism of Place and Race: Keith Hancock on South Africa’ (Paper presented at the conference on the life of W.K. Hancock, Canberra, On the civil war aspect, see I. Smith, ‘Was the South African War (1899–1902) a Civil War?’ (Paper presented at the Africa Studies Forum, University of South Africa, 19 Mar. 1993)
  • Marais , J. S. 1961 . The Fall of Kruger s Republic Oxford (L.M. Thompson, The Unification of South Africa (Oxford, 1960)
  • 1995 . Scientific Racism in Modern South Africa Cambridge See S. Dubow, (and D. Yudelman, The Emergence of Modern South Africa: State, Capital and the Incorporation of Organised Labour on the South African Gold Fields. 1902–1939 (Cape Town, 1984)
  • Marks , S. and Trapido , S. 1979 . ‘Lord Milner and the South African State’ . History Workshop Journal , 8 : 50 – 80 . (M. Legassick, ‘British Hegemony and the Origins of Segregation in South Africa, 1901–14’, in W. Beinart and S. Dubow, eds, Segregation and Apartheid in Twentieth-Century South Africa (London, 1995), 43–59
  • van Heyningen , E. ‘The Clash of Medical Cultures in the Concentration Camps of the South African War’ (Paper presented at the ‘Rethinking the South African War’ conference)
  • Kessler , S. V. 1999 . The Black Concentration Camps of the Anglo-Boer War 1899–1902: Shifting the Paradigm . Historia , 44 ( 1 ) : 110 – 47 . (B.E. Mongalo and K. du Pisani, ‘Victims of a White Man’ s War: Blacks in Concentration Camps during the South African War (1899–1902)’, Historia, 44, 1 (1999), 148–82
  • This argument is well demonstrated in B. Mbenga, ‘The Role of the Bakgatla in the South African War’ (Paper presented at the ‘Rethinking the South African War’ conference)
  • Krikler , J. 1993 . Revolution from Above, Rebellion from Below: The Agrarian Transvaal at the Turn of the Century Oxford See
  • Nasson . The South African War 262–77;L. Witz, G. Minlcley and C. Rassool, ‘Who Speaks for “South African” Pasts?’ (Paper presented at the South African Historical Society Conference, University of the Western Cape, July 1999);A. Grundlingh, ‘The National Women's Monument: The Making and Mutation of Meaning in Afrikaner Memory of the South African War’ and E. Brink and S. Krige, ‘Remapping and Remembering the South African War in Johannesburg and Pretoria’ (Papers presented at the ‘Rethinking the South African War’ conference)
  • Dominy , G. ‘“Is There Anything to Celebrate?” Paradoxes of Policy: An Examination of the State's Approach to Commemorating South Africa's Most Ambiguous Struggle' (Paper presented at the ‘Rethinking the South African War’ conference)
  • 1990 . Leadership 9 Mar., quoted in A. Grundlingh, ‘Die Wisselende Betekenis van die Abo in Afrikanerkringe, 1930–1998’, in Afrikanerperspektiewe op die Anglo-Boereoorlog, 1899–1902 (Bloemfontein, 1999), 56–7
  • Especially , K. Surridge . 1998 . Managing the South African War 1899–1902: Politicians v. Generals London
  • Warwick , P. 1980 . The South African War: The Anglo-Boer War 1899–1902 London (P. Warwick, Black People and the South African War, 1899–1902 (Cambridge, 1983);B. Nasson, Abraham Esau s War: A Black South African War in the Cape, 1899–1902 (Cambridge, 1991)
  • Saunders , C. and Smith , I. R. 1999 . The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Nineteenth Century Edited by: Porter , A. Oxford and New York ‘Southern Africa, 1795–1910’, in, ed., (617;Kessler, ‘Black Concentration Camps’, 134: Kessler argues persuasively that 20 000 Africans died in the camps
  • See K. Surridge, ‘The Politics of War: Lord Kitchener and the Settlement of the South African War, 1901–1902’ (Paper presented at the ‘Rethinking the South African War’ conference)
  • van den Berghe , P. L. 1967 . Race and Racism: A Comparative Perspective New York
  • Dominy, ‘Is There Anything to Celebrate’
  • 1998 . Financial Mail , 150 ( 2 ) : 44 ‘A Congress of Anti-Colonial Victims?’
  • Cannadine , D. 1998 . History in Our Time Vol. 1 , 154 New Haven and London (Cannadine made these remarks in a review of P.J. Cain and A.G. Hopkins, British Imperialism, vol.Innovation and Expansion, 1688–1914;vol. 2: Crisis and Deconstruction, 1914–1990 (London, 1993)
  • Torlage , G. 1999 . A Guide to the Anglo-Boer War Sites of Kwazulu-Natal Randburg Ravan Press has published a series of battlefield guides which indicate the tourism potential of the South African War: see, for example, (and G. Torlage, The Battle of Spioenkop (Randburg, 1999). Nigel Penn has written an excellent series of seven articles in the popular tourist magazine, Getaway (May-Nov. 1999). These offered the most recent interpretations of the War in the context of various locations in South Africa
  • Witz , L. , Minkley , G. and Rassool , C. ‘No End of a [History] Lesson: Preparations for the Anglo-Boer War Centenary Commemoration’, in this collection of essays
  • Krikler . Revolution from Above.
