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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
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months of 1902 saw some genuine efforts to alleviate the suffering of the blacks as well. More
and smaller camps were set up and efforts were made to facilitate the cultivation of land near them,
though very few ploughs were provided. The death rate fell, but the camps remained miserable places
in which to live.
The marginal increase in productivity made the camps targets for roving Boer forces seeking
food, so armed pickets were recruited from the inmates. By the end of the war there were 600 black
Africans guarding camps in Orange River Colony and 250 in Transvaal. Nonetheless, there were
some successful Boer attacks on the camps. For example, early in 1901 258 cattle and 400 sheep
were taken in three raids at Potchefstroom and on 29 December 1901 Piet Lombard’s commando
raided Taaibosch camp, south of Vereeniging, taking money and clothing.
At the end of the war the British administration faced new problems associated with the camps.
There were only four months before the start of the rainy season, by which time the people would
have to be back on their land with everything they needed to plant crops, but there was a shortage of
transport, of draught animals, and of grain both for seed and for survival until the next harvest. What
made matters worse was that men working for the British were being released and so numbers in the
camps actually increased, in Orange River Colony to 60,604 and in Transvaal to 55,910. However,
the Boers were eager to return to their lands and needed labour, as did the reviving, Britishdominated, mining industry. By the end of the year almost all internees had been repatriated, but for
many the suffering continued as compensation payment for grain and livestock was slow to come and
almost impossible to administer. The British promise to pay for supplies requisitioned by the Boers
during the war went unfulfilled because receipts had not been given to the black farmers. Lord Milner
himself wrote of the need to “give something quickly to restart them [the black farmers] as they are
fearfully destitute”. Notwithstanding this, the funds available were not equitably distributed. In the
Transvaal the Repatriation Department gave £1,183,594 to supply seed, tools and livestock to white
farmers but only £16,194 to black farmers. Moreover, 1902 and 1903 were marked by drought; in
many areas black populations faced starvation and, unable to support themselves, were forced to seek
employment by others for survival. This created the conditions of dependency that contributed to the
establishment of apartheid.
See also:
Africans, Black; Agterryer; Concentration Camps, White; Documents: Report to the Committee
of the Distress Fund for South African Women and Children,E. Hobhouse, 1901.
Reference:
Anon., Black Concentration Camps during the Anglo-Boer War (Bloemfontein, War Museum,
1996); Jackson, Tabitha, The Boer War (London, Macmillan, 1999); Warwick, Peter, Black
People and the South African War 1899– 1902 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,
1983).
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