The Boer War

by Martin Bossenbroek

  What the ANC can do, and does liberally, is present an alternative narrative of the past. Placing the sculpture of Tshwane opposite the two Pretoriuses is a good example. In the same speech Mashatile announced plans to enlarge Freedom Park, since 2007 the counterpart of the Voortrekker Monument. This is an elaborate theme park, just a few kilometres away—the location has been chosen carefully—which illustrates South Africa’s diverse history from prehistoric times up to the present.

  Instead of looking a thousand years into the future, Freedom Park looks back on hundreds of thousands of years in the past. It answers unequivocally the question of who has the oldest rights in southern Africa. And it clearly isn’t the Afrikaners. They have been there for three and a half centuries, which is nothing compared to millennia of human habitation in the region. If the balance of power between the races in South Africa is to be determined by the right of first settlement—as the younger generation of ANC leaders insists—it won’t stop at street names and statues. The real issue will be the redistribution of wealth and, in the near future, the redistribution of land and natural resources. Only when this hurdle has been crossed will it be possible to draw up a new profit and loss account for the Boer War.13

  Notes

  Prologue

  http://mg.co.za/article/2011-03-11-ancs-r15million-heritage-house-ripoff; http://m.news24.com/citypress/South Africa/News/The-panel-beater-shop-with-a-multimillion-rand-price-tag-20110813.

  www.anglo-boer.co.za/virtual tour/; Albert Grundlingh, ‘The National Women’s Monument: The Making and Mutation of Meaning in Afrikaner Memory of the South African War’, www.celat.ulaval.ca/histoire.memoire/histoire/capeI/grundlingh.htm.

  Martin Bossenbroek, Holland op zijn breedst. Indië en Zuid-Afrika in de Nederlandse cultuur omstreeks 1900, Amsterdam, 1996.

  Peter Warwick, Black People and the South African War, 1899–1902 (Cambridge, 1983). Cf. also Bill Nasson, Abraham Esau’s War: A Black South African War in the Cape, 1899–1902 (Cambridge, 1991); Johan Wassermann,‘“Sowing the Seeds of Rebellion”: Chief Bhambatha kaMancinza and the Anglo-Boer War, 1899–1902’, African Historical Review 39, 2 (2007), 91–106.

  Speech Thabo Mbeki, www.info.gov.za/speeches/1999/9910111133a1008.htm; speech Jacob Zuma, www.info.gov.za/speeches/1999/9910111133a1004.htm.

  See also his web page www.willemboshoff.com/documents/artworks/32000.htm.

  Fransjohan Pretorius, Historical Dictionary of the Anglo-Boer War (Plymouth, 2007), 107–108; cf. www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ukcompare/relativevalue.php; Martin Meredith, Diamonds, Gold and War: The Making of South Africa (London, 2007); Thomas Pakenham, The Boer War (London, 1979); H.L. Wesseling, Verdeel en heers. De deling van Afrika, 1880–1914 (Amsterdam, 1991).

  Keith Wilson, ed., The International Impact of the Boer War (Chesham, 2001).

  André van Deventer, ‘Gebruik van rolprent as ’n massa-medium tydens die ABO’, lecture Anglo-Boereoorlog Museum, 24 September 2011; Stephen Badsey, ‘The Boer War as a Media War’, in Peter Dennis and Jeffrey Gredy, eds., The Boer War: Army, Nation and Empire (Canberra, 2000), 70–83; Stephen Bottomore, Filming, Faking and Propaganda: The Origins of the War Film, 1897–1902 (Utrecht 2007); Vincent Kuitenbrouwer, A War of Words: Dutch Pro-Boer Propaganda and the South African War (1899–1902) (Amsterdam, 2010); Kenneth O. Morgan, ‘The Boer War and the Media (1899–1902)’, Twentieth Century British History 13 (2002), 1–16.

  S.B. Spies, Methods of Barbarism? Roberts and Kitchener and Civilians in the Boer Republics: January 1900–May 1902 (Cape Town, 1977).

  Greg Cuthbertson and A.M. Grundlingh, eds., Writing a Wider War: Rethinking Gender, Race, and Identity in the South African War, 1899–1902 (Athens, 2002); Hermann Giliomee, The Afrikaners: Biography of a People (London, 2011); Alwin de Jong, Wil de ware Afrikaner opstaan? De Boerenoorlog als ijkpunt van nationalisme in Zuid-Afrika (1815–1925), Bachelor’s thesis, University of Utrecht, 2012; Lindie Koorts, D.F. Malan: A Political Biography (Cape Town, 2010); Peter Limb, The ANC’s Early Years: Nation, Class and Place in South Africa before 1940 (Pretoria, 2010); Shula Marks and Stanley Trapido, eds., The Politics of Race, Class and Nationalism in Twentieth-Century South Africa (London, 1987); David Omissi and Andrew S. Thompson, eds., The Impact of the South African War (Basingstoke, 2002); Hans Erik Stolten, ed., History Making and Present Day Politics: The Meaning of Collective Memory in South Africa (Uppsala, 2007); Christi van der Westhuizen, White Power: The Rise and Fall of the National Party (Cape Town, 2007); Nigel Worden, The Making of Modern South Africa: Conquest, Apartheid, Democracy (Oxford, 2012).