  • Dubow , S. 1997 . ‘Colonial Nationalism, the Milner Kindergarten and the Rise of “South Africanism”, 1902–10” . History Workshop Journal , 43 : 53 – 85 . (Marks and Trapido, ‘Lord Milner and the South African State’, 80–94
  • Surridge . 1995 . Managing the South African War D. Lavin, From Empire to International Commonwealth: A Biograpy of Lionel Curtis (Oxford
  • Pretorius , F. 1999 . Life on Commando during the Anglo-Boer War 1899–1902 Cape Town (F. Pretorius, ‘Afrikaner Nationalism and the Burgher on Commando’ and H. Bradford, ‘Gentlemen and Boers: Afrikaner Nationalism, Gender and Colonial Warfare in the South African War’ (Papers presented at the ‘Rethinking the South African War’ conference). On gender and the War, see E. van Heyningen, ‘The Voices of Women in the South African War’ in this issue of the SAHJ.
  • Witz , Minkley and Rassool . ‘Who Speaks for “South African” Pasts?’ In this paper, the authors call for the establishment of ‘a new historiographical school’ centred on public history (p. 23)
  • Lowry , D. 2000 . The South African War Reappraised Manchester See, for example, (and J. Beaumont, ‘The British Press and Censorship during the South African War 1899–1902’ (Paper at the ‘Rethinking the South African War’ conference)
  • 1999 . It is significant that at the recent African Studies Association conference held in Philadelphia, USA (November, not a single paper on the South African War was presented. Also, by far the majority of books being republished on the War are in Afrikaans and now appear under the Protea Books, Pretoria (a small private publisher) label
  • Bradford . ‘Gentlemen and Boers'and N. Parsons, ‘Not Quite Quiet on the North West Frontier: Khama's Bangwato and the Waterberg Commando’ (Papers presented at the ‘Rethinking the South African War’ conference)
  • Lambert , J. ‘Loyalty Its Own Reward’: The South African War Experience of Natal's “Loyal” Africans' (Paper presented at the ‘Rethinking the South African War’ conference)
  • Willan , B. 1984 . Sol Plaatje: A Biography, 1876–1932 Johannesburg
  • Nasson . 1994 . Abraham Esau's War. 32 – 60 . See also M. Legassick, ‘The Battle of Naroegas: Context, Historiography, Sources and Significance’, Kronos, 21
  • Comaroff , J. L. 1973 . The Boer War Diary of Sol T. Plaatje: An African at Mafeking London (See also B. Willan, ed., Sol Plaatje: Selected Writings (Johannesburg, 1996)
  • Molema , S. M. 1963 . The Bantu Past and Present 279 – 92 . Cape Town
  • Genge , M. 1999 . ‘Power and Gender in South African History: Power Relations in the Era of Queen Labotsibeni Gwamile Mduli of Swaziland, ca. 1875–1921’ (PhD thesis, Michigan State University, and B.K. Mbenga, ‘The Bakgatla-Baga-Kgafela in the Pilanesberg District of the Western Transvaal from 1899–1931’ (DLitt et Phil thesis, University of South Africa, 1996)
  • A notable exception is the memorial to the Scottish Horse at Edinburgh Castle which includes the names of four African scouts who were killed in action during the South African War: Lambert, ‘Loyalty Its Own Reward’
  • Nasson , B. 1999 . Uyadele Wen'osalapo: Black Participation in the South African War Johannesburg
  • Trouillot , M.-R. , Sider , G. and Smith , G. 1997 . Between History and Histories: The Making of Silences and Commemorations 46 – 7 . Toronto eds
  • King , A. 1998 . Memorials of the Great War in Britain: The Symbolism and Politics of Rememberance 42 – 4 . Oxford See (J. Bartlett and K.M. Ellis, ‘Remembering the Dead in Northrop: First World War Memorials in a Welsh Parish’, Journal of Contemporary History, 34, 2 (1999), 231–42;N.F. Gullace, ‘Memory, Memorials, and the Postwar Literary Experience: Traditional Values and the Legacy of World War I’, Twentieth Century British History, 10, 3 (1999), 235–43
  • Jones , M. ‘Anglo-Boer War Memorials Project: A Survey of Memorials to the Second Anglo-Boer War in the United Kingdom and Eire’, http://members.aol.com/abwmp/survey.htm.
  • Summers , A. 1988 . Angels and Citizens: British Women as Military Nurses 1854–1914 London and New York (S. Marks, ‘British Nursing and the South African War’ (Paper presented at the ‘Rethinking the South African War’ conference)
  • Jones . ‘Anglo-Boer War Memorials Project’
  • Grundlingh . ‘The National Women's Monument’
  • Bradford . ‘Gentlemen and Boers’
  • Emslie , S. , ed. 1999 . The Deneys Reitz Trilogy. Adrift on the Open Veld: The Anglo-Boer War and its Aftermath 1899–1943 Cape Town For example, T., ed.
  • Spies , S. B. 1977 . Methods of Barbarism? Roberts and Kitchener and Civilians in the Boer Republics: January 1900— May 1902 Cape Town Such social history took its inspiration from (and was especially represented in Warwick, The South African War.
  • Surridge , K. and Miller , S. M. 1997 . Lord Methuen and the British Army: Failure and Redemption in South Africa London The best of this new war history is captured in Surridge, Managing the South African War. See also (1999
  • Keegan , J. 1998 . War and Our World: The Reith Lectures 1998 London
  • 1997 . Journal of British Studies Another instructive American comparison is in the impact of the South African War on Britain and the Vietnam War on domestic American politics: AS. Thompson, ‘The Language of Imperialism and the Meanings of Empire: Imperial Discourse in British Politics, 1895–1914’, 36, 2 (150-1. See also D. Hickey, ‘Legends of the Fall: Cultural Consequences and Mythic Reconstructions of the Boer War and the American Experience in Vietnam’ (Paper at ‘The Anglo-Boer War: A Reappraisal’ conference, University of die Free State, Bloemfontein, 12–15 Oct. 1999. On the public history of the American Civil War, see T. Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic: Despatches from the Unfinished Civil War (New York, 1998)
  • Smith . ‘South Africa's Civil War, 1899–1902’
  • Lowry , D. 1999 . When the World Loved the Boers . History Today , 49 ( 5 ) (43-9, esp. 43–4. See also D. Lowry, ‘“The Play of Forces World-Wide in their Scope and Revolutionary in their Operation [J.A. Hobson]”: The South African War as an International Event’ (Paper at the ‘Rethinking the South African War’ conference)
  • Holden Reid , B. 1988 . ‘Why the Confederacy Lost’ . History Today , 38 : 32 – 7 . (See also B. Holden Reid and J. White, ‘“A Mob of Stragglers and Cowards”: Desertion from the Union and Confederate Armies, 1861–65’, Journal of Strategic Studies, 8, 1 (1985), 64–77 and B. Collins, ‘Why the Confederacy Lost’, History Today, 38 (1988), 37–41 (a companion article to Reid's on the same subject)
  • 1999 . See A.M. Grundlingh, Die ‘Hendsoppers’ en ‘Joiners’: Die Rasionaal en Verskynsel van Verraad, 2nd ed. (Pretoria
  • Giliomee , H. 1987 . ‘The Beginnings of Afrikaner Nationalism, 1870–1915’ . South African Historical Journal , 19 : 115 – 42 . (I. Hofmeyr, ‘Building a Nation from Words: Afrikaans Language, Literature and Ethnic Identity, 1902–1924’, in S. Marks and S. Trapido, eds, The Politics of Race, Class and Nationalism in Twentieth Century South Africa (London, 1987), 95–123
  • Dubow . ‘Colonial Nationalism’
  • Taylor , A. J.P. 1995 . From the Boer War to the Cold War: Essays on Twentieth Century Europe 37 – 8 . London
  • Ibid., 38
  • Ibid.
  • Hirshfield , C. 1988 . The Legacy of Dissent: Boer War Opposition and the Shaping of British South African Policy. 1899–1902 . War and Society , 6 ( 1 ) : 11 – 40 . (esp. 32
  • Hyam , R. 1968 . Elgin and Churchill at the Colonial Office London
  • Patterson , S. 1957 . The Last Trek: A Study of the Boer People and the Afrikaner Nation 106 London Quoted in
  • Quoted in A. Grundlingh, ‘Remembering the War: Reflecting on Some Afrikaner and African Dimensions’ (Keynote address at the ‘Rethinking the South African War’ conference)
  • 1949. . Die Burger, 11 Oct.
  • 1949. . Cape Times, 10 Oct. We are grateful to Jane Carruthers for the newspaper cuttings referred to in this paragraph
  • We are very reliant on Grundlingh's ‘Remembering the War’ in this section of our article
  • 1990. . Leadership, 9 Mar.
  • Grundlingh . ‘Bitter Legacy of the Boer War’, 25
  • Schoeman , K. Verliesfontein (Cape Town, 1998);M. van Wyk Smith, Drummer Hodge: The Poetry of the Anglo-Boer War 1899–1902, 2nd ed. (Pretoria, 1999)
  • 1999 . Getaway 17 – 21 . Letters to the editor, ‘Restarting the Boer War’, (July
  • Malkki , L. 1995 . Purity and Exile: Violence, Memory, and National Cosmology Among Hutu Refugees in Tanzania 54 – 5 . Chicago
  • Fleischmann , E. L. 1999 . ‘Selective Memory, Gender and Nationalism: Palestinian Women Leaders of the Mandate Period’ . History Workshop Journal , 47 (144, 153–4

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