  Bill Nasson, The War for South Africa: The Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) (Cape Town, 2010); Pakenham, The Boer War; Wesseling, Verdeel en heers.

  See below, p. 119–120.

  P.J. van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders. Geschiedenis van de Nederlandsche Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg-Maatschappij (Amsterdam, 1937); B.J.H. de Graaff, De mythe van de stamverwantschap. Nederland en de Afrikaners 1902–1930 (Amsterdam, 1993); Chris A.J. van Koppen, De geuzen van de negentiende eeuw. Abraham Kuyper en Zuid-Afrika (Maarssen, 1992); R. Kuiper, Zelfbeelden wêreldbeeld. Antirevolutionairen en het buitenland, 1848–1905 (Kampen, 1992); M. Kuitenbrouwer, Nederland en de opkomst van het modern imperialisme (Amsterdam, 1985); G.J. Schutte, De Boerenoorlog na honderd jaar. Opstellen over het veranderende beeld van de Anglo-Boerenoorlog (1899–1902) (Amsterdam, 1997); G.J. Schutte, Nederland en de Afrikaners. Adhesie en Aversie: Over Stamverwantschap, Boerenvrienden, Hollanderhaat, Calvinisme en Apartheid (Franeker, 1986).

  Part I: For a good cause

  Martin Bossenbroek, ‘Geschiedschrijving als hoger beroep. Willem Johannes Leyds, advocaat van de Boeren (1859–1940)’, in M.Ph. Bossenbroek, M.E.H.N. Mout and C. Musterd, eds., Historici in de politiek (Leiden, 1996), 191–211, 192–194; Kees van Hoek, Kruger Days: Reminiscences of Dr. W.J. Leyds (London, 1939), 2–4; F. Netscher, ‘Dr. W.J. Leyds’, in Netscher, Karakters (Haarlem, 1899), 112–138, 129–133; L.E. van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand. Biografie van dr. W.J. Leyds (Pretoria, 1985), 11–19.

  Van Koppen, Geuzen, 26–28; Schutte, Nederland, 9–24.

  F. Lion Cachet, De worstelstrijd der Transvalers aan het volk van Nederland verhaald (Amsterdam, 1882), 561; see also Bossenbroek, Holland, 66–67, 259–260; Van Koppen, Geuzen, 69–103; Kuiper, Zelfbeeld, 124–133; Kuitenbrouwer, Nederland, 118–121; Kuitenbrouwer, War of Lords, 24–34; Schutte, Nederland, 24–29.

  W.J. Leyds, De eerste annexatie van de Transvaal (Amsterdam, 1906), 366–382; Nasson, The War, 42–44; Wesseling, Verdeel en heers, 345–348.

  Stuart Cloete, African Portraits: A Biography of Paul Kruger, Cecil Rhodes and Lobengula, Last King of the Matabele (London, 1946), 159–161; Leyds, Eerste annexatie, 402–403; Nasson, The War, 44.

  De Standaard, 14 November 1883, cited in Van Koppen, Geuzen, 116–132.

  Bossenbroek, Holland, 175–177, 323; Van Koppen, Geuzen, 116–132.

  Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders I, 48–80.

  Van Koppen, Geuzen, 110–114; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 16–17; Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders I, 65–66.

  Bossenbroek, ‘Geschiedschrijving’, 194; Van Hoek, Kruger Days, 3–4; W.J. Leyds, Onze eerste jaren in Zuid-Afrika 1884–1889. Intieme correspondentie van mevrouw Louise W.S. Leyds-Roeff en dr. W.J. Leyds, bestemd voor familie en belangstellenden (’s-Gravenhage, 1938), 1–2; Netscher, ‘Dr. W.J. Leyds’, 129–132; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 17–19.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 22–25.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 3–4, 25, 60; Wesseling, Verdeel en heers, 144–146.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 6–9, 25, 58.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 9–25, 60–63.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 25–29.

  Van Hoek, Kruger Days, 5–7; Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 25–29; C.J. van der Loo, De geschiedenis der Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (Transvaal) aan het volk verteld (Zwolle, 1896), 78–80, 167–190; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 31–33.

 
Giliomee, Afrikaners, 215–223; Van Koppen, Geuzen, 92–94, 135–137; Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 25–29; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 31–33.

  Giliomee, Afrikaners, 228, 231; Van Hoek, Kruger Days, 5–6; Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 17, 25–30; Lion Cachet, Worstelstrijd, 349–351, 399–404; Meredith, Diamonds, 74–78; Antony Preston, Geïllustreerde geschiedenis van Zuid-Afrika (Alphen aan den Rijn, 1995), 63.

  Cloete, African Portraits, 25–84; Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 30–32; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 5–15, 50–54.

  Cloete, African Portraits, 162–167; Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 30–32; W.J. Leyds, Het insluiten van de Boeren-Republieken (Amsterdam, 1914), passim; S.M. Molema, The Bantu Past and Present (Cape Town, 1963), 43–54; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 50–54; Wesseling, Verdeel en heers, 348–349.

  J.A. Heese, Die herkoms van die Afrikaner 1657–1867 (Cape Town, 1971); Molema, Bantu Past and Present, 35–60; Robert Ross, A Concise History of South Africa (Cambridge, 2008), 5–37.

  Ross, A Concise History, 37–58; John J. Stephens, Fuelling the Empire: South Africa’s Gold and the Road to War (Chichester, 2003), 54–86.

  Meredith, Diamonds, 22–59; Ross, A Concise History, 59–67; Wesseling, Verdeel en heers, 333–335.

  Meredith, Diamonds, 63–104; Ross, A Concise History, 64–70; Wesseling, Verdeel en heers, 334–341.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 74–76, 79, 91.

  Meredith, Diamonds, 173–181; Stephens, Fuelling the Empire, 157–160.

  Cloete, African Portraits, 128–139; Meredith, Diamonds, 153–163; Stephens, Fuelling the Empire, 157–160.

  It was named after surveyor general Johann Rissik and mines inspector Christiaan Johannes Joubert; see Pretorius, Historical Dictionary, 197.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 91–96.

  Charles van Onselen, Studies in the Social and Economic History of the Witwatersrand 1886–1914, 2 parts (Johannesburg, 1982), passim.

  Cloete, African Portraits, 136.

  Meredith, Diamonds, 186–193, 293; Ross, A Concise History, 70–74; Stephens, Fuelling the Empire, 170–181; Wesseling, Verdeel en heers, 356–359.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 128–129; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 34, 48–50.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 76, 80–84.

  Van Hoek, Kruger days, 7.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 85; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 60.

  Meredith, Diamonds, 170–171.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 86–90.

  Meredith, Diamonds, 184–185.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 111–112; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 59–60.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 94–94, 98–99, 102, 104–105; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 44–45; R.C. de Jong, G.M. van der Waal and D.H. Heydenrych, NZASM 100, 1987–1899: The Buildings, Steam Engines and Structures of the Netherlands South African Railway Company (Pretoria, 1988), 36; In memoriam NZASM (Amsterdam, 1910), 8–9; Stephens, Fuelling the Empire, 193–194; Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders I, 161–166.

  Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 424–45.

  J.P. FitzPatrick, The Transvaal from Within: A Private Record of Public Affairs (London, 1899), 62–65.

  Meredith, Diamonds, 169–171; Stephens, Fuelling the Empire, 145–148; Stanley Trapido, ‘Imperialism, Settler Identities and Colonial Capitalism: The Hundred Year Origins of the 1899 South African War’, Historia 53, 1 (2008), 59–61; Stanley Trapido, ‘Reflections on Land, Office and Wealth in the South African Republic, 1850–1900,’ Historia 53 (2008), 36–37; Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders I, 115–116; II, 33–42.

  Meredith, Diamonds, 296–301; Stephens, Fuelling the Empire, 145–148; Trapido, ‘Reflections’, 36–37; Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders I, 115–116; II, 33–42.

  Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 128.

  FitzPatrick, The Transvaal from Within, 62–72; In memoriam NZASM, 8–9; De Jong et al., NZASM, 31–37; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 44–45; Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders I, 115–116; II, 33–42.

  Luke 11: 15–17; see also Matthew 9: 34, 12: 24–25; Mark 3: 22–25.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 131, 187.

  De Jong et al., NZASM, 37–39; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 46–47; Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders I, 172–175, 220–134.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 176; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 63–66.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 156; Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders I, 220–234.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 172–184, 190–191.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 186, 192; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 101–102.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 194–203.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 202, 203, 213–215.

  Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 110–113.

  Bossenbroek, Holland, 95, 102, 112.

  Bossenbroek, Holland, 206–207; Van Koppen, Geuzen, 137–140; Kuitenbrouwer, War of Words, 29–30; Schutte, Nederland, 101–117.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 221–228.

  Leyds, Onze eerste jaren, 172–203.

  Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 144–177; Schutte, Nederland, 131–133.

  Kuitenbrouwer, War of Words, 34–36; C.G.S. Sandberg, Twintig jaren onder Krugers Boeren in voor- en tegenspoed (Amsterdam, 1943), 61; Schutte, Nederland, 117–128; Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders II, 73–78.

  Schutte, Nederland, 103–108.

  Kuitenbrouwer, War of Words, 36–37; Sandberg, Twintig Jaren, 61; Schutte, Nederland, 114–117; Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders, 247–250.

  Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders I, 247–289.

  Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 100–102; Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders II, 117–120.

  Meredith, Diamonds, passim; Preston, Geïllustreerde geschiedenis, 84–87; Wesseling, Verdeel en heers, 359–364.

  De Jong et al., NZASM, 44–47; Van Koppen, De Geuzen, 34–37; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 92–95; Schutte, Nederland, 134–138; Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders II, 124–149.

  J. Cooper-Chadwick, Three Years with Lobengula, and Experiences in South Africa (London, 1894), passim; Leyds, Het insluiten II, 195–306; Meredith, Diamonds, 207–237; Gustav S. Preller, Lobengula: The Tragedy of a Matabele King (Johannesburg, 1963), passim; Wesseling, Verdeel en heers, 359–376.

  Leyds to Beelaerts van Blokland, 11–4–1899, in Leyds Collection 30.

  Leyds, Het insluiten II, 66–101; Meredith, Diamonds, 207–237.

  Cooper-Chadwick, Three Years with Lobengula, passim; Ruth First and Ann Scott, Olive Schreiner: A Biography (New York, 1980), 225; Leyds, Het insluiten II, 243–206; Meredith, Diamonds, 207–237; Preller, Lobengula, passim; Wesseling, Verdeel en heers, 359–376.

  Leyds, Het insluiten II, 102–168, quotation 148; Meredith, Diamonds, 238–243.

  Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders II, 136–149.

  De Jong et al., NZASM, 47–49; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 95–99; Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders II, 150–189, 223–251.

  Leyds to acting state secretary Van Boeschoten, 26–1–84, in Leyds Collection 31; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 99–100.

  Cloete, African Portraits, 261; Wilson, International Impact, 27; Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders II, 248.

  Leyds to Beelaerts van Blokland, 21–7–1895, in Leyds Collection 31; Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders II, 248.

  Leyds to Beelaerts van Blokland, 21–7–1895, in Leyds Collection 31.

  Jaarverslagen NZASM, 1894 and 1895; in: Archive NZASM; In Memoriam NZASM, 66–68.

  Lady Sarah Wilson, South African Memories: Social, Warlike and Sporting, from Diaries Written at the Time (London, 1909), 23; First and Scott, Olive Schreiner, 234.

  Van Hoek, Kruger Days, 20–22.

  Meredith, Diamonds, 291–308; Nasson, The War, 45–49; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 129–132; Stephens, Fuelling the Empire, 198–216; Wesseling, Verdeel en heers, 377–379.

  Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand
, 124–126; Stephens, Fuelling the Empire, 216–218.

  See map on pp. xx–xxi. Map of the railway network in South Africa, in Jaarverslagen NZASM, 1889; Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders II, 190–222.

  Meredith, Diamonds, 317–322; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 103–106; Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders II, 190–222.

  Leyds to acting secretary Van Boeschoten, 17–10–1895, 31–10–1895, 6–11–1895, in Leyds Collection 31.

  Leyds to Moltzer, 3–2–1895, 19–5–1895, in Leyds Collection 31.

  Leyds in diary to Louise Leyds, 26–7–1895; Louise Leyds to Leyds, 7–8–1895; Leyds to Moltzer, 13–9–1895, in Leyds Collection 31.

  Leyds to Van Boeschoten, 17–11–1895 (twice), in Leyds Collection 31.

  Leyds to Moltzer, 10–11–1895, in Leyds Collection 31; Leyds’s telegram to Beelaerts van Blokland, 18–12–1895, in Leyds Collection 46; Leyds to Moltzer, 25–12–2895, in Leyds Collection 89.

  Leyds to Louise Leyds, 31–12–1895, 1–1–1896, in Leyds Collection 31.

  Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 130–140.

  Cloete, African Portraits, 288–235; Meredith, Diamonds, 311–344; Nasson, The War, 50–51; Pakenham, The Boer War, 1–5; Wesseling, Verdeel en heers, 379–385; Van Winter, Onder Krugers Hollanders II, 252–268.

  Leyds to Louise Leyds, 5–1–1896, in Leyds Collection 31; Van Niekerk Kruger se regterhand, 139–141.

  Leyds to Louise Leyds, 5–1–1896, in Leyds Collection 31; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 139–141.

  Leyds to Louise Leyds, 29–1–1986, in Leyds Collection 31; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 142–143.

  Leyds to Louise Leyds, 8–2–1896, in Leyds Collection 31; Van Hoek, Kruger Days, 17–20; Van Niekerk, Kruger se regterhand, 144–145.